When this song popped on the radio in 1980, you probably thought it was Paul McCartney and Wings. It’s actually Glaswegian singer/songwriter Ali Thomson. “Take a Little Rhythm” is Ali’s only US hit and it went to #15. That opening sax definitely reminds me of “Listen to What the Man Said,” but there are a few more Macca mannerisms in there too.

I started playing Ali this week because I’ve rediscovered a CD series from Rhino Records called “Radio Daze: Pop Hits of the 80s.” It’s five discs of songs, usually remastered, that are hard to find and don’t get as much radio play as they once did. Rhino did the same thing with the 1970’s and the “Have a Nice Day” series, but while that’s 25 CDs of the ’70s, “Radio Daze” wrapped after just five. I’m trying to add them all to my collection, but I can’t find Volume 3, the one that actually has “Take a Little Rhythm,” for less than $30.

So what’s Ali Thomson doing right now? He put out a new album about a year ago and, in April, sat down in his garden to play.

I listen to different music depending on whether I’m brainstorming or really trying to lock in on the fine details. For dreaming up stuff, I lean toward bright and up-tempo – power pop ear candy. Of course, I can just dig out my Jellyfish (in the pic) or Rockpile or Material Issue, but I often turn to the streaming station Great Big Radio.

Great Big Radio is free, created and programmed by Howard Hoffman, currently the Creative Services/Production Director of 710 WOR radio in New York. You’ll also hear Howard’s voice on commercials and radio liners around the country.

Great Big Radio promotes its format as “The Hits. And the Songs that Should’ve Been.” As Howard puts it on the GBR blog – “ …perfectly pop, well produced, performed with passion and still couldn’t find their way back to the airwaves until we came along.” As I’ve been writing this, I’ve heard Janet Jackson, The Byrds, Rick Astley, Stevie Wonder, and early Chicago.  The Beatles play at half-past every hour. Howard also voices the sarcastic liners between the music.

When I need to concentrate on what I’m writing, lyrics are bad. I start paying attention to the song instead of my own thinking. I could switch to instrumentals, but I like the human voice. So, I listen to music in a language I don’t speak. Amadou & Miriam are a married couple from Mali who sing in French and several African languages.

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I’ve been lucky enough to work with a lot of talented people on projects big and small. Today, the story of meeting a band I loved in high school and making an unofficial video for one of their songs.

Senior year of high school, the fall of 1984, must be when I first heard Los Lobos. “Will the Wolf Survive? didn’t hit big on radio, but it got constant MTV play. It’s about trying to preserve Mexican culture while living in mainstream America. It’s also a metaphor for musicians who want to be heard. A white high school kid in Iowa can’t relate directly, but I think everybody knows about feeling like an outsider.

Not long later, Los Lobos’ biggest commercial success was their 1987 cover of “La Bamba,” from the Ritchie Valens biopic starring Lou Diamond Phillips.

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Time for another edition of Down the Rabbit Hole where I start with a nugget of pop culture and, like Alice in Wonderland, see where we end up.

The sitcom “Night Court” ran on NBC from 1984 to 1992 and, as I write this, is in reruns on LAFF, which is on Dish Network and probably one of the digital subchannels in your town like 5.2 or 8.3.

Harry Anderson starred as Judge Harry Stone, a young and unconventional judge working the evening shift in Manhattan Municipal Court. Before “Night Court,” Anderson was mostly known as a magician, appearing on “Saturday Night Live” and “Cheers.”

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You didn’t think this 1982 Top 20 hit from Steel Breeze was Rick Springfield, did ya?

It’s mostly the chorus that sounds Springfieldian, but I would swear I had a Limewire download that said it was Rick.