TWO FER TUESDAY featuring John (Cougar) Mellencamp

Hurray, it’s the third day of the week, and time for everybody’s favorite Radio Dial feature, Two-Fer Tuesday! This time, the dial locks onto a signal containing a pair of interesting tracks from the lengthy career of one Mr. John Mellencamp, 1976’s “Do You Believe in Magic”, and 1991’s “Get a Leg Up”.

Pulled from John’s debut LP, “Chestnut Street Incident”, “Do You Believe…” is a serviceable bar-band style cover of the folkie ‘65 pop hit by The Lovin’ Spoonful, recorded under the glam rock inspired moniker “Johnny Cougar”. The Chestnut Street LP, half of which is covers, was disavowed by Mellencamp during his later career, but it served to introduce the world to the heartland rocker that would later dominate MTV and radio airwaves with such classics as “Jack & Diane”, “Pink Houses”, and “R.O.C.K. in the USA”.

“Do you believe in magic in a young girl's heart… How the music can free her, whenever it starts…
And it's magic, if the music is groovy… It makes you feel happy like an old-time movie”

Next, the dial spotlights a forgotten former hit from John’s “Whenever We Wanted” album. A comedic risqué song about a date that goes from bad to great over the course of a night, the Mellencamp penned “Get A Leg Up” was a sizable hit in 1991, spending three weeks at number one on the album rock tracks chart and reaching #14 on the hot 100… pretty darn impressive for a year which saw rock artists getting increasingly pushed aside by the likes of Mariah Carey, Marky Mark & the Funky Bunch, and Color Me Badd.

“’Want me to spend the night? Hey lover boy you know I will. And my best girlfriend lives down the road…
Together we will thrill ya’ And I'm thinking to myself, I could be “lucky Pierre” tonight… If I could get a leg up!”

It’s fun to contrast Mellencamp’s youthful rocking spirit, yet unhoned style heard on “Do You Believe…”, with the low-key, confident swagger of “Get a Leg Up”, which was laid down after his tremendous creative growth and phenomenal success in the ‘80s. Terrestrial radio hasn’t heard much from John since 1996’s “Key West Intermezzo (I Saw You First)", but rest assured that the man who founded Farm Aid continues to tour and release rockin’ albums every few years.

Keep your presets locked onto Kyle’s Radio Dial for more great forgotten tracks, and thanks for listening!

It's all for the music... and the memories.