Eddie Rabbitt "Driving My Life Away"

Think of the Top 40 station in your neighborhood.

Can you imagine them playing a song like this? Ever?!

Top 40 has changed so much since I was a kid. Back when we were young, listening to Casey Kasem meant hearing not just Pop, but Country and Rock and Disco and whatever. It really was representative of America, without walls.

I remember sitting in the station wagon listening to American Top 40 while Mom ran errands. She'd go in a store, but leave the keys in the ignition so I could listen to the radio. And when this song came on, I tried to get the windshield wipers/slapping out a tempo/keeping perfect rhythm with the song on the radio.

Turning the intermittent speed up. Then down. Up a little more. Too much. Down a hair. I futzed with it and almost got it right, but by then the song was over.

Getting the wipers to be in sync with the music turned out to be harder than a country song suggests it would be.