Hours and hours of Rick Springfield music – with no song repeated. How great is that?
Thanks, Rowdy Ron, for another Saturday Night Springfield Special!
The first one I listened to was in December 2014, which was SEVEN hours of RS music, and there were many songs I hadn’t heard before because I was a little behind in my RS musical catalog.
This year, I was familiar with most of the songs, although there were still a handful that were new to me. Fun stuff, Rowdy Ron!
What was different about this year was that my family was more involved, at least in the earlier hours (it started at 6 p.m. in Arizona). We had promised one of our kids a visit to our family’s favorite Indian food restaurant tonight, which meant about a 20-minute drive so we were listening to the show on Bluetooth in the car. They were amazingly familiar with many of the songs this time around. My 9-year-old recognized “Mr. P.C.” and a few others and when “Light this Party Up” came on, he noted that right as RS sang “you better buckle up” we passed a sign over the freeway that said “Buckle up.”
The kids got a little star excitement of their own in the restaurant – during our meal, they kept looking at a table behind us, saying that two of the people look like two YouTubers on a web show they enjoy. At the end of the meal, the kids were getting restless so I went outside with them and we looked up the YouTubers’ pictures online. I didn’t recognize them at all, but the kids kept saying that they thought it was them. I told them it was OK to go up to them and say excuse me and ask them, but they were all too shy to do it. I kind of assumed they wouldn’t be the YouTubers – after all what was the chance of that? – so I went with them and said “Excuse me, my kids were wondering if you are on YouTube?” (which is probably not even the correct terminology) and sure enough, they were.
They were both so sweet to the kids (who were absolutely THRILLED to meet them and talked about it all night and I’m sure tomorrow and a long time to come). So thank you, Gabriella and Tylor Skory! (It occurred to me afterward that maybe we shouldn’t have interrupted their meal, but it was such a casual atmosphere and the kids were so excited to think that it might be them that I overlooked that fact. Both were so gracious and acted so happy to talk to the kids so I guess it was OK.)
OK, I digress, but I guess it’s relevant in a way because RS is always so kind and gracious to his fans so it fits that this would happen on a Springfield Special evening. It’s in the air.
Other highlights – the grand prize tonight for those who donate to the birthday campaign is the Rick Springfield-Jeff Silverman “From the Vault” CD, which I’ve never heard and is very rare so whoever gets that is super lucky. And it was also cool to hear from Jeff Silverman, who spoke about “The Snake King.” Well, he didn’t divulge too much about it, but just raised the anticipation even more. And as of right now, the birthday campaign is reported at $12,341, with more coming in tonight during the show. Funds are going to the Linda Blair Worldheart Foundation to help rescued dogs. This year the campaign is in memory of RS’s mother Eileen Springthorpe, which is such a nice tribute.
Anyway, the show is almost five hours so far and Rowdy Ron just announced that it will go for six hours and eight minutes in honor or RS turning 68. Oh yay, “Souls,” one of my favorites, just started. I wanted to request it but wasn’t sure if it was played when we were at the restaurant . Whoo-hoo. OK, off to listen to the rest of the show.
My Rick Springfield crush 