Hit Parade | Music History and Music Trivia
Hit Parade | Music History and Music Trivia
Slate Podcasts
Hit Parade: Red, Red Wine Edition
39 minutes Posted Apr 27, 2017 at 11:00 pm.
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In this debut episode, Chris Molanphy tells the story of “Red, Red Wine”: a song written in the 1960s by a certain journeyman singer-songwriter who loves a Hot August Night. Improbably, it became a reggae song, before the ’60s were even over—and then, even more improbably,  in the 1980s it was transformed into a lilting, toasting reggae-pop global smash. And it would have been a flop in America if it hadn’t been for an enterprising deejay, who ignored the record labels and picked his own hits. With this song, he even started a two-year fad and a radio mutiny.

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