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May 29, 2026 —– Chart #352 Hello music friends, Welcome back to another edition of Chart of the Week. This week’s song has one of the most recognizable opening vocal lines in all of popular music. You hear that high falsetto introduction and instantly know exactly what’s coming next. Today’s feature is “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” by The Tokens. It sounds lighthearted and simple on the surface—but the story behind this song stretches across continents,… Read more: THE LION SLEEPS TONIGHT

May 22, 2026 —– Chart #351 Hello music friends, Welcome back to another edition of Chart of the Week. This week we’re heading back to 1967 and one of the most instantly recognizable pop songs of the entire decade. From the very first note, you know exactly what’s coming—and there’s a good chance you start smiling before the first verse even begins. Today’s feature is “Happy Together” by The Turtles. It’s bright, clever, perfectly arranged,… Read more: HAPPY TOGETHER

May 15, 2026 —– Chart #350 Hello music friends, Welcome back to another edition of Chart of the Week. This week’s song might be the only hit record in country music history that proudly announces itself as the perfect country and western song—and then proves it before your very ears. Today’s feature is “You Never Even Called Me By My Name” by David Allan Coe. It’s funny, it’s clever, it’s self-aware, and somewhere along the… Read more: YOU NEVER EVEN CALLED ME BY MY NAME

May 8, 2026 —– Chart #349 Hello music friends, Welcome back to another edition of Chart of the Week. This week we return to one of my longtime favorite bands, The Moody Blues—but not the orchestral late-’60s Moody Blues we usually think about. Instead, we’re visiting their successful and very polished 1980s comeback period. Today’s feature is “Your Wildest Dreams.” If you listened to the radio in the mid-1980s, you heard this one everywhere. And… Read more: YOUR WILDEST DREAMS

May 1, 2026 —– Chart #348 Hello music friends, Welcome back to another edition of Chart of the Week. This week we’re stepping into the remarkable middle period of The Beatles—right at the point where they were beginning to stretch beyond pop stardom and into something deeper, more thoughtful, and more adventurous. Today’s feature is “Nowhere Man.” It’s one of the first Beatles songs that wasn’t about romance, heartbreak, or holding hands. Instead, it was… Read more: NOWHERE MAN

April 24, 2026 —– Chart #347 Hello music friends, Welcome back to another edition of Chart of the Week. This week’s song is one of those rare cases where a tune gets recorded more than once… and then suddenly, years later, somebody records it again and the whole world stops what it’s doing and listens. Today’s feature is “Tennessee Whiskey” by Chris Stapleton. And if you heard this performance for the first time the same… Read more: TENNESSEE WHISKEY

April 17, 2026 —– Chart #346 Hello music friends, Welcome back to another edition of Chart of the Week. This week we’re stepping into that unmistakable early-1970s Moody Blues sound—part rock band, part orchestra, part philosophy class that somehow still swings. Today’s feature is “The Story in Your Eyes” by The Moody Blues, one of the band’s most energetic tracks and one of the few Moody Blues songs that comes right out of the speakers… Read more: THE STORY IN YOUR EYES

April 10, 2026 —– Chart #345 Hello music friends, Welcome back to another edition of Chart of the Week. This week we’re heading straight into early-1980s heartland rock—back when John Mellencamp was still billed as John Cougar, and radio was full of songs that sounded like they were written in parking lots after midnight. Today’s feature is “Ain’t Even Done with the Night.” It’s young, restless, hopeful, and just uncertain enough to feel real—which is… Read more: AIN’T EVEN DONE WITH THE NIGHT

April 3, 2026      —–     Chart #344 Hello music friends, welcome back to another edition of Chart of the Week. This week we’re heading to a place that exists somewhere between a beach bar, a daydream, and that moment at 4:47 on a Wednesday when you realize your inbox is not a lifestyle—it’s a hostage situation. The song is “Down at the Lah De Dah” by Jimmy Buffett. And if you’ve ever needed a musical escape… Read more: DOWN AT THE LAH DE DAH

March 27, 2026      —–     Chart #343 Hello Music Friends, Hey folks, welcome to another edition of Chart of the Week. This week we’re headed to the islands—no passport required, no checked bags, and absolutely no risk of sitting in 27B next to a guy eating tuna out of a Tupperware. Today’s song is “Jamaica Farewell”—made famous by Harry Belafonte, and later done beautifully by Jimmy Buffett and Don Williams. This one is a vacation and… Read more: JAMIACA FAREWELL

March 20, 2026      —–     Chart #342 Hello Music Friends, Welcome back to another edition of Chart of the Week. This week we’re waving the flag, cranking the amp, and taking a joyride through the American jukebox with “R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A. (A Salute to 60’s Rock)” by John Mellencamp. This song is basically a three-and-a-half-minute history lesson that somehow never feels like homework. It’s loud, proud, and built like a pickup truck: not aerodynamic, not… Read more: R.O.C.K. IN THE USA

March 13, 2026      —–     Chart #341 Hello music friends, welcome back to another edition of Chart of the Week. This week we’re going straight to the heart of 1980s country gold with “Forever and Ever, Amen” by Randy Travis. If you grew up anywhere near a radio dial (or you’ve ever been to a wedding where the DJ owned at least one pair of cowboy boots), you know this song. It’s one of those rare… Read more: FOREVER AND EVER, AMEN

March 6, 2026      —–     Chart #340 Hello music friends—welcome back to another edition of Chart of the Week. Today we’re heading straight into the political tropics with “Banana Republics,” performed by Jimmy Buffett — a song that somehow manages to be funny, smart, and just slightly dangerous… while still sounding like it should be served with a lime wedge. And here’s the twist that makes this one even more fun: Jimmy didn’t write it. “Banana… Read more: BANANA REPUBLICS

February 27, 2026      —–     Chart #339 Hello Music Friends, Welcome back to another edition of Chart of the Week. This week we’re grabbing the acoustic, loosening the shoulders, and heading out on the open road with “Take It Easy” by The Eagles. I’ve played this one a whole bunch of times on stage myself. Now, have I ever sounded as good as the original Eagles? Not even close. Those guys set a bar that’s basically… Read more: TAKE IT EASY

February 20, 2026      —–     Chart #338 Hello Music Friends, Welcome to another edition of Chart of the Week. Today’s selection is “Rocket Man” by Sir Elton John — the tune that somehow manages to be both a stadium sing-along and a quiet, lonely conversation with yourself at 2:00 a.m. It’s spacey without being sci-fi, emotional without being mushy, and it has that rare superpower of making you feel nostalgic for a life you never actually… Read more: ROCKET MAN