I guess Tom Hanks and I can be friends. He’s allegedly one of the nice guys of show business and all, but I wasn’t sure until I actually listened to “Hanksgiving,” the day of music that he curated for WYEP Pittsburgh on Nov. 24. By the third song in, Fine Young Cannibals, I knew that Tom and I would be able to bond through music if we were ever stranded somewhere with just a volleyball for entertainment.
When Hanks directed That Thing You Do, he told the extras to react to the title song as if it were the biggest song of the moment. The best example he could come up with of a major recent hit was LL Cool J’s “Mama Said Knock You Out,” already several years old. But about 40 minutes in, I heard one of those “wow, he knows that song too” choices that allow record collectors to bond, but also make you sad that you don’t really have that song to yourself. (It was the Caro Emerald ’40s-meets-mid-’00s song.)
“Hanksgiving” is one of two recent events worth sharing from non-comm Triple-A stations. The other is WXPN Philadelphia’s “’90s A-to-Z.” The audio from “Hanksgiving” is still posted on the WYEP site. If you read this article on Thursday morning, Dec. 8, you’ll be able to hear the tail end of “A-to-Z,” as well as an audio after-party of additional songs (e.g., those beginning with numbers).
Hanks has starred in two Pittsburgh-connected movies recently (not to mention setting That Thing You Do in Erie). “Hanksgiving” generated the sort of local press not usually prompted even by Triple-A stations. In the hour I heard, he appeared a few times over the course of the hour in sweepers and promos (as opposed to on-air hosting). Here’s WYEP on Hanksgiving, just before 3 p.m.:
- Clash, “Brand New Cadillac”
- Bob Dylan, “A Hard Rain’s a-Gonna Fall”
- Fine Young Cannibals, “Don’t Look Back”
- Rita Wilson & Elvis Costello, “Fire” — the Bruce Springsteen-penned Pointer Sisters hit
- Asleep at the Wheel, “Take Me Back to Tulsa”
- Del Lords, “How Can a Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live”
- Patti Smith, “Looking for You (I Was)”
- Clarence Carter, “Wind It Up”
- B. Bumble & Stingers, “Nola”
- Marty Stuart, “Tempted”
- Bikini Machine, “Get Down”
- Al Green, “Take Me to the River”
- Alex the Astronaut, “I Think You’re Great”
- Caro Emerald, “A Night Like This”
- Bonnie Raitt, “Runaway”
- Frank Sinatra, “Brazil” — the first time I’d heard it with lyrics other than those added in 1975 for the Ritchie Family’s disco remake
- Elvis Perkins in Dearland, “Hey”
- Beatles, “Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand” — their German version of “I Want to Hold Your Hand”
- Dean Martin, “Houston”
WXPN has a history of year-end countdowns and events, particularly the Top 2,020 list it revealed two years ago. “’90s A-to-Z” kicked off Dec. 1. It follows the return to the station of APD Jim McGuinn, who played some of the songs featured as PD of Alternative WDRE and WPLY (Y100) in the ’90s, although the most fascinating part has been the Hip-Hop and R&B songs that Alternative fans had to hear on other radio stations when they were new. I still remember the Das EFX song as one from the early days of WIOQ (Q102)’s brief segue from Mainstream Top 40 to the station that played Hip-Hop all day, still a big deal in many markets in 1992-93.
WXPN was far ahead of most of its peers in finding a way to make R&B part of the Triple-A mix over the last decade, but it’s still remarkable to hear “They Reminisce Over You (T.R.O.Y.)” into “They Want EFX.” It’s clear now how many Alternative listeners had a taste for Hip-Hop that went beyond the Beastie Boys and Cypress Hill songs that the format was willing to play. Now, it’s interesting to hear the Triple-A ’90s rethought in the same way.
Here’s an early stretch of the A-to-Z:
- Dave Matthews Band, “Ants Marching”
- Sheryl Crow, “Anything but Down”
- Enya, “Anywhere Is”
- Erykah Badu, “Appletree”
- Rufus Wainright, “April Fools”
- Lenny Kravitz, “Are You Gonna Go My Way”
- Dar Williams, “Are You Out There”
- Aaliyah, “Are You That Somebody”
- Ben Folds Five, “Army”
- Bjork, “Army of Me”
- Daft Punk, “Around the World”
- Dar Williams, “As Cool as I Am”
- Maxwell, “Ascension (Don’t Ever Wonder)”
- Talk Talk, “Ascension Day”
- Rage Against the Machine, “Ashes in the Fall”
And here’s the station on Wednesday, Dec. 7:
- Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth, “They Reminisce Over You (T.R.O.Y.)”
- Das EFX, “They Want EFX.”
- John Mellencamp, “They’re So Tough”
- Smokin’ Suckaz With Logic, “Things Change”
- Indigenous, “Things We Do”
- Medeski Martin & Wood, “Think”
- Johnny Cash, “Thirteen”
- Smashing Pumpkins, “Thirty-Three”
- Sting, “This Cowboy Song”
- Nanci Griffith, “This Heart”
- Foo Fighters, “This Is a Call”
- Cracker, “This Is Cracker Soul”
- John Lee Hooker, “This Is Hip”
The XPN A to Z was fascinating. They could have just said “here’s our favorite Alternative and AAA songs plus a few things we looked up from the Hot 100”, but, instead, even the non-Alternative songs were well-curated. There was genuine appreciation for the hip-hop, pop, and dance songs selected.
One example that stood out for me was Lisette Melendez’s “Together Forever”- not much of a Billboard hit, but it was inescapable if you were listening to early 90’s Q102 (before the “Peace on the Streets” era where they were playing Das EFX).
XPN also did a great job honoring their own heritage by going extensively into the singer-songwriter catalog. Those songs have become less prominent at the format as AAA has become broader and more indie rock-oriented, but singer-songwriters were XPN’s bread-and-butter in the 90’s.