The Song That Wouldn’t Stay Lost Forever

If I wanted extra assurance that I was going to enjoy a day’s radio listening, I would make sure it included Radio Calima. Being a broad AC station targeting Italian-speakers in Spain’s Canary Islands makes Calima inherently intriguing. In the course of an hour or so, I will likely discover a current Italian hit I like and an Italian gold title that I never knew. There will always be an English-language oh-wow, or several. Today it was Whitney Houston’s “Whatchulookinat?,” which I barely remembered hearing in 2002.

Sunday on Calima, it was Lady Gaga’s “Judas.” After that Whitney title, “Judas” hardly seems daring at all, but it was certainly the first time I’d encountered that song anywhere since 2011. The second single from the Born This Way album, “Judas” was the beginning of the end for Gaga’s imperial period, peaking at No. 10 on the Hot 100 and No. 15 at CHR. It was pulled quickly in favor of “The Edge of Glory,” a more crowd-pleasing choice.

“Judas” came on the heels of Kesha’s “Blow,” which I remember as the moment when “turbopop” turned harsher, ultimately threatening CHR’s dominance and its mother/daughter coalition. Even “Glory” and the intended cleanup ballad, “You and I,” became work records, never feeling like organic hits. In fact, every Gaga single for the next seven years was a work record. For a while, I wondered if she was reaching that place where radio wouldn’t support even an obvious hit, but there was never quite the great song to test that hypothesis.

When A Star Is Born returned Gaga to pop culture in 2019, I was glad to have her back on the radio, even if “Shallow” wasn’t going to do anything to end the CHR doldrums. I’m still happy for the success of “Die With a Smile,” even if it was even more a definingly doldrums song, as well as “the thing that wouldn’t leave.” 

So, what was it like hearing “Judas” again? It didn’t feel any more accessible with time than it did in 2011, in part because I hadn’t heard it since, meaning I never got used to it. There were even more aggressive EDM records that have softened with time, but that’s because, say, David Guetta & Sia’s “Titanium” became unavoidable. That song barely left the radio after 2012. I’m hearing it even more these days as CHR relies more on throwbacks.

There’s irony in hearing “Judas” again and confirming that it sounds like most of her recent Mayhem singles. In 2020, the artist was briefly willing to invoke early Gaga on “Stupid Love” and “Rain on Me” before getting edgy again. “Disease,” “Abracadabra,” and “The Dead Dance” are deliberately less confectionary. I’m glad Gaga gets the benefit of the doubt from radio again these days, even though she continues to nudge PDs with many of her choices.

Hearing “Judas” was a reminder that artists have the right, maybe the obligation, to stretch out occasionally. Unfortunately, that’s a problem when pop radio is starved for hits. Radio was delighted for Bruno Mars’s “I Just Might,” a record that it might have dismissed as more-of-the-same at a different point in his career arc. Radio was challenged by “Aperture” because it needed the new Harry Styles single to be “As It Was.” Radio is neither being handed a steady stream of hits, nor willing to help create its own. So, each superstar decision has greater impact. Ultimately, it will be a “SexyBack” combination of challenge and confection that gets hit music to a much-needed next phase.

It’s been a while since a single song on the radio prompted a column. Between the supermarket, streaming radio, and satellite, I don’t usually want for “oh wow” records. In the course of an hour of Australia’s RetroStream’s all-’80s weekend, I heard Device’s “Hanging on a Heart Attack” and Kim Carnes’s “Crazy in the Night,” as well as an international Chris Rea hit I didn’t remember (“Loving You”), and at least two Australian songs I was glad to learn. 

The “Judas”-level surprises happen less often on broadcast radio, though. So this week, I asked readers for the biggest “oh wow” they’d encountered recently. On radio there was:

• Peppermint Rainbow, “Will You Be Staying After Sunday,” on Me-TV FM Chicago (Chris Duffy and Ken Barlow — the latter of whom operates a Me-TV affiliate)
• Roger Voudouris, “Get Used to It,” heard by Kent Ahrens as part of the new “Yacht Rock” WTWV (92.9 the Wave) Norfolk, Va., which led James Owen to mention hearing it often on Me-TV FM; Steve Wall heard Frankie & the Knockouts’ “Sweetheart” on Steve Clenendin’s new, similarly minded The Harbor format
• Bloodrock, “DOA,” on WDGY Minneapolis (I’d already endured it on SiriusXM’s American Top 40 rerun last weekend) (Brian Rosaaen)
• Crazy Town, “Butterfly,” on WKFS Cincinnati (Scott Evans)
• Alessi, “Oh Lori,” on the UK’s BBC Radio 2 (Tom Bedell)
• Curve, “Fait Accompli,” on KQCJ (Planet 93.9) Quad Cities (Keith Berman)
• Tavares, “She’s Gone,” on Knoxville-area WFIV (Rich Marino)
• Natural Selection, “Do Anything,” on WGTZ (Z93) Dayton (RJ Jordan)
• Gentrys, “Why Should I Cry,” on the syndicated That Thing with Rich Appel (Joseph McCombs)
• 38 Special, “Second Chance,” on KONO San Antonio (former KONO personality Stephen Casanova)
• Eddie Schwartz, “All Our Tomorrows,” on community Seaside FM Halifax, N.S. (Dan Joseph). That song, despite being Cancon, is rare even on the radio at home. “Your Daddy Don’t Know” by Toronto is less exotic on Canadian radio, but John Lanigan was psyched to hear it on Niagara Falls’ More-FM
• Link Wray, “Rumble,” on Vermont’s Classic Hits WCVT (reported by reader Zeb Norris, at my urging, because he played it as a morning show feature); similarly, Kevin Fodor heard Mel Carter’s “Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me” on the Ohio LPFM that he helps program. Pat O’Neill played Stealers Wheel, “Star” on his Saturday night show on Wisconsin’s WVMO

If you open it up to SiriusXM and Internet radio: 

• Rob Usdin heard “Doctorin’ the Tardis” by the Timelords on First Wave
• Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich, “Zabadak,” on ’60s Gold (Steve Clem)
• Brian Protheroe, “Pinball”  — also on ’60s Gold despite being from 1974 (Ryan Gibbs)
• Oingo Boingo, “Stay” (ABC’s Andrea Dresdale)
• The Beatles’ “You Know My Name (Look Up My Number)” with Pat St. John (Brad Lovett); Bob Harlow heard St. John play “First I Look at the Purse” by the Contours
• Lost ’80s hits Sheena Easton, “The Lover in Me” (Ken Spaulding), Stevie Wonder’s “Go Home” (Tom Lane) on countdowns. John Anselmo mentions Sneaker, “More Than Just the Two of Us,” on ’80s on 8
• Gunhill Road, “Back When My Hair Was Short” on ’70s on 7 and not during its annual American Top 40 appearance (Paul Haney); SXM was also responsible for my wife hearing Daddy Dewdrop’s “Chick-a-Boom (Don’t Ya Jes’ Love It)?,” prompting the question “are you asking people for good songs or just weird ones?” — not such an important distinction in this column.
• Daryl Hall, “Dreamtime” (TM’s Chris Stevens), and Daryl Hall & John Oates’s “How Does It Feel to Be Back” (Brent James) on the aforementioned RetroStream

When you include retail, then you get:

• Manu Dibango, “Soul Makossa,” in the New York area’s Shoprite chain, a store whose music has occasioned its own Fresh Listen in the past (Frank Garrity)
• Orpheus, “Can’t Find the Time” (Dave Stewart)
• Peter Gabriel, “Don’t Give Up” (Stan Phillips)
• Sergio Mendes, “Alibis,” at the YMCA (Derek Rubinoff)
• Stevie Nicks, “If Anyone Falls” (Jeanne Ashley)
• Dusty Springfield, “A Brand New Me” (Tom Lawler in a Hampton Inn lobby)
• Iron Butterfly, “In-a-Gadda-da-Vida” (Geoff Mayfield at a car dealership)
• Gap Band, “Party Train,” at Walmart (Carroll Anderson)
• Steely Dan, “The Fez,” in Wegmans (Dave Frisina)
• Carla Thomas, “Gee Whiz,” at Michaels Crafts (Chuck Ingersoll)
• Lovin’ Spoonful’s “Darling Be Home Soon,” at Circle K, thanks to an older cashier who always seems to be playing something like that (Richie Bing)
• Veruca Salt, “Volcano Girls” — one of about eight’80s/’90s alternative “oh wows” that Guy Tino encountered at Trader Joe’s
• Honeycombs, “Have I the Right” (Guy Paul)
• R.E.M., “Pretty Persuasion,” at Kroger (WGRR Cincinnati PD Keith Mitchell); Bob Vandergrift heard Paul McCartney & Wings, “Let Me Roll It,” at his Kroger, which seems to be competing with Shoprite here.