GROW BIGGER EARS #7: The "Audio Autopsy" Salute to Boyfriends Power Pop Playlist

You've got male: From gals warning "He's back" to guys pleading that they "wanna be", dudes have shoehorned their way into rock's landscape for years, prompting tons of testosterone-fueled tuneage.💪

Apparently, according to whomever’s running the planet, October 3rd is “National Boyfriend Day.” Don’t ask me why; I don’t recall voting for it, and I’m certainly not involved, neither being one nor having one (that I’m aware of).

And, while it’s possible that the ears behind GROW BIGGER EARS are sans calendar, it should be made clear that we only missed National Girlfriend Day by a month, a holiday I’m told is celebrated every August 1st. GBE, as it happens, paid grateful and tuneful tribute to the gals in September:

GROW BIGGER EARS #2: The "Audio Autopsy" September Gurls Power Pop Playlist

1. The Raveonettes “My Boyfriend’s Back,” 2005, Columbia Records

With a multitude of options, we open the Playlist with The Raveonettes’ (Sharin Foo, Sune Rose Wagner) 2005 cover of the song that was originally recorded by The Angels in 1963 as a demo for the Shirelles. Released as recorded, though, in July of that year on Smash Records, it quickly found its way to the top of the Billboard singles chart.

Of interest to metal heads, as an added attraction, is the fact that a 20-year-old Ronnie James Dio (eventual lead singer for Black Sabbath, Rainbow, Dio) played trumpet on The Angels’ 1963 session!

Publicity photo of Ronnie and the Red Caps, circa 1960 (Ronnie James Dio, bass/vocals, far left)🤘

But, what of The Raveonettes? “My Boyfriend’s Back” was written in 1963 by Bob Feldman, Jerry Goldstein, and the gentleman who produced The Raveonettes’ 2005 cover, Richard Gottehrer (joined at the console by Raveonette, Sune Rose Wagner). So, the lengthy, 4-decade thread of serendipity was too great to ignore!

Gottehrer’s impressive career is notable, as well, for having co-founded (with Seymour Stein) Sire Records in 1966, the label that launched The Ramones onto our turntables a decade later! They show up on our Playlist at the #4 position (they also showed up at the Houston hotel room they invited me to in 1978)!

2. Dolly Parton, Potential New Boyfriend, 1983, RCA Records

RCA, apparently trying to position La Dolly as a country Whitney or a fully-clothed Madonna (or a more Aqua-Netted Michael Jackson), served up this disco ditty, written by John Lewis Parker and Australian, Steve Kipner (who wrote Olivia Newton-John’s chart-topping “Physical” two years earlier, as well as Christina Aguilera’s “Genie in a Bottle” in 1999).

“Potential New Boyfriend” was the only single released by RCA from Dolly’s Burlap & Satin LP.

3. Wilbur Soot, “Your New Boyfriend,” 2020

William Patrick Spencer Gold (or Will Gold, if you see him on the street; and if you see him on the street, kindly help him up) is a 27-year-old British Twitch streamer, YouTube content creator, and musician. Encouraged to play the piano at an early age, he “hated piano lessons,” while loving music theory, as he disclosed in a recorded interview in his early 20s. Given a guitar by his mum at age 12, he “never touched it” until age 20.

He learned to play, and began writing the songs he thinks are “nothing special. I feel like they’re me speaking from my mind, and I’d love it if someone else can connect with that, so no one can say, ‘Oh, it’s not just me who feels these common emotions that lots of people feel!’”

The world first got to know Wilbur Soot (as he calls himself; double-”o” as in book, not boot) in 2017 for his work with the group comedy YouTube channel SootHouse, where he made recurring appearances and was the lead editor and a co-founder.

He later started his own channel, Wilbur Soot, in March 2019. His sixth single, “Your New Boyfriend,” peaked at #65 on the UK Singles Chart. Gold is co-founder of the British indie rock band Lovejoy, where he is one of the songwriters, the lead vocalist and the rhythm guitarist.

However you feel about Wilbur, it can be said with all certainty that he has no taste. That is to say he suffers from hypogeusia: Wilbur cannot taste things properly; he has a reduced ability to decipher sweet from salty or bitter. But, he has a cool motto:

“Music! At the expense of online success!”

4. The Ramones, “I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend,” 1976, Sire Records

The first of two identically-titled songs to round out our Playlist was written by drummer Tommy Ramone (who co-produced with Craig Leon) in 1975. From their debut, self-titled album, Ramones (released in April 1976), it was the second single released from the album, following their signature “Blitzkrieg Bop” single.

Gratuitous? Maybe, but you’ll find this pic nowhere else on the ‘net, except FRONT ROW & BACKSTAGE! Backstage at Houston’s Liberty Hall, summer 1977, Tommy, who wrote “I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend,” was nowhere to be found, so for this one-of-a-kind photo, I was happy to be his momentary stand-in (l-r) Dee Dee Ramone, “Brad Ramone” (for the 5 seconds it took to snap this shot), huge baseball fan Johnny Ramone, and Joey Ramone. The next year, they invited me up to their hotel room after their ‘78 tour visit.📸Larry Lent

5. Rubinoos, “I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend,” 1979, Beserkley Records

For our final Playlist song, our second “Wanna Be…” is from arguably the standard-bearer for all things quintessentially power pop, The Rubinoos. Jon Rubin’s West Coast “oos” are the midwest Raspberries’ earnest little brothers who couldn’t wait to pick up guitars and fiddle around with ‘em like they heard their big bros do on Saturdays in the garage.

For over a decade they looked for all the world like suburban high schoolers just itchin’ to play the Friday night dance.

“R” You Kidding?

If a Top 3 list of this writer’s favorite power poppers was limited to the letter “R,” it’d be easy to name The Raspberries, The Rubinoos, and The Records, in any order on any given day.

And, The Ramones wouldn’t be out of place either, with their well-chronicled love for The Beatles, Beach Boys and Spector’s girl groups, helping to craft their brand of catchy, two-minute “bubblegum with a hammer” aural arsenal. It was everybody else who called them “punk rock.”

The Rubinoos, from Berkeley and formed in 1970, were Jon Rubin on guitar and vocals, Tommy Dunbar on guitar, keyboards and vocals, Royse Ader on bass and vocals, and Donn Spindt, drums.

While promoting their 1979 Back to the Drawing Board LP (from whence this single whelps), they actually found themselves on Elvis Costello’s Armed Funk tour, opening for him on 56 U.S. tour dates (which gives me a chance to tub-thump good friend and fellow ‘Stacker, Matt Springer, and his essential Elvis-centric newsletter, That Fatal Mailing List, not only well-worth your perusal, but subscription, as well)!