Doug B
Footballguy
You all talking about hearing a song somewhere and trying to figure out title/artist totally rings a bell. I wish we could've searched lyrics on Google back in the day.
One thing that helped me -- counter to jwb's experience having to go to NYC -- is that New Orleans is a music town. Accordingly, the local record stores were FANTASTIC for song-finding research. On top of the local record shops, we got a huge Tower Records in the French Quarter sometime circa 1990. Sometimes before going to rat the streets, we'd park in the pay parking lot near Tower and then drop in to peruse cassettes (CDs were out, but not yet the dominant form). Many a time I went into that Tower Records with just a presumed title (guessed from the lyrics, which was maybe 50/50) and would go through every album they carried for a given artist to see if a song by that presumed title was on there.
This band is ineligible, so no spotlight: My freshman year of college, I remember hearing Supertramp's "The Logical Song" on the classic-rock station. Despite my cousin having the Breakfast In America album and me therefore having heard the song at least several times as a kid, my 18-year-old self was completely blanking on the title and artist. Not long after, I was riding in the car with a friend and "The Logical Song" came on again. I asked him if he knew who it was, and he said he thought it was Zebra (! -- but the singers' voices have similarity, so not miles off base).
Sometime later, I was going through one of Joel Whitburn's Top 40 books in LSU's library (specifically this one -- I have since bought my own copy). I would sometimes casually peruse this and other popular music references to pass time -- my social calendar wasn't particularly full at the time. Anyway, by sheer kismet I saw the title "The Logical Song" by Supertramp. I wondered if that could be the mystery song, and filed the memory away.
Not too long after that, me and my friends were looking through a local Baton Rouge music store which was finally giving up the ghost on selling 45s -- they had a large room filled with clearance 7" records. My family still had a working turntable/cassette player stereo at home, so I could make tape copies of any 45s I liked (something I did a lot at the time). We scoured the clearance 45s looking for whatever, and I saw a copy of "The Logical Song". Remember, at this point, I didn't have confirmation -- the mystery song could've been "The Logical Song", but still maybe not. I added it to my pile and bought the record anyway.
Needless to say, I was quite impressed with my sleuthing efforts once I got that record on a turntable to confirm. And when my Columbia House mailer next came around ... I purchased Breakfast In America. On cassette, natch.
One thing that helped me -- counter to jwb's experience having to go to NYC -- is that New Orleans is a music town. Accordingly, the local record stores were FANTASTIC for song-finding research. On top of the local record shops, we got a huge Tower Records in the French Quarter sometime circa 1990. Sometimes before going to rat the streets, we'd park in the pay parking lot near Tower and then drop in to peruse cassettes (CDs were out, but not yet the dominant form). Many a time I went into that Tower Records with just a presumed title (guessed from the lyrics, which was maybe 50/50) and would go through every album they carried for a given artist to see if a song by that presumed title was on there.
This band is ineligible, so no spotlight: My freshman year of college, I remember hearing Supertramp's "The Logical Song" on the classic-rock station. Despite my cousin having the Breakfast In America album and me therefore having heard the song at least several times as a kid, my 18-year-old self was completely blanking on the title and artist. Not long after, I was riding in the car with a friend and "The Logical Song" came on again. I asked him if he knew who it was, and he said he thought it was Zebra (! -- but the singers' voices have similarity, so not miles off base).
Sometime later, I was going through one of Joel Whitburn's Top 40 books in LSU's library (specifically this one -- I have since bought my own copy). I would sometimes casually peruse this and other popular music references to pass time -- my social calendar wasn't particularly full at the time. Anyway, by sheer kismet I saw the title "The Logical Song" by Supertramp. I wondered if that could be the mystery song, and filed the memory away.
Not too long after that, me and my friends were looking through a local Baton Rouge music store which was finally giving up the ghost on selling 45s -- they had a large room filled with clearance 7" records. My family still had a working turntable/cassette player stereo at home, so I could make tape copies of any 45s I liked (something I did a lot at the time). We scoured the clearance 45s looking for whatever, and I saw a copy of "The Logical Song". Remember, at this point, I didn't have confirmation -- the mystery song could've been "The Logical Song", but still maybe not. I added it to my pile and bought the record anyway.
Needless to say, I was quite impressed with my sleuthing efforts once I got that record on a turntable to confirm. And when my Columbia House mailer next came around ... I purchased Breakfast In America. On cassette, natch.
