"Lady Love Me (One More Time)" by George Benson

Good evening Dialophiles! Tonight, the Radio Dial fine tunes a frequency from the man who brought us the first platinum selling jazz LP ever, 1975’s Breezin’! Time to mellow out with George Benson and “Lady Love Me (One More Time)”! 

If you’re askin’ me to say… living life without you girl, is alright… If you really want to know… I’d have to say it’s dangerous, to my mind. 

Taken from George’s 1983 In Your Eyes LP, "Lady Love" peaked at US #30 pop, and #21 R&B, but ended up doing much better across the pond, where it peaked at #11 on the UK Singles chart.

Starting with the #10 pop hit “This Masquerade” from the aforementioned Breezin’ LP, (which was one of the first cover tunes I recall taking notice of as a child, as I was quite familiar with the earlier version by The Carpenters), Benson enjoyed a string of top 40 hits including a live rendition of The Drifters’ classic “On Broadway” (a #7 hit in 1978), and the original compositions “Give Me the Night” (#4, ‘80), and “Turn Your Love Around” (#5, ’81). “Lady Love…” would prove to be Benson’s final US hit to peak within the top 40.

Characterized by a playful and carefree, yet sophisticated “Manhattan” vibe, George’s romantic tale details a man who successfully woos his way back into his estranged lover’s arms and heart. I always looked forward to catching any of Benson’s tracks on the radio, and “Lady Love” was no exception. The track is richly layered with George’s smooth and classy vocal delivery, vulnerable, yet romantic lyrics co-authored by Toto’s David Paich, distinctive “whistle-like” keyboard work, and a mid-song monosyllabic repetition that owes a lot to the tradition of “scat singing” popularized by the likes of legends Ella Fitzgerald and Cab Calloway. 

Yes, I'm askin' you to stay… Remembering it used to be so right… If you're askin' for the truth… I'd have to say I won't believe it’s goodnight. 

Songs like this one contributed greatly to my love of Top 40 radio during my “growing up” years... there was always such a great diversity of music styles on tap. Sure, the format was always dominated by rock and its off-shoots (hard, soft, heartland, folk rock, blues rock), but also swirling around in the mix was soul, dance, new wave, country, novelty ("Stars on 45" and "The Curly Shuffle" spring to mind), and the occasional jazz cross over like Mr. Benson's hit output. There was such a wide cross section of artists and styles, it was almost like attending a music diversity class broadcast over the airwaves.

So keep your frequency locked to the Radio Dial, where we are already hard at work riffling through our extensive archives of vinyl, cassettes, and CDs in order to bring you, the loyal Dialophile, the greatest tracks you’ve forgotten you once loved, or possibly, never even heard the first time out! 

So before you turn and walk away, just let me love you one more time, feel your heartbeat close to mine… Lady, love me all the time, lady love me.

"Bop" by Dan Seals

Yeeehaw Dialophiles! 

Tonight, we invite you to enjoy a mid ‘80s tune that we sometimes get nostalgic for here at the Dial, even as its singer celebrates his OWN nostalgia for an earlier era, the ‘50s! Tune in for Dan Seals and “Bop”!  

Put on your bobbie socks, baby… Roll up your old blue jeans.
There’s a band playin’ down at the armory… Who knows what rock and roll really means. 

Originally known to top 40 fans as “England Dan” from his hit making partnership with John Ford Coley, (1976’s “I’d Really Love To See You Tonight”, and ‘79s “Love is the Answer” among other hits...) Seals turned to country music in the early 80s as a soloist, eventually scoring sixteen top 10 singles on the US country chart, eleven of which went all the way to #1.

Extracted from his “Won’t Be Blue Anymore” LP in ’85, “Bop” was his second country chart topper, which also crossed over to #42 on the Hot 100, just barely missing the lowest position on the Top 40. However, since I didn’t listen to country radio back then, I only caught this bouncy ode to ‘50s sock hops a few times on my local top 40 stations before the track was retired from their playlists. It wasn’t until much later that I learned the song was a smash on country radio.

“Bop” was written by Jennifer Kimball, and Paul Davis, himself a country/pop artist known to top 40 fans via the hit ballad “I Go Crazy” (#7 in ’77), and the 1982 #6 hit “’65 Love Affair”, another upbeat nostalgic nod to a bygone era.  

I’ve got an old photograph in my pocket… We were still in our teens… 
Lord knows I feel a lot older now, but you still look the same to me.

The charming music video features an older couple visiting a dance at a local armory, all the while reminiscing about their younger “courting days”.  Their recollections are filmed in black & white appropriately enough, and a fun driving scene features the teenagers in a ’55 Ford T-Bird switching to their elder versions in that iconic cars’ ’85 model during the “present day”. Seals himself appears throughout the video, as the musician at the armory, playing, appropriately enough, “Bop”.

Let’s twist and shout, oh just like in the good ole’ days...
Baby watch out, you know I just can’t stand it when you look at me that way.

In the mid ‘80s, it was very difficult for a country artist to gain a major hot 100 hit. The “Urban Cowboy” crossover trend of the early part of the decade had ended, and MTV fueled acts like Madonna, Duran Duran, Prince, and Bruce Springsteen (“The Boss” to you and me…) dominated top 40 playlists. In fact, there was a nine year country cross over lull on the pop singles charts that stretched from Kenny and Dolly’s “Islands in the Stream” in ’83, all the way to “Achy Breaky Heart” by Billy Ray Cyrus in 1992.

I always thought that “Bop” could have charted higher at Top 40 had it been released during the early 80s, or if a more pop/rock-n-roll leaning mix had been shopped to Top 40 stations in ‘85. But alas it was not, creating a song that seemed obscure to me, but turned out to be quite well known to many country music fans.

Sadly, Dan passed away in Nashville on March 25, 2009, due to lymphoma related complications. Much peace in the next life good sir, the Radio Dial tips our Stetson in your honor.

I wanna bop with you baby, all night long... I wanna be-bop with you baby, ‘til the break of dawn...
I wanna make it a night like it used to be... When our hearts were young and our souls were free…