This putting out one a month thing might get to be hard. I didn't realise how much time it would take to not only make the CD's, one at a time, plus the covers, one at a time, then the shipping, the handling, writing all of this out...takes at least 5 days a month. Gee that only leaves me 25, 27 days tops to sit around all day and night and watch youtube videos.Plus, not many of you know this, but I actually go the extra step by PLAYING ALL THE INSTRUMENTS AND SINGING ALL THE VOCALS OVER every time for each individual"Not Hits" CD. Do you know how hard it is to painstakingly make every single CD sound exactly the same that way? So every individual CD has a different performance, and yet it's almost an exact replica. HAHAHAHAHA yeah right.NOT HIT NOT EVEN CLOSE #13- Beginning With YouThis is Not Hit #13 because if you've been playing along, Volume 155 has the first twelve not hits on it. See?I wrote this when I was living at Phil Ramone's house back in 1991 I think it was. Stayed there for half a year. Phil's that famous producer that did all those Billy Joel records that could have been me but Billy got to Phil first and besides, he had the clincher: TWO FIRST NAMES. Both of them do. Phil Ramone, Billy Joel. Phil also recorded alot of the Paul Simon Records. Again. Two first names.Anyway, this was originally the END of the record called"October Falling".....I thought if I MOVED IN to Phil's house, how could I NOT HAVE A HIT? Guess what. Not even close.I kind of think of it as a Ringo Starr meets the Partridge Family song. Pretty creepy. Very happy sounding song about killing somebody and starting over :) BEGINNING WITH YOU 1991 Bedford New YorkWell my story's not been toldAnd before I get too oldI believe I should get started beginning with youYou've been bad and you've been goodYou've been so misunderstoodI've done everything I couldBeginning with youYeah I use to take you out and we had so much funWe didn't go to sleep until we saw the sunNow you're the only reason why I bought this gunI'm not gonna stop till I'm the only one.....I've been up and I've been downLately all I do is frownI can turn this life aroundBeginning with youAhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.I use to take you out and we had so much funWe didn't go to sleep until we saw the sunNow you're the only reason why I bought this gunI'm not gonna stop till I'm the only one.....Copyright@RADISONGS1991NOT HIT NOT EVEN CLOSE #14 THINGS JUST AIN'T THE SAME WITHOUT YOUAnd now that our character has apparently killed the girl in the first song? Now he wants her back because he's losing his mind, thinking getting her back would fix that, which it wouldn't.Recorded at what I believe was called SBK publishing at the time. I think previously the S, B and K execs were furniture salesmen or something, it was never reallydetermined completely who they were, why any of us were there, or what was going on.Kind of like everywhere I go nowadays.Anyway, fun with playful lyrics and an old 60ish Zombies type track to date me further and further into a dark black hole oblivion of which that I shall never return.......how cheery :) THINGS JUST AIN'T THE SAME WITHOUT YOUThe mice are talking the sky is soreThe river's filled with glueMmmmmm .....Things just ain't the same without you The bed has risen above the houseThere's nothing I can doMmmmmm ....Things just ain't the same without youThe paper said I was 34 and I died of something newMmmmmm .....Things just ain't the same without youI've seen the mountains alot beforeBut I never knew they flewMmmmmm .....Things just ain't the same without youI think you better come homeDon't leave me here all aloneI can't remember my nameI think your leavin's to blameThings well they just ain't the same....I've heard the animals come and goAll my clothes are at the zooMmmmmm .....Things just ain't the same without youThe lawn was hair for the Eskimo the trees went to PeruMmmmmm .....Things just ain't the same without youI think you better come homeDon't leave me here all aloneI can't remember my nameAnd I think your leavin's to blameThings well they just ain't the same....I tellya things just ain't the same I tellya things just ain't the same I tellya things just things just ain't the same without you.Copyright@1983RadisongsNOT HIT NOT EVEN CLOSE #15 -"Tears" Kind of Steely Danish. Not the kind you eat.Ok Dannish. Those kind of chords.Recorded in West Orange at House Of Music, twisted blues/jazz, hired a drummer, sorry forgot his name, why do I keep thinking Lou something, the rest of the track, bass, drums, rhodes, guitars, vocals, me, me, blah, blah, me. More"I'm miserable because my girlfriend left me" lyrics. I had alot of that back then. How useless. TEARS Radice 1987 Don't look now but I think I'm blueHere comes misery right on cueLookin' through I begin again aloneSummer song in the August heatChildren coolin' off in the streetMe I'm doin' some swimmin' on my own....TearsThey never change a thingThey only make you wish that youCould stop them once they comeAngry words that a man regretsShe'll come back cryin' he's takin' betsNo word yet I am tired and my eyes are sore....Can't speak up and I can't keep trackCan't slow down and I can't step backCan't go on in this emptiness no moreTearsThey never change a thingThey only make you wish that youCould stop them once they comeYearsWandering through the yearsAnd through the tearsThat always showWhen all is sad and done.You stop that cryingLook at what you have done to yourselfFool you're not dyingSave that sorrow for somebody elseTears....Copyright@1987RadisongsNOT HIT NOT EVEN CLOSE #16-"Nine Lives"Another EMI 16 track demo recorded in NYC right within the offices where they had a demo studio...I had Rich Tozzi of"It Sounds Like Us" fame stop by and do Queenlike guitar harmonies one note at a time cuz, well they sound different when you do one note at a time.Try it, I'll wait.Also Rich did some other very nice guitar work,as always....."Nine Lives" actually got COVERED by Jeff Beck's project BOX OF FROGS and was released as a B side to something. Which almost made it almost a hit almost close.You can find it if you google it...Ok you won't that's too hard and would take you 20 whole other seconds, just copy and paste this --- >>> http://www.cduniverse.com/productinfo.asp?pid=6837738&cart=813863003It's the last song on there of 19. And why wouldn't it be.All the girl's names in the song were atone time girlfriends of mine, and yet not all at the same time.I practiced alot.It's like the audio version of that book/movie Sybil, except as always, not as good, since I didn't think of it. Once again, horrible subject matter put to happy rock dance music. NINE LIVES 1982 Back when you were young your motherPut you through alot of thingsAnd said it was for your own goodAnd your Daddy knew that you would never say a wordAbout the times he showed you all that he couldI can't believe it what they put you throughThey really did a number on youYou got 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8, 9 livesYou got 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8, 9 livesI think you're listening when I'm talking to youBut I'm never really sure who I'm talking toYou got nine live, nine lives......Well it's crazy maybe but I really like the wayI always seem to be with somebody newWhat's the difference if you're Nancy Debbie, Donna, Lisa, PeggyBarbara, Linda, Patty or Sue?I didn't stop me when I started to fallI can't help it I'm in love with you allYou got 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8, 9 livesYou got 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8, 9 livesI think you're listening when I'm talking to youBut I'm never really sure who I'm talking toYou got nine lives, nine lives......Copyright@1982RadisongsNOT HIT NOT EVEN CLOSE #17 OCTOBER FALLINGOnce in a while I was blessed with a gem. I don't know where these things use to come from, but they passed through my soul and I was lucky enough to capture them for all to hear forever. Deep, huh? This was one of those. Sometimes I got lucky :)Usually they came from some sort of dispair,disappointment, or fear. These songs were my therapy. I remember I had just been diagnosed with Lyme disease about a month earlier, at a time when nobody really knew what it was and I thought I might die from it....so all the references in the song about the leaves being brilliant on"the very day they die" I was saddened that although my music may not have been BRILLIANT I was sadly laughing at the irony of how my most prolific, colorful if you will, time in my entire life might also but cut short just like the leaves.....and October, the fall of the leaves, and December, the end of the year, the end of Life, calling me...."somebody's hand, I was sure that it was yours"...am I singing to my creator? OCTOBER FALLING 1993Summer's over and the trees are fullHovering out my windowAny minute now the wind will blowAnd the leaves will start to flyHolding on for the longest timeTill they can't hold on any longerAin't it funny how they're at their most brilliantOn the very day they dieHad a dream about tomorrow in my bed last nightI was lost inside a tunnel but I saw some lightOn the wall there was a shadow of somebody's handI was sure that it was yoursI can feel October FallingOne more door must closeI can hear December callingSweet love comes and goes....Don't know what it is that gives us strengthWhy do we still keep moving?Every vision lying on the lawnHad a reason left to shineI was walking through the city of the broken sailsAnd I smiled at how the change of seasons never failsWhen I turned around and headed back to rest againI was sure that it was time....I can feel October FallingOne more door must closeI can hear December callingSweet love comes and goes....Copyright@1993RadisongsNOT HIT NOT EVEN CLOSE #18 ONE GOOD LOOK IN THE MIRROR In this 1987 House Of Music recording, done the same week as"Tears", hints of my soon to be emerging Country singer alter ego LUKE WARM can easily be heard."Luke" would go on to write another 4 CD's worth of pretty much pure country stuff, of which none I have yet to really put together yet in one batch....but"Let's Do It Again But Different" from"Stay Tuned" as well as"Why Did You Leave Me Number One Song" from Volume 155 are indications that I could not keep this cowboy down. Song gives me a chance to show off my twangy sounding country guitar solo style, which unfortunately to me sounded that way no matter WHAT type of style I was trying to pull off. ONE GOOD LOOK IN THE MIRROR 1983Tell me do ya really love herDo you think the whole world of herThen why do you go runnin from her When your heart is on the line?You don't have the courage do yaThe energy is rushin' through yaI gotta get a message to yaThat you're runnng out of timeOne Good Look In The MirrorOne good look and you'll see where the problem liesWhy do you fear herYou gotta tell her what is on your mindOne Good Look In The MirrorOne good look and you'll see through your own disguiseIt'll get clearerWhen you can see it with your own eyes.....Try to make her understandTell her that your heart is hers andMaybe you will be her new manIf you wait a little while....Copyright 1983@RadisongsNOT HIT NOT EVEN CLOSE #19 - WILD LOVEAh, the old Lynn Drum Machine. Had big black squares on it you could tap in snare foot hat beat loops of which oh just everyone did back then and it was all the rage and now? Everybody that used it's records all are dated mainlybecause of that stupid sounding freakin' machine. Except"Rebel Yell" by Billy Idol still sounds amazing in spite of this rhythmical handicap.Lyrics be me and Rich Tozzi. One of those nights I had half a song done needs words why don't I pace the floor for 9 hours and drink a case of beer and by the time the floor's covered in crumpled paper in a time longlong ago when we use to write lyrics that way cuz there wuz no sucha thang az a computer, we would have lyrics.Recorded at Rich's studio"Sanctuary" in Caldwell now gone....he's also all the guitars on this, includingthe guitar solo that dates this to"Owner Of A Lonely Heart" by Yes. Like sound? Let's steal it.Queen must have come out with"Another One Bites The Dust" also around this time cause where else could I have ripped off the track structure practically verbatum even down to the backwards piano. An experiment in minimalistic rockology. WILD LOVE High heels movin' through the shadowsThey're bound to hynotizeIt's alright nothing else mattersWhen the fire that's burnin' deep inSide criesWild Love Thunder and LightningWild Love like the storm in the nightWild Love when it's late in the evenin'And we feel wild love and we know thatIt's right it's wild.Black lace slidin' like a pantherAlways hungry for moreHold tight this is what we're afterFrom what's left of our soulsWe'll do it all forWild Love Thunder and LightningWild Love like the storm in the nightWild Love when it's late in the evenin'And we feel wild love and we know thatIt's right it's wild.@Copyright1987Radisongs/Rocket Rish-arrrdNOT HIT NOT EVEN CLOSE #20 - SUNSHINE A birthday song for my sister Laurie, who's nickname is"Sunshine"....I always refer to her as"my sister, you know, looks like me alot but younger, female, and way better looking." I recorded this when CBS had a four track cassette player in a room about the size of a very large...hamper. Same room I wrote"Information" in, which eventually became the title track to Dave Edmunds record called....I forget.The room was down the hall from the CBS Publishing offices where people were pretending to work, had a drum machine made by Fischer-Price, an out of tune spinet piano and a Fender Rhodes. I brought in a bass and knocked this out one afternoon on her birthday, the song itself is now 26. So I might write a happy birthday song to the song in four years. Love ya Sunshine :) SUNSHINE Mark Radice 1982My look at you now well on your way I gotta love itFor you Life is a breeze...you know the artSo go conquer the World....don't be afraidYou're high above itBut please keep a place for me there in your heartYou won't believe a word I sayYou'll tell me that I'm a fool to talk this wayI'm only doin' what I can, I'm only tryin' to understandSunshine it seems like yesterdayOut in the yard watchin' the baby playDon't you forget about meDon't wanna be just another memory....Look at you now so far away so far apartPlease keep a place for me there in your heartSunshine don't turn your love awayI'm always around any old time of dayAnd when you need me I'll be thereYou don't have to worry cause you know I careCopyright@1982RadisongsNOT HIT NOT EVEN CLOSE # 21 - THE MARCHWritten in 1993 at Phil Ramone's house, I was just getting into all the cool things the Ensoniq VFX keyboard could do creating tracks alot just to see where they would take me. Apparently whilst fooling around with sounds and sequences one snowy day I found that I had flung myself into an Italian Villa. Perhaps because Phil is Italian, maybe because he produced"Scenes From An Italian Restaurant"but then after the Italian music intro I found myself in a War movie. Story told first person/soldier faced with the inevitability of saying goodbye to his young Wife and not knowing if he would come back alive. Very, VERY sad song. One of my favorite"notes" I ever sang is in this song, the note on"Wait" at the end"Will you wait forever?" Writing this at Phil's house, in the dead of winter on a ten acre farm in upstate New York, candles lit, music and lyrics flowing like water, didn't get any better than this. THE MARCH Mark Radice 1993The house is warm but the fields are bareThe snow's begun to fill the airA candle in the window says it allA million times we'll remember wellAn infant's cries and a distant bellAnother sign I'll be leavin' when they callSo lock the doors and put out the lightsIt's surely one of the chosen nightsMy destiny is awaiting me at at dawnThe March is on rolling overheadThe blood of centuries will be shedAnd only then will I know if I'll be goneUnder blue skies still criesNot a word is spokenAnd the old days replaysOf the lives and souls layed broken.....The bravest smile showing through her tearsAs we must fight to dispel our fearsI hold on tight to the only love I've knownI say goodbye and I make her laughWith every step like a photographI wonder if I'm really coming homeUnder blue skies still criesNot a word is spokenAnd the old days replaysOf the lives and souls layed broken.....When all the prayers to be free againHave finally come to their shattered endAnd Mothers cling to their lifeless sonsAnd curse the ring of the distant gunsWill you wait forever?How long till you're done?The March is on rolling overheadThe blood of innocence will be shedAnd it's clear to me that my story's only one.Copyright@1993 RadisongsNOT HIT NOT EVEN CLOSE # 22 - FIRST IMPRESSIONYou can tell I was listening to Steve Howe from Yes when I wrote this. So I took"Blackbird" from McCartney and"Howe"'d it up. Man, I sound alot OLDER singing this than I do NOW.Recorded at House Of Music, again somebody on drums I don't remember who, 12 string guitars, bass, piano, and vocals are me.Semi autobiographical song written when I was about 28 first verse I'm imagining my parents on the day I was born. Second verse I'm in school about 15 years old, next verse I"take off at 16" to tour with Donovan, and later Aerosmith....and finally me reflecting on the whole concept of universal, spiritual and the space/time continuum and do I have any more pretzels. FIRST IMPRESSION Mark RadiceTogether they can hear the child's criesTheir eyes are filling with the tears of joyOn a fall afternoon in the hospital roomThe doctor says it's a boyAnd the sun slides down in the velvet blue skyAnd the magic lingers long into the nightSome other planet from the kids at schoolHe's out the window dreaming far away From the teacher that yells he was late for the bellHe's aiming for some great day.....And his heroes guide him over the yearsThrough the radio they change the way he hears.....The first impression is the one that you go byUntil you take a deeper look insideSo many times you're gonna find that you weren't rightThe first time....Caught in the clutches of a changing worldHolding the grudges of a misread childTaking off at sixteen with his song and his dreamSo young and bold and wildAnd the sound of music covers the roomAnd the people gather round to hear that tune....The first impression is the one that you go byUntil you take a deeper look insideSo many times you're gonna find that you weren't rightThe first time....Was it me that use to be that way?Could it be I see a trace of grayIn the blink of an eye it can pass you right byFunny how time can flyAnd the sun slides down in the velvet blue skyAnd the fallen angels dance into the night....The first impression is the one that you go byUntil you take a deeper look insideSo many times you're gonna find that you weren't rightThe first time....Copyright @ 1985 RadisongsNOT HIT NOT EVEN CLOSE # 23 - WHEN I START TO BELIEVE MY OWN LIESRecorded back at Rich Tozzi's old West Calwell NJ studio Sanctuary, I remember this real drum kit sound well. Like a toothache.There's about 30 of these demos floating around that have this distinctive drumset on them, and no way to kill it short of finding the actual 16 track tapes and redoing them. Perhaps one of my neice's or nephew's grandchildren will get around to that, for now?This song sounds more like a Squeeze song than most Squeeze songs, and dare I say it could also have just as easily fallen off the Beatles"Revolver" album. A time in my life where I started to realise that the relationships I was having were all going wrong because I still had the idealist mentality that once whoever my girlfriend at the time met ME, she would never want another guy ever again and we would get married and have children and life would be one sweet wonderful normal thing. Repeat after me. Ha. WHEN I START TO BELIEVE MY OWN LIES Radice 1983Another victim of circumstance in the romance gameWhere everybody's playing to winTrying hard to convince myself that she feels the sameAnd it isn't only some kind of phase that I'm inAnd I'm in deepCould it be wrong to beOut in the morning singin'Hey-ayIt's a brand new day and the world is mineHow could I be feelin' otherwiseWhen I close my eyesAnd I start to believe my own liesLookin' into her eyes I see only what I needAnd I need to show her my love is trueEven though in my heart I know it could never beSo I watch myself conveniently changeAll the rulesCould it be wrong to beOut in the morning singin'Hey-ayIt's a brand new day and the world is mineHow could I be feelin' otherwiseWhen I close my eyesAnd I start to believe my own liesShe doesn't even say hello any moreWell I know it's just a matter of timeWhen she looked at you you stared at the floorJust the fact that she was lookin' was fineDo you think that she could ever be yours?In my mind you know she's already mine.Copyright@ 1983 RadisongsNot Hit Not EVEN CLOSE #24 QUESTIONS OF THE HEARTWell GEE THIS is a BOOK, huh? A song about an elderly couple that stood the test of time. One of my favorite ever"bridges", even though the sax is really cheesy sounding I love where the music just seems to keep going somewhere else and wish I did it for real with a real band and real instruments. Maybe in 150 years someone will rerecord it with a live swing orchestra. That would be nice.QUESTIONS OF THE HEART Mark RadiceListen to the music they're playin' our songHaven't heard that melody in who knows how longEvery time I hear it I can't go wrongBack in time I start to raomWhat a magic evening underneath the starsWe danced the night away the moonlight was oursI began to wonder was I going too farWhen I asked if I could walk you home.....As we came to know each otherWe began to feel like loversWishing we would never be apartAnd I laugh at all my fears thenNever thought in a million yearsThat we would ever wind up where we areDid we really make it happenIs it true that we were in controlOr were we destined from the startIn a World so lost for answersWe were just too lonely dancersMoving to the questions of the heartI was just a young man and you a young girlTrying to make the ends meet in our dreamer's WorldYou would get so frightened so I told you how I feltAnd I swore you'd never be aloneNow I see you and all those memories come throughAnd I can't believe that you still need me like you doAll the years we spent bringin' up those twoNow they've got children of their own.....When the nights get a little colderAnd we feel just a little olderLet me know we'll never be apartEven now as we're still learnin'We have seen the pages turnin'Movin' to the questions of the heartDid we really make it happenIs it true that we were in controlOr were we destined from the startIn a World so lost for answersWe were just too lonely dancersMoving to the questions of the heartEvery now and then you wonderIf the spell you put me underIsn't quite what it was beforeBut as time goes rolling by usYou can always rest assuredThat I will love you even moreDid we really make it happenIs it true that we were in controlOr were we destined from the startIt was all there waiting for usHidden somewhere in that chorusMovin' to the questions of the heartCopyright@ 1985 RadisongsNOT A HIT NOT EVEN CLOSE # 25 A Good Night's SleepAnother one from Sanctuary Recording in Caldwell New Jersey with that blasted Linn Drum machine. Good friend Bobby Eulo singing the low, low vocals in the hook, one of my favorite singers ever.Rich Tozzi once again beautiful guitar layering across the edge of the 2nd verse,very Steely Dan-ish....A Good Night's SleepWell I'm staring at the ceiling I'm goin' through what I should doCause I can't forget the feeling I'm hovering over youI'm alone tonight and the mood is rightBut I can't even get myself to dial past the"212"Cause you're so fine....I can't get you off of my mindOh I know you're one of a kindAnd I will never be the same until I make you mineYou know if I could only get meA Good Night's SleepI think I'll be alright if I could just get through the nightIt's what I really need...just oneWell I'm tossin' and I'm turnin' I'm learnin' bein' shy don't payAnd I'm scrapin' up the courage I'm searchin' for the words to say...Cause you're mine tonight if I say it rightBut it's way too late I'll close my eyes and wait one more day....Copyright@RADISONGS 1987NOT HIT NOT EVEN CLOSE # 26 - Happy EndingsOh, yeah, Suzanne. This is about as autobiographical as I ever got. Is that an Oberheim synthesizer in there? How 80's can I GET?? One of the 182 or so times I seem to have re-written"My Love" by Paul McCartney, especially the bridge. Written around 1988, I hadn't seen Suzanne for 8 years at this point. We were young and I was drunk and crazy, which appealled to her and revolted her at the same time. Here it is 2009 and I still love her. In fact, I even made a video THIS YEAR of this song for her on Valentine's day, which I never sent.The last thing I remember her saying to me over the phone while I was in California?"Mark? You're pathetic."HAPPY ENDINGS Mark RadiceI remember the first time I saw you and I knew it was love at first sightLike the stars somehow knew all about us that brilliant nightWhen you laughed and you said I was crazyI told you you weren't being fairBut I felt like takin' you away right then and thereAnd I still believe in happy endingsAnd I still believe it's worth a tryI don't understand itBut you're still the light in my Life.Well you showed me the way to foreverSo I gave you whatever was mineAnd we let all our dreams fall together one at a timeAnd we circled the danger of madnessAnd we ran ourselves right out of timeI was standing in a doorway when I looked one last look in your eyes....And I still believe in happy endingsAnd I still believe I've got some timeNo, I'll never give inI still believe you'll always be mine.How in the world?How in the world did I ever live without your loveFor so longI just keep holding on to a love that's still so strong and.....How do you know?How do you know when it's time to let it slip awayMy heart is here to stayAnd I just can't face the truth cause I'm so in love with you.......Copyright@1988Radisongs