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Music In My Shoes
WPLJ Top 95 Albums of 1980 and Favorite MIMS Episodes of 2025 E111
We count down WPLJ’s Top 95 Albums of 1980 and trace how New York’s buying habits shaped a year when punk, new wave, and classic rock all shared the shelf. Along the way we share radio memories, personal stories, and the surprise winners that still spark debate.
• method behind the WPLJ list based on 1980 retail sales
• late 1979 albums fueling 1980 momentum
• the specials, devo, and new wave’s local footprint
• beatles rarities, mono vs stereo quirks, and Ringo vs no Ringo
• acdc’s slower NYC climb versus global dominance
• skynyrd, southern rock, and metro buying habits
• the police’s twin-album push and singalong hooks
• top 20 highlights from springsteen to the kinks
• top 10 breakdown and why billy joel tops new york
• our 2025 most listened episodes and interview standouts
• listener geography, community notes, and gratitude
Learn Something New or
Remember Something Old
Please like and follow the Music in My Shoes Facebook and Instagram pages
Reach out to us at musicinmyshoes@gmail.com
Hey everybody, this is Jim Boj, and you're listening to Music in My Shoes. That was Vic Thrill kicking off episode 111. As always, I'm thrilled to be here with you. Let's learn something new or remember something old. Jimmy, I've mentioned WPLJ 95.5 FM, a former New York City radio station, you know, several times throughout the year, including back in April, you know, talked about it being uh a period of time where I discovered a bunch of bands, mostly some of the, you know, older bands from the 60s and the 70s. So they're new bands to me, or learning about deeper cuts and so forth, you know, just really exploring and advancing, you know, what I was listening to. And it was a really cool time for me, it really was. And then in July, if you remember, I found an hour of WPLJ on the internet where I listened to it and I talked about it. Uh, Carol Miller was the DJ, and it just was really cool listening to it because it had the commercials and you just felt like you went back. So, you know, it was definitely great looking back and reminiscing throughout that. So I thought on today's episode, we're gonna take a look back at the WPLJ top 95 albums of 1980. Rankings are based on retail sales of rock albums in the New York metropolitan area.
SPEAKER_02:So, okay. So it's only in the New York metropolitan area.
SPEAKER_01:Yes. All right. So it includes records from 1979 that were still getting airplay in 1980, we're still selling. So it's a kind of a I think it's a cool, you know, cutout of what was going on in 1980. So, like I said, this is not something where someone's looking back saying these are the top albums of 1980. This is based on sales in 1980. This was released. You know, I I don't remember when I got the list. I think I probably got it before the end of the new year, or maybe it was in January. I I don't remember. Okay. But you know, I've had the list for a long time, and it was actually kind of like a um uh a thing. They made it look like brick walls, almost like um, you know, Pink Floyd the Wall.
SPEAKER_02:Okay.
SPEAKER_01:And they would write in each one of these different bricks what uh album number and who uh did it, and every once in a while they'd have a picture of different people, and it was just kind of cool. And here we are 45 years later to talk about it.
SPEAKER_02:Let's get into it.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, let's do it. You know, Jimmy, I say this often, but I'm gonna do my best not to go in depth about each record. Sure you are. I really am gonna try. Number 95, Talking Heads, Fear of Music. This is a 1979 album. Songs like Life During Wartime and Cities. Number 94, Blondie, Eat to the Beat, another 1979 album, Dreaming and Atomic.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Number 91, Roger Daltrey, the McVicker soundtrack. We talked about this. And what you're gonna find is almost every album here we have talked about throughout the year, which is kind of cool because it's in tune with how I was seeing music at the time.
SPEAKER_02:Right.
SPEAKER_01:Number 86, Dire Streets, Making Movies, Skate Away, and Espresso Love, really good album. Number 80, The Specials, their debut album, Monkey Man and A Message to You, Rudy.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Now, WPLJ wasn't playing that that I can remember. I honestly do not remember. They were a rock station, so they weren't playing a lot of the specials. But this list, one more time, is compiled by the best-selling retail in the New York metropolitan area. So whether they played it or not, it's on this list.
SPEAKER_02:Was LIR playing the specials back then?
SPEAKER_01:So LIR was not the station that it became in '82, but they did play a lot of New Wave and different stuff. They were kind of all over the place. They could be playing a new wave song. You know, they really were all over the gamut when you you look at it. I can't tell you that they were playing that or not.
SPEAKER_02:Somebody must have been playing it, though.
SPEAKER_01:Somebody was, because it is number 80 on the list. Number 77, Molly Hatchet, Flirtin' with Disaster.
SPEAKER_02:Wow, a little southern rock up there in NYC.
SPEAKER_01:Yes, a little. Man, I'll tell you what, that was a great song. When it came on, that whole beginning, it was a lot of fun to listen to. It really was. Number 76, The Ramones, End of the Century, with Do You Remember Rock and Roll Radio, which was my favorite song. I know that you like the whole album. Um, number 73, the Blues Brothers soundtrack, Gimme Some Lovin', Everybody Needs Somebody to Love, and Cab Callaway doing Minnie the Brother Bruce. Minnie the Mooch. So, true story: I go Christmas shopping with my daughter last night, and we're driving, and I just have my phone on shuffle, and Cab Callaway, Minnie the Mooch, from the Blues Brothers soundtrack, comes on. And at some point, she goes, This might be the worst song I have ever heard in my life. And I'm like, There's no way this is Cab Callaway. It's so good. And she starts giving her impression of the song, and I thought she was Scat Man Cruthers or something. Okay. It was just so funny. And I'm like, hey, just so you know, I'm gonna mention you tomorrow because I'm gonna talk about the song. And she was just like, anything, just so we can listen to a different song.
SPEAKER_02:Wow. I was just thinking that I might try doing many the moocher in my solo set that I do. Really? Yeah, I think it'd be a fun song.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Hidey, hidey, hidey.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I got a little audience participation.
SPEAKER_01:Everybody knows it, right? Yeah. Yeah, I don't know what was wrong with my daughter. The worst song ever.
SPEAKER_02:Never. Different people hear things different ways. You know, uh my daughter really doesn't like the song Freefallen. Like, what are you talking about? That's the classic. Yeah. Really? Yeah. You know, she likes a lot of great music, but that's one that she doesn't like.
SPEAKER_01:And my daughter loves a lot of great music too. I mean, she was on the show at one point. She does love a lot of great music. Just Minnie the Moocher isn't one of them. Yeah. 72 Journey Departure. I'm not a huge Journey fan, but any way you want it, I really do like that song. Great song.
SPEAKER_02:It's a really good song. I mean, as uh, you know, Al Chervik said in Caddyshack. So let's boogie. Jim's at a loss for words.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, sometimes, Jimmy, you just crack me up. Let's do it. Let's do it. So, number 70, Beatles Rarities. So before the anthology series came out in 1995, 1996, this was a pretty cool record. And it was just a bunch of songs that some of it was it was mono and you would only heard the stereo version. But some of it was Love Me Do, which had Ringo Starr on drums because the original one released had a session drummer, Alan White. So this was the first time that you actually got to hear Ringo playing Love Me Do. Which is funny because they fired Pete Best in 1962 because he doesn't fit what they want, and then they do the record Love Me Do, and the drummer that they got, they end up using a session drummer instead.
SPEAKER_02:Maybe they didn't feel like they had the clout to tell the record people, like, no, we're gonna use our drummer, you know?
SPEAKER_01:It could be. They had no clout at the time. You're right about that.
SPEAKER_02:They were probably just told them, no, our session drummer plays. That's what the way we do it.
SPEAKER_01:The original, original version of Love Me Do with Pete Best on the drums was released on Anthology One. So if you want to hear that one, you can go to that. But it had uh I Am the Walrus, which has some extra beats in it. And it's funny because when you hear it, you go to sing and the words haven't started yet. So it's it's kind of neat. Helter Skelter. Now I'm not a hundred percent sure, but I remember the version of Helter Skelter, they put it on because it has some like beeps in different parts of the song where it's like that they never knew where they came from. And at the end, it does not have Ringo Star yelling out, I've got blisters on my fingers, like he does in the version that we all know when he threw the drumsticks across the studio. Yeah. Number 66, Farner, Head Games, with the 1980 hit Head Games. 64, Split Ends, the True Colors album with I Got You. Number 61, Eagles Live. The album was released November 7th, 1980. So it it sold a lot of albums in a really short period of time to make it to number 61. Do you understand what I'm saying? Yeah. I mean, that's pretty cool that it could do that. Hotel California is fantastic. It's the first song on the album. Uh, I think The Long Run is a good version there. I definitely like it. I like that live album. Number 60, Steely Dan, Gaucho with Hey 19. Number 59, Pat Benatar in the Heat of the Night album with Heartbreaker. Number 58, The Talking Heads make their second appearance on the list with Remainin' Light, Once in a Lifetime, and Cross Eyed and Painless. Number 57, John Lennon, Double Fantasy album, Just Like Starting Over and Watching the Wheels. 55, Joe Jackson on the Man with On Your Radio, kind of cute. 53, Utopia, Adventures in Utopia, The Road to Utopia song, as well as Caravan. Number 52, The Doors Greatest Hits. We talked about this not too long ago. This came out and just kind of really got a ton of people back into the doors after, you know, a period of you know nine years since Jim Morrison had died. I talked about how PLJ played some stuff in April that really kind of got my interest going. But this had Hello, I Love You, Light My Fire, Riders on the Storm. Number 51, yes, the drama album with a song that has no words, Tempest Fugit. Number 50, Leonard Skinnerd. Leonard Skinnard, Golden Platinum, Greatest Hits, Double Alb. What's Your Name? Sweet Home Alabama, Free Bird Live, and I Know a Little. Everybody had this album. That's another one of those albums that everybody seemed to have.
SPEAKER_02:I had no idea that New York area loved Leonard Skinnard.
SPEAKER_01:Big, big. What's your name was like on the radio, like nonstop. And you know, and of course Freebird Live, but What's Your Name was always on.
SPEAKER_02:I mean, and you know where Freebird Live was recorded, right?
SPEAKER_01:The Fox Theater here in Atlanta GA.
SPEAKER_02:Play it pretty for Atlanta.
SPEAKER_01:Yes. We'll talk about that uh in the new year because it'll be 50 years since they recorded it there. I'm gonna go with June or July of 1976 is when they recorded it. Okay. That's my guess. We'll see on a future episode of Music in My Shoes. All right. Teaser. Teaser. Number 48, the police, Regatta DeBlanc with Message in a Bottle, Walking on the Moon, The Bed's Too Big Without You. That's another 1979 album. 47, Peter Gabriel, the melt album, because you know, Peter Gabriel named a bunch of albums Peter Gabriel. And then each one had something about the cover that you would say, you know, Peter Gabriel 2, or you know, this was Peter Gabriel III with the melt because his face was melting. It's got I Don't Remember, Games Without Frontiers. Number 46, David Bowie, the Scary Monsters and Super Creeps album, which has Ashes to Ashes, Fashion. And number 42, Devo, Freedom of Choice, Girl You Want, Whip It, Freedom of Choice.
SPEAKER_02:Good stuff.
SPEAKER_01:Last night I put Whip It on. I haven't listened to Whippet in a really long time. And I put it on and I just took myself back to this time in 1980 because it was a you know late summer, fall type of song. And I just had these memories. I could remember different things, you know, that I was doing, different events when the song was on, and just different things, and it was just a cool memory. It really was.
SPEAKER_02:They didn't think it was going to be a hit either.
SPEAKER_01:They were wrong. They were wrong because I mean this is the number 42 selling album, and it's all because of that one song. I mean, Girl You Want is a great song. I really like it. Freedom of Choice is my favorite Devo song.
SPEAKER_02:Gates of Steel, I love too.
SPEAKER_01:Gates of Steel, but Whip It is what sold the album. It is. Number 39, Jefferson Starship. So this is the Freedom at Point Zero album. And it's the first album after Grace Slick and Marty Balin left the band and Mickey Thomas took on the vocals, and the big hit off of it was Jane.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:There you go. I know you like that song, Jimmy. I do.
SPEAKER_02:It's great.
SPEAKER_01:Number 37, Rush, Permanent Waves, The Spirit of Radio, Free Will. Number 34, Rossington Collins Band. I don't think we mentioned them. I really liked the Rossington Collins band, and I had the cassette of anytime, anyplace, anywhere. And the band had four members of Leonard Skinnard. And they formed after the plane crash and took a few members of the band away. They formed this, and I thought it was kind of cool. They had a female singer that joined them. Don't Misunderstand Me was probably the biggest song they had, but this other song, Primetime, got a lot of radio airplay as well. Number 33, The Clash, London Calling, which was played on WPLJ. Okay. Train in Vain, Guns of Brixton, London Calling. I mean, you could probably name every song because it's a great song. This is one of the greatest double albums of all time.
SPEAKER_02:I agree.
SPEAKER_01:Number 32, another police album with Zinyana Mandata. Don't stand so close to me, driven to tears, and only the police could do this. You know, first they have Zenyana Mandata, Regatta de Blanc, you know, all the names of the albums. But they have a song, Da do do do, da da-da-da. I mean, but we were singing along with it. We loved it. Number 31, Neil Young and Crazy Horse, Live Rust, Sugar Mountain, Cinnamon Girl, Like a Hurricane, Hey, Hey, My. Definitely one of the best live albums. Number 30, the B-52s, Wild Planet, Party Out of Bounds, Private Idaho. Number 29, Fleetwood Mac with Tusk. Over and over, Sarah, Tusk. 28, ACDC, Back in Black. So this kind of surprises me because this album came out, I believe, in July of 1980. And it was only the 28th best selling album in the New York metropolitan area in 1980. Yet it is, you know, one of the biggest selling albums in the world of all time.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, it just kept on selling, I guess.
SPEAKER_01:It kept on selling. It was that good that people kept buying it constantly. It just never went away. But it's got Hells Bells Back and Black, You Shook Me All Night Long. Number 26, Grateful Dead, Go to Heaven, Alabama Getaway, Althea, Feel Like a Stranger. Althea was a song that John Mayer first heard that made him get into the Grateful Dead and made him start to discover. And he does a great version whenever Dead and Company play of Althea. Number 25, The Car's Panorama, Touch and Go, Gimme Some Slack, Don't Tell Me No. Number 24, Led Zeppelin In Through the Outdoor, All O My Love, Hot Dog, Fool in the Rain, another 1979 album. And, you know, one of the reasons that I'm I'm saying some of the songs is hopefully, you know, as people listen, they could say, Oh, yeah, I remember that album. You know, I need to listen to that again and mention some of the songs. So if you've never heard it, you could pick out some songs to listen to and see what you think of the album.
SPEAKER_02:Yep.
SPEAKER_01:Number 23, Van Halen, Women and Children First. And the Cradle Will Rock. Everybody wants some. Two really good songs there. Number 22, Genesis with the Duke album, Turn It On Again, Misunderstanding. Not a big Genesis fan, but I really do like those two songs. Number 20, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street band with The River and Hungry Heart at the time was like it was, I think it was played every seven minutes. It just seemed to be on the radio all of the time. Number 19, Paul McCartney, Paul McCartney 2. This one really surprises me. I gotta be honest with you, because I don't think it's that good. I've talked about it before on the show, and that it's number 19 on the top selling albums. I mean, it's retail sales. People are buying it. It doesn't mean anything as far as airplay, but people are investing their money for really one song coming up, but the good version of coming up was on the backside of the 45, which wasn't even on here.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, and that's not a good enough song to warrant like an album being number 19 for the year. Correct.
SPEAKER_01:I agree with you. 100%. Just really surprises me. Number 18, The Kinks, one for the road, the live album, one of my favorite five, in the top five, as a matter of fact. Lola, Celluloid Heroes, You Really Got Me. Number 17, Squeeze, R. G. Bargie, Pulling Muscles from a Shell, if I didn't love you. 16, Jay Giles band, Love Stinks would come back in the song Love Stinks. Number 15, Pat Benatar's second album on the list, Crimes of Passion. You better run, hit me with your best shot, treat me right. Pat Benatar had a good little run there where she had a bunch of songs and she was all over the radio. Pete Townsend is in that number 12 with Empty Glass, Rough Boys, Let My Love Open the Door, and Gonna Get You. Number 10, Eagles, The Long Run, their second album on the list, Heartache Tonight, The Long Run. Number 9, Jackson Brown, Hold Out. We did not talk about this album, and I really like this album. I got this album, a buddy of mine, Jim. His brother had it and was listening to it, and his brother, Jim, started listening to it, and then he lent it to me. But it's got some good songs.
SPEAKER_02:Down the Boulevard.
SPEAKER_01:Boulevard, Hold On, Hold Out, another song, Hold Out. It's pretty good. Number eight, Rolling Stones, Emotional Rescue, She's So Cold, Summer Romance, Let Me Go. Number seven, Dan Fogelberg, Phoenix, with the song Longer, which was a huge hit, super slow. I think it might have hit number one in like March of 1980. Number six, Pretender's debut album, Brass and Pocket, Precious, The Wait. Number five, Tom Penny and the Heartbreakers. This is another 1979 album. Damn the Torpedoes, Don't Do Me Like That. Refugee, Here Comes My Girl, Even the Losers. Wow. What a great album. Number four, Queen the Game, Crazy Little Thing Called Love. Another one bites the dust. Need your loving tonight. We're down to the final three albums. Number three, Bob Seeger and the Silver Bullet Band, Against the Wind, You'll Accompany Me. Hirschstrut, Betty Lou's, Gettin' Out Tonight. I really like Betty Lou's. I've talked about that before. It wasn't released as a single, but it was one of those songs that was on the radio all the time. I enjoy it. Number two, Pink Floyd The Wall, Another Brick in the Wall, Part Two. Comfortably Numb. Hey You, Nobody's Home. And the number one record on the WPLJ top 95 albums of 1980, as determined by retail sales in the New York metropolitan area, is Billy Joel Glass Houses. No surprise to me whatsoever. You may be right. It's still rock and roll to me. I don't want to be alone. All for Lena. If they had done that in like California or Florida or Chicago. Yes. You can pick different bands that you would think would Billy Joel in New York, that would definitely be number one for sure. But that was a lot of fun going over that. I had made a decision in March, so nine months ago, that I was going to do the last episode and we were going to include that there.
SPEAKER_02:That was fun.
SPEAKER_01:That was fun.
SPEAKER_02:I think the 96 rock charts in Atlanta probably would have had uh flirting with disaster, you know, Molly Hatchet near the top, and Skinnard near the top.
SPEAKER_01:They could have taken all 10 spots. Maybe. With just the two albums. Hey, it was good looking back at 45 years for sure. Let's look back at the top 10 episodes of Music in My Shoes from 2025 based on the amount of listens per episode. So number 10, episode 88, July 1980, WPLJ, The Kinks, and the Gopher Dance. We just talked about that. You know, I found the recording, Carol Miller, we listened to that. We talked about the Kinks Live album, One for the Road, and the B-52s in Atlanta, 1990. Number 9, episode 80, Billboard Hits of June 80, Take Me to Funky Town. And we look back at Billboard Hot 100 charts from June 1980, Frank Sinatra's theme from New York, New York, Mount St. Helens May 1980 eruption. I enjoyed talking about that. I really did. I know it's not about music, but it was something at that time that was just this big event. And we talked about a couple of photographers who took pictures that ended up dying because they were too close. Yeah. But we got their photos that could help us see what was actually happening very close to the whole eruption. And I I really enjoyed that episode. Also, because Virginia Highland Porch Fest with our own Jimmy playing with the Concord Grapes was a highlight of the show for me as well. Nice. Yes. Do you remember that, Jimmy? Of course. Okay. It was a good time. Good time. Good, good time, good time. Number eight, episode 103, Monty A. Melnick, Ramones Tour Manager interview. He talked about his book On the Road with the Ramones, Joey, Johnny, DD, and Tommy, you know, the original Ramones from the beginning. You know, a great look at what it was to be the tour manager and kind of what he went through. I just felt like you were a fly on the wall hearing everything he had to say. I thought it was a good one.
SPEAKER_02:We could have talked to him all day.
SPEAKER_01:I think we could have. I really do. I think that he is just full of so much knowledge. And it wasn't just about with the Ramones when he was talking about bands that he saw. He saw some pretty cool bands, bands that he was in. Yeah. I mean, it was just all over the place. It was just really cool. Really was. Number seven, episode 81, The Goonies, a Psychedelic Rolls, and Woolly Bully. So we talked about John Lennon's psychedelic painted Rolls-Royce, the 40th anniversary of the Goonies, that at this point Jimmy had never seen the movie.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And we talked about Woolly Bully because uh I always like a good Sam the Sham and the Pharaoh song that you can struggle trying to figure out what the words are. Number six, episode 91, The Beatles Help, and live in Atlanta, 1965. Beatles film Help, we talked about that in the album soundtrack. We had Lucy Sermon who joined us and shared her experience of seeing the Beatles at Atlanta Stadium here in Atlanta in August 1965. Was a fantastic guest. So many people reached out, like, where did you find her? How did you get her on the show? People really enjoyed listening to her. You know, I think people enjoy hearing, you know, the famous people that we have on that tell their story, but people really dug her story because they wish that they could have been that fan that was at the show. And what was it like? And she told a really good story and was full of details and was it was a great time. I enjoyed it. Number five, episode 102, chatting with Johnny Hickman of Cracker. It was awesome having Johnny Hickman on. I thought it came across that he really wanted to be on the show, and you know, talking about Cracker, talking about solo stuff. And he almost, you didn't have to almost give him any questions. He was just talking away about everything, and I thought that was really cool. He broke the news that Cracker would play the Golden Age album in its entirety at camping in Athens in March 2026, which was interesting because right after he was on the show, then all of a sudden it started to get posted all over the internet. Oh, we got the scoop. We had the scoop there. It was great. Number four, number 68, conversation with Lenny Kay and Kevin Kinney. When Kevin Kinney confirmed the night before that he was going to bring Lenny Kay, guitarist from the Patty Smith group, an author, a producer, I was like a kid in a candy shop. He reached out to me from the airport picking up Lenny Kay. And, you know, if you remember the next day, Jimmy, I think I was like, look, there's Kevin and Lenny walking down the driveway together, and I was just like, this nervousness, you know, that I had. You know, we talked about CBGB, we talked about the 50th anniversary of the horses album. And to have someone that is really not just a rock musician, but an author, and really is someone that knows so much about music. It was great. I mean, he could talk about anything. That's another person you could probably have on and talk forever and forever. Absolutely. And then later that night I got to see Lenny, Kevin, and Peter Buck play together at Eddie's Addict. It doesn't get better than that. What a day.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Number three, episode 65, Vision Quest and Vineyard Vibes. This was the 40th anniversary of the movie Vision Quest, reviewing Kevin Kinney and Peter Buck's performance at Buckley Vineyards in LJ, Georgia, and the 55th anniversary of the Doors Morrison Hotel album. Number two, episode 70, REM Reunion and Cracker Camping, when Michael Shannon and Jason Nardousi played at 40 watt club in Athens GA, and Michael Stite, Peter Buck, Mike Mills, Bill Berry reunited to play one song, Pretty Persuasion. And we talked about Cracker's Camping 11 at the 40 watt, also, which was all within, you know, roughly 10 days or so of each a lot going on in Athens. It was just a fun time, it really was. Number one, episode 105. Kevin Kinney and Anna Jensen, her living tribute to the art of his sound. This is a fantastic episode. Anna tells a story of how she put together a tribute, you know, to him, four albums, you know, to Kevin Kinney, her husband, and doing something while he's alive as compared to so many tributes that happen when, you know, once somebody's gone. The Let's Go Dancing series has so many cool musicians that are a part of it. We did the signed album giveaway where they signed a bunch of the albums and a bunch of people got to win, you know, these albums that we sent out. And you know, one guy actually posted on Facebook the signed albums holding all four of them, and it was cool, you know. You like to see things like that. This is already our ninth most listened to episode of all time. That's how many people are listening to this that quickly on something that got released November 16th. Oh, yeah. I remember because that's my birthday. So, you know, if you look at it, most of the the top ten are interviews, but there's a lot of of common denominators, whether it is something with Kevin Kinney or Driving and Crying or R.E.M. or Cracker, you know, it's that seems to be things that people tend to listen to a lot.
SPEAKER_02:Well, you asked me to make a list of my favorite episodes of the year, and I did. I made a list of six episodes, and you just mentioned five of them. So I had no idea what the most popular episodes were, but five of my top six were in that top ten. My other one that I had on my list is episode 87, uh Live Aid episode.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. You know, Jimmy, the live aid episode I was really looking forward to doing. It kind of was like in in 2024, we did the um 10 days in August 1969 episode. And that episode, I did that, it's really, you know, not that it's not for people to listen to, but I did it because it was important to me. And that kind of was the way the live aid episode was. Right. You know, hitting on different things about it, talking about different things, sharing different things about it. It kind of was like this, if you want to know about live aid, boom, you can listen to this. Or if you want to know what was life like in August 1969 across the world, you can listen to that particular episode. So that is actually one of my personal favorites as well. Uh, number 61, the cabbage patch dolls keep falling on my head, where I talked about working at a place where we did the birth certificates for the cabbage patch dolls. And we also talked about uh raindrops keep falling on my head from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. And episode 77, I should have known better, Glass Houses and Damaged Goods. We talked about when I wrote the uh letter to the radio station and gave them like$3 or$5 if they would play this Beatles song so I could get a girl to listen to it and realize that I liked her. I was, you know, in eighth grade, I think it was. So those are some of my personal favorites. Music in my shoes has been listened to on six continents. Since the show began, North America is 89% of our audience. If you go back a year, North America was like 98% of the audience. Europe makes up six percent, Asia is three percent, South America, Africa, and the Oceania makes up the remaining two percent. The top five countries Music in My Shoes is listened to, and there's 76 countries that listen or have listened to Music in My Shoes at one point or another. Number one, the US. Number two, Singapore.
SPEAKER_02:Amazing.
SPEAKER_01:Number three is United Kingdom, so that includes England and includes Scotland, Wales, where else, Jimmy? Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland, correct. Number four, Germany, number five, Sweden. And listeners in Frankfurt, Germany are number ten when you look at the cities the most listened to, number ten is Frankfurt, Germany, which I just think is absolutely fantastic. You know, we've talked about German listeners basically since the beginning of the show. We have. And we continue to talk about them. We appreciate it. We definitely do, without a doubt. We appreciate everyone that listens to the show. And you know, it means a lot when I see things on Facebook and people get engaged, and when people send us emails or, you know, message us, whatever it is, you know, it's great to know that people are listening and people are engaged. So if you want, you can reach out to us at musicinmyshoes at gmail.com. Please like and follow the Music in My Shoes Facebook and Instagram pages. I've really enjoyed the show this year. 1975, you know, young Jim we talked about and music. Uh talking about 1980, my music coming of age year, 1985, a lot of good music and my first jobs, 1990, moving from New York to Georgia and listening to new bands, southern bands that I had not heard of before. And just sharing some personal stories that explains why the show is called Music in My Shoes. And it's been a lot of fun. It really, really has. You know, we all live life to a beat, and these beats are music in my shoes. And I don't think I could explain it any better what it's all about. Looking back on, you know, five-year increments based on what the particular year is now, this year being 2025. So whether we talked about 70 or 75 or 80 or 85 or whatever, that's really what it comes down to. And it's been fun. I always appreciate everything, Jimmy. It is the end of the year show for us. Thank you so much for being part of Music in My Shoes because it would not be what it is without you.
SPEAKER_02:Thank you. Thanks for making me part of it.
SPEAKER_01:You are welcome. Thank you. And thank you to everybody that listens because it is great that people want to hear my stories after all this time that I never thought anyone would want to listen to. But it definitely brings a smile to my face and makes it a lot of fun to come each week and broadcast, not broadcast, to podcast to you, and not just to you right here in Atlanta, not just to people in Georgia, but people throughout the United States as well as the whole world. We are podcasting worldwide. Hey, that's it for episode 111 of Music in My Shoes. I'd like to thank Jimmy Guthrie, show producer and owner of Arcade 160 Studios, located right here in Atlanta, Georgia, and Vic Thrill for our podcast music. This is Jim Boj, and I hope you learned something new or remembered something old. We'll meet again on our next episode. Until then, live life and keep the music playing.
