1985 Slow Pitch Tunes

May 29, 2024 11:33 AM CDT

In 1985 I was wearing barn boots during the day and at night I was the fearless disc jockey for all of your party needs. Another hobby was playing slow pitch softball. Ithaca had a Wednesday night league and Hillpoint played on Thursdays. The weekends would often feature tournaments that were money makers for small communities. To keep the crowd around at night they would often hire a cheap d.j. like me. There were a few times when I had to put in a Memorex tape on my d.j. system so that I could go bat. That usually did not take long as you would only get two strikes and a foul ball as your second strike was an out. That offered me the chance to get back to playing the hot tunes of the day. Some of my favorite songs from June of 1985 include, Don’t You Forget About Me-Simple Minds, Some Like It Hot-Power Station, Don’t Come Around Here No More-Tom Petty, Things Can Only Get Better-Howard Jones, Walking on Sunshine-Katrina and the Waves, Sussudio-Phil Collins, and Raspberry Beret -Prince. I went to the Music Shop in downtown Richland Center and bought each one of those with my hard-earned hay making money so that I could please the rowdies at the softball tournament. My girlfriend, June, would often go with me to these late-night fights when a dance would break out. She had to protect me and did once step in between me and a ruffian who did not want me to quit playing music. June encouraged him in his own language to kindly go sleep it off. To my amazement, he did not belt me and walked away. Luckily, he did not smash all of my little records. That means that I can still play them on the radio today.

This Saturday night on WRCO’s Those Were the Days, I will be spinning the vinyl classics from the fifties through the early nineties. Join the fun between six and midnight. You could be the winner of a great prize during our trivia challenges. Catch the show on FM 100.9 in Southwest Wisconsin or WRCO.com and on the Civic Media app. wherever you are hanging.

Phil