I should write more about the career of singer and songwriter Dan Hartman, but here’s something quick. Dan’s most famous solo song is “I Can Dream About You” from the “Streets of Fire” soundtrack, hitting #6 in 1984. This is the version you heard on the radio and the video I remember from MTV. That’s Dan’s voice, though in the movie, you’d hear singer Winston Ford. The person who looks like he’s singing isn’t Hartman or Ford. That’s actor Stoney Jackson, who you can also spot in Michael Jackson’s “Beat It” video and Disney’s 1994 “Angels in the Outfield.” The “back-up singers” are actors Robert Townsend, Mykelti Williamson, and Grand L. Bush.

There’s a second version of the video where you see Hartman’s face. The movie clip is playing on TVs in a bar and Hartman is the bartender.

So that’s the face behind the voice, but there’s also a song you hear on classic rock radio all the time, and never realized it was written and sung by Dan Hartman. That’s because the band is named for someone else. Here’s Dan and The Edgar Winter Group, around 1973 and “Free Ride.”

As a songwriter and producer, Dan Hartman worked with everyone from The Plasmatics to James Brown to Disney, co-writing a song for “Oliver & Company.” Dan Hartman died in 1994, just 43, of an AIDS-related brain tumor.

Living in Florida, it can be tricky to find new up-and-coming regional beers. Since most of the state is a peninsula, beer trucks can’t just drop off in Orlando and continue on to Missouri or Virginia without a big u-turn. Don’t get me wrong. Florida is not a beer wasteland, but some smaller distributors just don’t find it cost efficient to drive the same roads in and back out.

Orlando does have at least one advantage for beer fans though – Brew Hub in Lakeland. Brew Hub partners with smaller regional breweries who have more demand than supply – or brands wanting to see if their stuff will sell along the east coast. Canebrake is a good example. It’s a wheat ale, sweetened and flavored with cane syrup, created ten years ago by Parish Brewing in Broussard, LA.  It’s now Parish’s biggest brand, so while bottles are still brewed in Louisiana, the same recipe is canned in Florida.
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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’ll admit it. I like Bazooka bubble gum. Sure, it’s a little pink brick, but it reminds me of being a kid and it’s pretty good for blowing bubbles. The other, softer brands – you need to chew longer and get the sugar out before they’re ready to go.

I usually grab a bag of Bazooka every few months in the candy section of Big Lots or a 99-cent shop. I just spotted this “throwback” packaging at Publix, but I see it’s been on the market for about a year. Throwback is more expensive per piece, but it saved me a trip. I really like the Bazooka cherry flavor, but that’s hard to find and may now be “Cherry Berry.”

Bazooka dropped the famous Bazooka Joe comics in 2013, but brought them back in 2019. Some fortunes are new, but the comics are the “best of” the ‘70s and ‘80s. Let’s just say they don’t write them like that any more.

So what is the flavor of Bazooka bubble gum? Or really, any bubble gum? It varies, but the basic recipe is strawberry and banana with each brand maybe mixing in some cherry, fruit punch, lemon, orange or other fruit flavors.

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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