My Records - Chiliwack "My Girl (Gone, Gone, Gone)"

One of my favorite one hit wonders from my record buying days is Chiliwack. Much like 'My Sharonna', it probably was not ultimately the best song to ever come down the pike, but it placed me in a specific place in time.

This song was really huge for about five minutes but it coincided exactly when I first got my drivers license and had that first burst of freedom. Alas, not on Guitar Hero...

My Records - The Knack "My Sharona"

One of those goofy tunes that was pretty cool back in the day. If you know both notes, you can play it on your very own gee-tar.

My Records - David + David "Boomtown"

This is one of my 'cool-guy' albums I bought back in 1987 sometime. I seem to remember this clearly because the big song 'Boomtown' was all over the radio down in Virginia. This is one of those albums that when I hear it very much reminds me of a time and place. I worked for exactly one year to the day at WHSV-TV 3 in Harrisonburg, VA right out of college. It was my first real job and my first TV job. I made literally peanuts ($4.25 per hour) and was somehow able to scrape a living. I had this tiny little one bedroom joint ($225 per month) that I could not afford and my car kept breaking down. For all that and many reasons, I bought David + David "Boomtown". Like my year in H-burg, they were alas one-hit-wonders and have earned two white man overbites on the WMO jam scale. Oh, where are they now...

My Records - Bruce Hornsby & The Range "The Way It Is"

This is a very special album in the J-Rho record collection for a couple of reasons.

1. Bought this down in Virginia when I was working my first tv job, Bruce Hornsby was from Virginia, I knew some people who knew him, it all seemed kind of special at the time.

2. It was the last album I bought.

That's right, I switched to CD's right after this point so there had to be a last album and this was it. I never really got into the album per se, but it being the last purchased album it holds a special place in my heart as the end of the record buying era. I of course started buying CD's like mad and kept playing my albums but this was the last one. I can be nostalgic about such things, but I don't recall thinking much about it at the time.

1 White Man Overbite on the WMO jam scale. It would rank much higher of the WMO had to do with pianos instead of guitars.

My Records - Def Leppard "Pyromania"

I bought Def Leppard "Pyromania" during my college record buying spree. This album of course was purchased only after ascertaining whether or not there would be enough hit songs to justify purchase. When I bought this album, I was always a little wary about whether or not Def Leppard was cool enough. I remember running into a friend of mine at White Marsh Mall when I bought the album. Here I am coming out of the music store with an album and Tony Migliore is like, 'hey, what do you have there?' I recall feeling uneasy that I was buying an uncool album but I fessed up and showed it to him. I don't recall him rolling his eyes.

Anyway, I really liked it then and it hasn't really aged all that much for me. In fact, if they ever come out with a Def Leppard 'Guitar Hero' I'm all over it because Def Leppard is really a definitive band in terms of the White Man Overbite. They seemed to have been invented for just such a purpose. How can you not love a song entitled "Rock! Rock! (Till You Drop)".

The big song I really liked off this album was the hit "Photograph" though I'm still partial to "Rock of Ages".

3 1/2 white man overbites on the WMO jam scale (high praise from J-Rho).

By the way, this is pre-drummer-getting-arm-chopped-off which of course is very rock 'n roll!

My Records - Van Halen "1984"

Took a spin through the old record collection and pulled out Van Halen's "1984". This in a lot of ways was the height of the old school record ways. Four songs on one side. Four songs on the other side. Lots of fancy pictures in parachute pants. A cool 'bad boy-ish' painting on the front. Done, done and done. Today, it seems like a 'CD' has to have at least a dozen tracks on it before it could be considered a full album. You know Van Halen probably recorded twenty five songs and whittled it down to the best eight. No filler, no crud. Eight good tunes, out to the record store.

Van Halen is always good for the white man overbite. I probably should have gone at least 3 1/2 white man overbites but this is the album that Van Halen went synth so all us old schoolers still have to give a ritualistic swap for the slight. Even though it's great. It's got that rock/synth classic 'Jump', my personal favorite 'Panama' and everybodies' favorite 'Hot For Teacher'

Three white man overbites on the WMO jam scale.

My Records - Honeydrippers "Volume One"

Dove into the old record collection and pulled out HONEYDRIPPERS "Volume One". This is one of those records that at the time you felt like it was probably cool to buy but didn't really dig it. It was kind of a novelty album and one of the few EP's I ever bought.

Note to the kids: A full blown 'album' or 'record' was also known as an LP (long play). An 'EP' (extended play) meant that it only had a couple of songs on it. Back in the day, you'd get an EP and it would have three or four versions of the same song on it.

This particular EP had five songs: I Get a Thrill, Sea of Love (the big hit off this EP), I Got a Woman, Young Boy Blues, Rockin' at Midnight

The Honeydrippers were even famous because it was half of Led Zeppelin (Robert Plant, Jimmy Page) along with other pretty heavy weight musicians (Jeff Beck notably). The music was all old 50's rock n' roll and was one of the first projects where 'modern' rock n' rollers revisted that old stuff. Again, it was one of those albums you felt like you had to buy though it wasn't all that.

I'm going with zero white man overbites on the WMO jam scale mainly because I'm still bitter that my Rock Band guitar died this week and I'm just not in a rockin' mood.

My Records - Steve Winwood "Back In the High Life"

When I bought Steve Winwood "Back in the High Life" in college, Steve Winwood was already 20 years into a career so he seemed old to me at the time. He was from 'the sixties'. At the time, this seemed like a mature and sophisticated buy because of his age and because he had been in such iconic groups as Blind Faith and performed with all those blues guys like Bo Diddley and Muddy Waters. But his style was, even though rockin', not really hard crunching 'white man overbite' kind of music. It is very good, and very strong, but I can't imagine it on Guitar Hero. Now, if they came out with a 'Keyboard Hero' he'd probably be the man!

It's strange because one would think this music would be more popular in a 'Jack Radio' kind of way but you don't hear Steve Winwood much these days. I listened to this album and I thought it was very strong. There are two really big hits on here "Higher Love" and "Back In the Highlife Again" for sure (which means it passed the Jeff '2 hit' criteria for purchase).


I remember a couple of other tracks that I really dug but am not so sure they were big hits "My Love's Leavin", "Wake Me Up on Judgement Day", "Take It As It Comes", and "Freedom Overspill".

It's not really the over-bite-ingest album I own but I really like it so I'm going to have to give it 2 White Man Overbites on the WMO jam scale. So there.

By the way, in lots of ways Steve Winwood is the epitome of the White Man Overbite. As a teen sensation in England, his voice was often compared to Ray Charles. So there, again.