The Smithereens Liked Our Version of "Now and Then" So Much They Put It On One of Their Albums!

In '92, The Smithereens were still touring to promote their "Blow Up" album and KOME had been playing "Top of the Pops" and this song, "Now and Then". Pat DiNizio, Jim Babjak, and Dennis Diken did a couple acoustic songs, then the Blazers and I joined them for this one. In 2014, I was very surprised and pleased to find this performance on their "Blow Up - Live and Alternative Versions" album!
This show was recorded for broadcast. They had a show in San Jose so we invited them to join us for a live show first. (Mike Mesaros was unable to attend.). I'll always say that Pat DiNizio was one of the nicest guys, always willing to play for us. In my 40 years of radio experience I can honestly say that The Smithereens are one of the most underrated and underplayed rock bands of all time.
The Blazers: Yet again, Marcus Miller has a tremendous bass line that he plays with ease, filling in for Mesaros. Even though Jim was there, Greg Mullins got to rip the lead solos in this one. Jim smiles the entire time Greg is playing HIS lead. To the left on background vocals, Dennis Coulter on the congas, Peg Bertsch on tambourine, and me. And thanks to studio sound board pro Pete Roberts.
About the almost comical video panning and zooming...These are videos from the private collection of Greg Mullins. We're glad to be able to look back at these long-lost musical moments, sync them to the broadcast audio, but it's unknown who was operating the camera and why they chose to pan and zoom so much. Better to have than not to have. We were mainly focused on the SOUND of the show.
Special thanks to Ron Nenni and Dave Wohlman, without whom, these shows wouldn't have happened. Thanks to the thousands of listeners who attended these "Live on tape, damn it!" shows.
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This channel is dedicated to my sons, friends, and family who persuaded me to post these music memories.