TCB … TBC …

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OK, time to take care of some business, tie up some loose ends.

First, I never revealed the band behind the mystery song I wrote about in October. Here’s a clue: If I tell you, you’re gonna go “a-ha!”

Next, some good news: Rosie O’Donnell’s variety show tanked in the ratings last week, and won’t be picked up as a series! My fears were unfounded.

So were my fears about Sarah Palin. Her schtick didn’t play as well as I thought it would. Are Americans getting smarter?

I still have no explanation for all the references to pandas in my blog.

I still haven’t looked at a copy of the revamped Hartford Courant, and probably never will.

That’s because I’m moving out of state in a couple weeks to take a new job in Baltimore. So I’m putting the blog on pause in the meantime.

I cannot tell you all how much I appreciate your visiting here to read my random ravings, but it has meant so much to me during my “between-jobs” period of 2008. I have the greatest, and smartest, and funniest friends anyone could ever hope for.

During my downtime, you can always check out my sister Joan Beal‘s live blog on facebook. A lot of people told me they loved her posts here, so there’s more where that came from…

I’ll keep you updated on my new life once I get settled, so check back here. I can’t promise I’ll have the time (or the ideas) to keep it as up-to-date, but I’ll try. And please come visit me in Baltimore — the crabs are on me (…maybe I should rephrase that…)

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A SINGLE REGRET

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I CAN’T imagine that kids today will even remember, say 30 years from now, the first single they ever downloaded. It’s just not the same as when I was a kid, when I’d head to Caldor or to Cutler’s in New Haven and hope, hope, hope they’d have copies of that great song I’d just heard on the radio.

I’d scan the singles chart, find the the number of the song I wanted, and peek at the corresponding record slot — would it be filled or empty? It was strangely exhilarating — or maybe I was just a really boring kid. Either way, I loved music, and there was something about this physical hunt for songs that thrilled me. Not to sound like a nostalgic old fart, but it was way better than hitting the search button at iTunes.

So today’s blog entry is the request of a friend and fellow music lover who still collects 45s today (as a former DJ, I know the importance of taking requests.) He suggested a post on the first 45 I ever bought. I think he suggested it at my expense, because he knows it’s a bit embarrassing. But here goes.

First, context: I loved (and still do love) pop music. Second, I grew up in a house with no Beatles albums (although my older sister had “The Chipmunks Sing The Beatles Hits” LP — for years, when I heard actual Beatles songs, I thought they were playing at the wrong speed…) Third, music kinda sucked in the early ’70s, so my choices were limited. Fourth, I was probably 8 years old at the time — long before I learned the difference between cool and uncool music.

OK, enough stalling. The way I remember it, the first 45 I ever bought (the first of hundreds and hundreds I would buy over the next decade) was “Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree” by Tony Orlando & Dawn. (For bonus embarrassment points: I even watched their variety show in the ’70s.)

In my defense, it was the top-selling single in 1973 — someone in my house had to buy it. That May, it sold 3 million copies in just three weeks! And it’s a song that wouldn’t die (its resurgence in later years totally ruined the Iranian hostage crisis and the first Gulf War for me…)

So there ya go. Sad, I know. But c’mon, “Tie A Yellow Ribbon” is still a cooler first single than a download of “Ooops!… I Did It Again,” right? Right?

(Don’t leave me hanging here. Share your story — especially if your first 45 was crappier than mine, like “Billy, Don’t Be A Hero” or “Shannon.”)