I was working on putting together a sweet "summer" music mix and thought of "Hot In The City" by Billy Idol. This caused me to have a flashback to 1988...
Me and a couple of my "new waver" friends were hanging out dying our hair black and listening to the radio. "Hot In The City" comes on and I was kinda half listening to it. So it gets to the part where Billy yells "New York!" BUT-- instead he yells "Grrand Rrrapids!"
Over the years, any time I randomly hear the song, it always makes me think of this. After so long, I sometimes question whether some of my memories actually happened or maybe were just a dream.
Anyway, this afternoon seemed like a good time to learn about the possibly imaginary "Grand Rapids" edit of "Hot In The City." (It actually is really f'n hot in the city right now)
According to wikipedia: "Although the released version of the song contains a verse in which Idol shouts "New York," other versions of the song were recorded for various radio stations, including one in which he shouts "Amarillo", "Minneapolis", or "New Haven."
I hit up Danny Czekalinski, aka Danny Douglas, who was an on-air personality at KLQ in the late 80s... "yes....he did customs for every city in the top 100 markets and Grand Rapids was one of them. You are correct!"
So obviously, the happiest of endings to this story would be me making available a download of an mp3 of the song. I would love to get a hold of a copy but I imagine it to be impossible.
According to Danny "It was on reel to reel tape from the record company. Phil Tower at WOOD radio may have a copy."
I'm half tempted to pursue it but sometimes I have to stop myself from bothering folks with these weird little scavenger hunts of mine. Anyway, it's kinda sweet confirming that this did exist!
Hope everyone's keepin cool and enjoying summer. I hope to have some new stuff to post soon!
