Chuck’s… Virgindog’s… Make That: mt58’s Record Collection – “20 Explosive Hits”

Inspired by Chuck Small’s K-Tel Compilation Series, and the recent response article from Bill “Virgindog ” Bois…

If you’re of a certain pre-Amazon and strip-mall age, you probably had a thriving and traditional five-and-dime store in your town.

Depending on where you grew up, it was perhaps a Ben Franklin, a Kresge’s, or maybe a Woolworth’s.

Whatever the name over the door, they all looked exactly the same once you were inside. A lunch counter with spinning stools could often be found.

In my case, the local version was The W.T. Grant Company.

AKA “Grant’s,” as we locals had short-named it.

I liked going there on a cold winter day, because they would really crank up the heat. And during the hot summer? Grant’s was an air-conditioned oasis.

We would loiter for hours, especially on a Saturday, until we were asked to “either buy something or leave.” The resident wise-guy in our gang would innocently protest via a saccharine rendition of the theme song from the local radio commercials: “But, ma’am: “There’s soooo much more at W.T. Grant!”

I remember that the store seemed to “grow up” with my oh-so-urgent need of the moment. It had a knack for providing exactly what I wanted, regardless of how old of a kid I was. When I was six or so, it was candy and crayons. By the time I was nine, it was baseball cards.

Eleven? Two words:

Hot Wheels.

But now that I was aspiring to be a mature and cool seventh grader? Who, just six months earlier, had discovered the magic of Top 40 Radio? Clearly, it was time to ditch the die-cast, mauve Olds 442.

Bring on the records.

Grant’s had an end-cap on an aisle, featuring a modest hand-lettered sign humbly announcing that you had indeed found the “Music Department.” There were usually about two-dozen 45s and a smattering of albums on display. One fall Saturday, I just about lost my mind when I saw:

The very LP that had been featured the evening before on Channel 38, as an Official As Seen On TV™ Item:

I had been forgoing dessert at the school cafeteria for weeks, deftly scraping together enough spare change so that I could actually purchase an album. The most popular and talked about record of the month was now in my left hand, and my soon-to-be-gone $3.17 was in the other.

I was actually buying it. “This is huge,” I thought. I think I remember feeling “taller.”

And just like that… at least for today: I would be the coolest kid on the block. And then Gina Fannatuccci would have no choice but to say, “Yes!” when I asked her to meet me and hang at the pizza table at that night’s CYO dance, because: I know all of the words to all Of These 20 EXPLOSIVE Hits! And I would buy her a Cherry Coke with the very last of my pathetic, lint-covered lunch change. And then I would ask her to slow dan–

Sorry. Musical-induced teenage nostalgia is a hell of a drug. Where were we? Oh, yeah…

Side One features a pretty good snapshot of hit radio from about 1969 to early 1971:

• Mungo Jerry – In The Summertime
• Edison Lighthouse – Love Goes (Where My Rosemary Goes)
• Stairsteps – Ooh Child
• Box Tops – Cry Like A Baby
• Classics IV – Traces
• The Who – I Can See For Miles
• Alive and Kicking – Tighter Tighter
• Jaggerz – The Rapper
• Tee Set – Ma Belle Amie
• Bob Lind – Elusive Butterfly

It could be argued that The Who and Bob Lind tunes don’t really belong here, as they were from a few years earlier in the mid-to-late 1960s. But they still were fun to my 13-year-old ears.

I loved when it was time to flip the album over to Side Two, as it kicked off with an all time, 10/10 monster hit:

• Shocking Blue – Venus
• Hugh Masekela – Grazin’ In The Grass
• The Cufflinks – Tracy
• Tommy James – Ball And Chain
• Three Degrees – Maybe
• Canned Heat – Going Up The Country
• Box Tops – The Letter
• Tommy James And The Shondells – Church St. Soul Revival
• Intruders – When We Get Married
• Bill Deal and the Rondells – May I

You may have noticed that Tommy James had two hits in this collection. He sort-of had a third, as a songwriter for “Tighter, Tighter.” The conspiracy theorist in me is imagining that Morris Levy had a hand in it. The Box Tops also managed to appear twice.

Like Side One, a few of the songs on Side Two are late 60’s leftovers, but I’ll give it a pass.

Enjoy this playlist that I found on YouTube.

My 2024 take on 20 Explosive Hits?

It’s not perfect. There are a couple of “padding” tracks included, and some seem to be a bit dated for a 1971 collection. But it’s still a fond memory to hear these songs, in this sequence. To this day, whenever Mungo Jerry’s lone hit plays on the radio, my mind expects to next hear Edison Lighthouse.

Sort of a one-hit wonder call-and-response.

In the case of 20 Explosive Hits, the listening experience was perhaps a bit greater than the sum of the parts. And when you’re 13, that’s exactly what it’s all about.

I have no doubt that my affection for this collection is because it was part of my early adolescent, peak music awareness, radio-dork phase. Which I hope I never outgrow.

And if you were wondering?

Yep. I still have it.

And, in honor and as a dedication to Gina – wherever you are…

Maple and I are going to give it a spin right now.

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