Raised on Radio #26- Rick Springfield

I feel a bit compelled to include Rick here, Like many artists, his one massive hit defines his music career.

Anyone born in the 80s would consider him a 'one hit wonder', and at this point, his other songs are so buried, that some of those who lived in the decade probably feel that way.

I'm not here necessarily to praise or bury Mr. Springfield. I wasn't a huge fan necessarily except for a couple of songs. Nor do I think today's music listener would know what to do with rick. It's hard to imagine a 'heartthrob' artist being marketed as a rocker, but trying to categorize Rick, I suppose you could slot him in that Daughtery space- a female favorite that was ok for men to like.

Springfield's 80s career is impressive. An amazing 15 Top 40 Hits. Five went Top 10, and of course "Jessie's Girl" to #1 (but "Don't Talk to Strangers" just missed -#2 for 4 weeks).

Those songs include "Bruce" which was about how girls always confused him with Bruce Springsteen. it sounds like something out of Weird Al, but Rick made a hit out of it. Can you imagine anything like that today?

There's a few songs that everyone would probably recall right away - "Don't talk to Strangers", "I've done everything for you", and 'Affair of the Heart".

the last one was my favorite Rick song. It's pretty much what you got in the 80s- superserious and overblown with mandatory keyboards. Still, it rocks as hard as let's say Loverboy.

Well, it was the 80s.

Southern Illinois Problems...

I saw this on CNN. News from my old neck of the woods.

Union County Maple Syrup Operation Mistaken for Meth Lab

UNION COUNTY -- Authorities searching for a meth lab in Union County came away with a sweet surprise Wednesday.

Tim Collie of Anna says drug enforcement officers and police showed up at his family's home after being tipped off that meth was being made on the property. Collie says the buckets attached to trees aren't a meth operation but are instead used to collect maple syrup.

He says authorities chuckled when he told him what it really was, but Collie wasn't laughing when the ordeal first went down.

"It was frightening at first, at the very start of it, then immediately after I knew what they were here for, thank goodness that it was just that, I knew that I hadn't done anything wrong," explains Collie.

Collie thinks a neighbor may have reported his family. He doesn't blame that person and says if he saw a setup like the one in his yard, he might call police, too.

(All words and info above stolen from WSIL channel 3 without permission.  It's okay, my dad watches them all the time).