So sad to hear about the passing of Casey Kasem.  He was the stuff Sunday afternoons were made of.  I had just enough time to get home from church and eat lunch before he started playing the good songs.  I mean, really, nobody liked the #40- #30 songs anyway.  They were always Dionne Warwick or Ronnie Millsap tunes.....maybe a Kenny Rogers duet.
About the time lunch was over, Casey was making his way down into the 20's.....where the more serious musical contenders were.  You'd get poised and ready to record your favorites using your state of the art recording apparatus, the boom box.  I had this top of the line beauty here....a Panasonic similar to the one pictured.  Its tape recordings were crystal clear....almost like the Tears for Fears boys were right there in your bedroom singing for you.  Brilliant piece of electronic equipment. 

Getting a good, clean recording took great skill and prime conditions.  It was imperative to press play and record at the very same time and please, oh please, don't let the tape run out before the song is over.  That was the worst.  Or.....if your mother opened the door to your bedroom right in the middle of Billy Ocean's "you wake up and suddenly, you're in"......."JONI, COME HELP ME WITH THESE DISHES!!"  Oh, for goodness sake, Mama!!! 

If you did get a good copy of your favorite song, you were all set with your own permanent duplicate.....able to listen to the love ballads whenever the mood struck......or whenever you needed to musically rehabilitate your broken heart.  And by permanent, I mean until it got hung up in the eject process and became one big, tangled mess.  If you were lucky, you could reel it back in with your finger or for more serious unravelings......with a pencil.  Either way, it never played quite the same again as when it hit that one spot, it would always sound all garbled from that day forward.  Heaven forbid this should ever happen to your DeBarge tape!!   


Debby.....So many nights, she'd sit by her window, waiting for someone to sing her this song....this song, which became the #1 song of the whole 70's decade!  Wow, Deb.....there's something to light up your life and give you hope to carry on.  Like they say, "it can't be wrong when it feels so right".....   
I would be remiss not to mention the long distance dedications.  Be still my heart. Nothing would touch a girl's soul like Casey reading a long, sappy letter from a listener in Kansas, recounting his passionate trip to Maine with Donna....a weekend that changed him forever and made him believe in love again.......that is, until Donna took a sales job in Turkey.  "Casey, would you, please, play "Weekend in New England" by Barry Manilow for Donna and let her know that I will never forget the time we spent together or the love we shared?"   The long distance dedication.....always a touching moment. 

"Now on with the countdown."



Thanks, Casey, for the memories.  The sound of your voice will always transport us to another time. 

A good, good time.