Happy New Year fam!

Blerd Radio is celebrating 2016…by going back to 1983!

Me (Big Money), Dr. Z and Michael Parr hop in the handy-dandy Blerd Radio time machine (which logged a lot of mileage in 2015) and land in the year that gave us Return of The Jedi and these ten tasty jams from the adult contemporary chart. Of course, no Blerd Radio episode is as simple as just counting down 10 songs, so here’s just a sample of what gets discussed over the hour or so you’ll (hopefully) spend listening.

-What exactly constitutes a double whiskey? And why is it so dirty?

-Parr is the first of the trio to see Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens, and he has a breathless review.

-Now, it’s on to the purpose of the podcast: a trip in the time machine. We dive right in to Air Supply’s “Two Less Lonely People In The World” and some very divergent opinions in regards to the Aussie schlockmeisters.

-Jim Steinman, who produced Air Supply’s really big hit of 1983 (not “Two Less Lonely People In The World”), also comes up in conversation.

-We compare James Ingram (favorably) to club soda, and discuss how Patti Austin & James’ “Baby Come To Me” gained new life as a result of General Hospital.

-Major realization: the same cast of musicians played on a solid chunk of this top ten list, and a lot of them came from Toto. More on them in a minute.

-This particularly impression-heavy podcast features impersonations of Michael McDonald, Barry Gibb, and Paul McCartney. Needless to say, we were all drinking heavily during this recording.

-We give props to our friend Julian Velard, who does a mean version of “Africa” in his live show, and apparently covers Steely Dan’s “Peg” as well. (the #7 song is “Africa” and #8 is “I.G.Y. (What A Beautiful World)” by the Dan’s Donald Fagen.

-The soap opera bug strikes again with Crystal Gayle & Eddie Rabbitt’s “You & I”, which gained legs via another ABC serial, and shed some light on that country music capital, Brooklyn.

-Uh, there’s a Supertramp song here. No one is particularly enthused.

-The most laborious setup in Blerd Radio history (and that’s saying something) leads to our #4 song, Joe Jackson’s “Steppin’ Out”, which was nominated for a Record of the Year Grammy…and lost to Toto. Dang it.

-We discuss whether “Truly” (#3) or “Hello” is Lionel Richie’s nadir, and also discuss the sequence of songs that led to “Truly” and “Hello”‘s existence. It’s a tale of adult contemporary woe.

-Talking about Lionel Richie leads to a discussion about Kenny Rogers, which leads to a discussion about The Bee Gees, which leads to…our #2 song, Dionne Warwick’s “Heartbreaker”.

-…and then we talk about “That’s What Friends Are For” and the Psychic Friends Network. We’re not very happy about either of those things. Oh, and someone impersonates a harmonica.

-In conclusion, we celebrate the man who owned 1983 (and has probably taken up more aural space on our podcasts than any other human), the inimitable Michael Jackson. “The Girl Is Mine” is the #1 song on the chart, and the Michael/Macca teaming draws comparisons to other not-quite-sterling pop collabos.

-And that’s it! We’re back in 2016 (actually, 2015 when this was recorded). You can listen below, or you can stream it on Liberated Syndication. You can also download the podcast in mp3 format to listen to anytime you want, and/or you can follow us on Ye Olde iTunes and have new episodes downloaded to your laptop or phone whenever they pop up.

Thanks for listening and stay tuned for the next Blerd Radio podcast!