As decades end, it's an obvious milestone (or is that millstone?), a time marker demanding a label on the events of the past ten years. While many significant events have shaped the world in the past ten, looking back on the music, it's not really all that different than when the decade began.

Listen for yourself. "The History of Rock...on a Roll" music montage will play twice this week. Tuesday, New Year's Eve, at 5pm Eastern time, and again, Wednesday, New Year's Morning (January, 1, 2020) at 8am, Eastern Time.

What is "The 103.3 KFR History of Rock...on a Roll montage?" It's a montage of all the "hooks" to every song that ever made it to number one, in chronological order, beginning with Bill Haley's Rock Around the Clock" in 1955.

What you'll hear began 30 years ago. We were heading into 1990 and wanted to celebrate the music of the 1980's, which was pretty darn good. So with ancient technology (no, not slabs of stone nor scrolls, but audio tape, grease pencil and razor blades), after about 500 splices, we came up with a 15 minute montage of all the songs to hit #1 on the charts in the 1980's.

Then the following year, I decided to add 1990, and a year after that, 1991. The montage kept growing. But I also knew some very talented people in Los Angeles had done something similar in 1977 as part of an audio documentary. But that montage ended with 1977. What if we took the montage back to the point where it all began, like that one. Digital editing technology made it relatively easy. So, somewhere in the 90's, our little 15  minute montage grew to about 75 minutes. And with the passage of time, now it's up to about 100 minutes. (That's one hour and forty minutes for those of you scoring at home.) Also because of it's length and because humans have bladders, we take breaks along the way to digest and breathe and well, you know.

Here's a link to listen on your computer. (beware popup blockers) and there's a link to the KFR app below. Or if you want to listen on your smart speaker, here's how to set up Alexa.

Enter your number to get our free mobile app

Oh, and a yearly reminder: People over the years have been very kind with compliments, for which I'm truly appreciative. One thing people ask is, how can I get a copy of this. Well, I'm sorry, but we can't make you one. We don't own the copyrights to all the songs. So, while we can play it on the radio, etc., we can't make or distribute copies.

 

 

 

 

More From WKFR