It was the final pop-up fill-in for The Allison Transmission, which will be thankfully returning to its regular 10 a.m. slot on Monday. And we had a lot of birthdays to cover, from Louis Armstrong, born this day in 1901, to Frankie Ford (1939) and Timi Yuro (1940).
We had a handful of familiar examples of the work on piano (and sometimes bass) by Wrecking Crew ace Larry Knechtel, also born this day in 1940. And a couple of campaign endorsements for Barack Obama, born this day in 1961.
The 44th president of the United States also unwittingly programmed much of the rest of the show, too, with the choicest selections from his 2023 Summer Playlist, making the never-indicted former leader of the free world also the best guest DJ ever.
Closed with a 40th birthday salute to Greta Gerwig, whose latest film is likely to top $1 billion in ticket sales this weekend. Our “Barbie” song is not from her soundtrack, though, but from a 1961 pre-Beach Boys group called Kenny & the Cadets (and hence closer in vintage to the original toy).
Here’s a link to the whole show; the setlist follows: