Let’s Choose The Greatest Record Ever Made

The greatest record ever made is one of the all-time great conversation starters. And for author Carl Cafarelli, it's turned into his brand new book - The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1). How does somebody decide what the greatest record ever made is? As Carl says, "It's very simple - don't." And the reason for that is quite simple - because at any one given time, you may quantify a certain song as the greatest ever, only to come back tomorrow and decide that it's actually another song. Carl's new book is an incredible collection of some of the greatest moments ever recorded. As you go through the book, it's one "Oh WOW!" moment after another with rock, soul, folk, pop, country, and hip hop included. https://youtu.be/O-qCWy4kBbw Carl Cafarelli Interview Excerpts That's the nature of passion. That's the nature of loving pop music so much that you just think that it's the greatest. You know, I'm old enough to remember Beatlemania. I'm old enough to have lived through the late 60s and remember it, seeing the Monkees on TV, hearing AM radio which was just so wonderful. Every song was a revelation. Sequencing the Book It was feel. I wanted it wanted to work as a mixtape. That's almost incidental, but it does work. I have a playlist, I've driven to Ohio and back listening to this , to these songs in the specific sequence and that worked but more importantly it had to flow as writing. I know that people who pick up a book like this are often going to go. I want to read my favorite first, I want to read this song. But it was designed to be read from beginning to end in sequence, for those so inclined. And I don't know that I realized this before I wrote it. I think after I finished it, I realized this is this book is my life story disguised as a book about pop music. And that's really I think true for many of us in the music that we love. Music isn't just our soundtrack. It's part of our lives. It's not just the soundtrack of our lives. It is an integral part of our lives for those of us who love it. It's not just background music. It's part of the thing that flows in our blood that we feel in our bones that makes us move that makes us dance, that makes us cry, that helps us when we have to cryAnd all of that it's not just one thing so picking the songs was just an easy impulse of what song fitI wrote way more than could fit in the book. The Smithereens As it says in the chapter, I was corresponding that night that (Pat DiNizio) was slipping away. I wasGetting texts from my friends Rich and Cathy Firestone who are part of the Front Line that I mentioned in the book. The people who went to see the Smithereens and stood at the front of the stage and hence the name the Front Line. They were texting me their frantic worry about the fact that Pat was slipping away, but as I was receiving these texts I was with my mom in the emergency room knowing what was going to happen there, that she would be soon be leaving her home to be relocated to adult living and eventually she would pass at the end of 2021. So I don't want to say emotion comes easy. I don't want to say that music makes emotion come easy, but they're related. I mean we love music for a reason. And all of these feelings come to the fore when we hear a favorite song, it doesn't matter if it's if it's a rap song or if it's a power pop song. The Cowsills I'm not exaggerating when I said that Global is probably my favorite album of the 1990s. I can't imagine what I would put in its place if it wasn't that one. And there was a lot of great stuff in the 90s, but that's the one that rises to the top for me. (The Cowsills), like the Monkees don't get the credit they deserve because the public's perception outweighs an open-minded acceptance of how wonderful their music is the stuff they did in the 60s and early 70s is splendid. It's just wonderful stuff that deserves a wider audience. The 90s stuff is better still. The Monkees I'm a big believer in the idea of rock and roll honoring its own. I know all of the negatives tossed at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and they're all true. You know, what do we need a museum for? Rock and Roll Hall of Fame? Why don't they call it the Pop Music Hall of Fame? They're all beside the point. Rock and roll should honor its own. Rock and roll is a big tent. I don't really even have an objection to a number of the artists getting in; hip-hop is part of rock and roll. I don't really have a problem with that even though I I listen to very very little hip-hop, very little hip-hop. When we talk about a rock and roll hall of fame the three factors to consider would be popularity, artistic merit, but most of all impact. I think the Monkees had all three. They were certainly one of the most popular bands in the mid 60s. Arguable whether they really out sold the Beatles in 67 as Mike Nesmith claimed. But they were awfully awfully popular. Timothy Leary was a fan, credited them for basically pushing the envelope more than any other band by making all of this weirdness if you will mainstream by appearing on tv screens every week with long hair and not blowing things up. and not being degenerates, not being subversive.... Playing and performing catchy pop music, pop music that stands the test the time a lot of that stuff both the prefabricated stuff of the first two albums, the hey, hey, we're a real band of 1967's Headquarters the hybrid of Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn, and Jones Limited, the stuff they did after that in diminishing group dynamic and that brilliant, dark movie Head which is such a wonderful experience. The Greatest Record Ever Made - "Rain" by the Beatles As I was writing this book that was always going to be the default choice that if there has to be really just one greatest record ever made, that's the one I pick it's not even necessarily my all-time favorite song. My all-time favorite song is "Baby Blue" by Badfinger. I actually do have one I can point to and that was the first greatest record ever made chapter ever written back in 2016. But "Rain," there's just something about it. I think I remember reading in Mojo magazine about jukeboxes. And they talked about, picture this - it's 1966, you're a member of a lower echelon British beat group. Popular, but not cutting edge. You're spending an evening out at the pubs in London. And then one of the Beatles stops by with a new record as they do every once in a while. The A side plays, "Paperback Writer." And then they turn the record over, and they play "Rain." And if you're a member of Herman's Hermit, you may as well just pack it in right now because what's the freaking point. MORE ALL MIXED UP - Interviews and Playlists