Professor of Rock

Treat yourself to a childhood favorite. Go to https://www.kachava.com/ and use code POR for 15% off your first order. Coming up, we’ve got a brand new show, and I’m pumped for it. We’re telling the tale of songs that, in their time, were considered also-rans... they didn’t crack the Top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100, but, over time, became bigger than songs that did, and even bigger than the songs that made it to #1. We’ll share how Eddie Money, one of the most recognizable vocalists of the Rock Era, was threatened with a lawsuit by an icon of Hollywood’s Golden Age for ripping off her exact lyrics for a 70s rock classic… A boogie-boogie tune by Lynyrd Skynyrd that spawned from a bloody fight inside a hotel bar between a band roadie and a hotel guest. The fight got so intense that the lead singer cut the guitarist’s hand and nearly ended his career. Plus Steely Dan's 2 sociopaths, who were such perfectionists that they fired 6 legendary guitarists before settling on their 7th and then made him play a solo for 6 hours before they thought it was good enough for their song. We have classics from Heart, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Billy Joel, the Who, Eddie Money, and more. Our countdown starts with an iconic artist we lost in 2025 that the media totally ignored. His record label forced him to change his name to Benny Santini, but he turned the tables on them and kept his real name and made fun of the dumb name on his debut album by calling it What ever happened to Benny Santini. Let’s do it. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Executive Producer Brandon Fugal Honorary Producers Kelly Moan, Curtis Stoddard, Paul Duenas, Robert Hickerty, rondell m ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe to the Professor of Rock Podcast Apple: https://apple.co/445fVov Spotify: https://spoti.fi/42JpfvU Amazon: https://amzn.to/44b5D6m iHeartRadio: https://bit.ly/444h8MO ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Patreon: http://bit.ly/ProfessorofRockVIPFan Merch Store: https://professor-of-rock-lsn-shop.fourthwall.com/ Instagram: https://bit.ly/Instagram_Professor_of_Rock #classicrock #70smusic #vinylstory #70srock Hey Music Junkies, ya know, some songs burn bright and fast, even if they shoot to #1, and disappear from public memory. But this countdown is all about the opposite effect. It’s a list of slow-burning classics that didn’t make the Top 10- landing between #11 and #20. We’re calling it the Inbetweeners. The countdown begins with an artist who we lost in 2025 and most people still don’t know because the media ignored it. It’s “Fool if You Think It’s Over” by Chris Rea at #6: “Fool (If You Think It’s Over)” was Chris Rea’s breakout soft-rock hit, one that really helped launch his career, even though it somehow became one of those unexpectedly famous pop songs people still talk about. Chris wrote the lyrics as a message to his younger sister, Paula, who was heartbroken for real after her first breakup at 17. He saw how crushed she was in their family ice cream parlor, and he wrote those comforting “you’ve got a whole future ahead of you” big-brother lines to remind her that this wasn’t the end of the world, and it also won’t be her last heartbreak: Chris Rea originally planned something quite different for “Fool If You Think It’s Over.” He wrote “Fool” thinking a legendary soul singer, such as Al Green, would record it, imagining it as a Memphis-style blues track. But, as Rea puts it, “It ended up being this huge California thing.” Chris Rea never felt comfortable in the spotlight, which is one of the reasons he didn’t have another hit in America. When he first came to LA, he envisioned playing small, smokey clubs that he was used to in the UK. That is the environment he felt more at home, instead of playing the glitzier, Hollywood scene: Even Chris’s label wasn’t sure if he would fit into the pop spotlight at first. It started with them second guessing his name. Magnet Records thought Chris Rea sounded.. “too ordinary” and suggested he change his name to, the more memorable, Benny Santini. Chris refused, but he made fun of the idea, naming his debut album Whatever Happened to Benny Santini? With “Fool If you Think it’s Over” as the lead single: “Fool If You Think It’s Over” plateaued at #12 on the Billboard Hot 100. Even though it didn’t ascend to loftier heights, the song demonstrated Chris’s immense talent as a singer & a lyricist and is more revered than its peak chart position. Chris was nominated for Best New Artist at the ’79 Grammy Awards. “Fool If You Think It’s Over” was bottled lighting for Chris in the U.S., but in his native UK, he had a string of Top 10 selling albums, including two that made it to #1.