Play Something We Can Dance To-1985

In the mid 1980’s I was making bank at $40.00 a night ($10.00 per hour) for mobile d.j. services. Recently while at a wedding in Illinois, I asked the d.j. what he normally charged and he said $3,000 for a wedding. Perhaps I should get back in the game? The outcry from the dancers in 1985 was to ‘play something we can dance to’. That was the goal, however, there was always a smart fella that would stand on the side and hound me to play slow Neil Young, or Pink Floyd deep tracks that did not exactly make people flock to the dance floor. When you would drop the needle on a 10 minute Floyd track others would get restless. If you would play a disco song, that might not go well in some areas, and if you played a high school dance, you better be stocked up on Ratt, Quiet Riot, and Twisted Sister. There were nights when you could get away with playing anything and they would dance. One night I was playing at this roadside bar when a group of motorcyclists rolled in. I played the Osmonds Down By the Lazy River and the place went crazy. My feeling was that if I announced they were dancing to the Osmond brothers, I might get beaten up!

Saturday night during Those Were the Days, I will be back with a full night of requests. The green and gold can’t keep me down any longer (at least until next week)! You will be able to play trivia and dedicate a tune from the first forty years of rock and roll. We will stop and park for a time in 1985. The top song was The Power of Love by Huey Lewis from the movie Back to the Future. Other favorites of mine include Summer of ’69-Bryan Adams, Take On Me -A-ha, Raspberry Beret-Prince, Glory Days-Bruce Springsteen, and Freeway of Love-Aretha Franklin. Get ready, get set for the triumphant return of Those Were the Days on WRCO 100.9, wrco.com, and the Civic Media app. Saturday night.

Phil