Gene Stevens

Music Journalist and Podcast Host at CFZM (Toronto, ON)

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Articles

This Week on Vintage Favourites: May 11th

1 week ago | zoomerradio.ca | Gene Stevens

What a show coming up this Sunday (May 11) on Vintage Favourites ! It’ll be jam-packed with exciting features for Mother’s Day – songs for ‘Mom’, plus the 75th birthday salute to Stevie Wonder, and the 2025 inductees to the Canadian Music Hall of Fame – including Dan Hill, Ginette Reno, Glass Tiger, Sum 41 and Loreena McKennitt. Oh – and the usual first-hour feature: ‘The Sunday Sock Hop‘ with the great songs of the Fifties and early Sixties. I hope you’ll join me between 2:00 and 4:30pm.
This Week on Vintage Favourites: May 4th

2 weeks ago | zoomerradio.ca | Gene Stevens

Share on Breaking through in the late 60s with ‘Ramblin’ Gamblin’ Man’, Bob Seger’s ‘Night Moves’ made him world famous in the mid-70s. And songs like ‘Hollywood Nights’, ‘We’ve Got Tonight’, ‘Against the Wind’ and especially ‘Old Time Rock’n’Roll’ defined his blue-collar – occasionally melancholic – rockin’ sentimentalism. Yeah – a lot of descriptors come to mind.
This Week on Vintage Favourites: April 27th

3 weeks ago | zoomerradio.ca | Gene Stevens

We’ve known them all our lives – or at least their music: The Beatles and Rolling Stones; the Beach Boys, Four Seasons; U2 and The Guess Who. But have you ever wondered just how they got their names? You’ll find out the stories – some familiar, others perhaps obvious, and still others simply bizarre – on the next edition of Vintage Favourites.
This Week on Vintage Favourites: April 20th

1 month ago | zoomerradio.ca | Gene Stevens

Every year since 1970, April 22nd has been the one day of the year, we focus on our one and only planet – it’s ‘Earth Day’ 2025 ! I think it’s one of the most important editions of Vintage Favourites; it’s persuasive and poignant, inspiring and packed with superstars’ powerful messages. From country and folk, to pop, rock and soul and all across the decades. This year’s Earth Day theme: ‘Our Power, Our Planet’. It’s a show like none other, and I hope you’ll tune in.
This Week on Vintage Favourites: April 13th

1 month ago | zoomerradio.ca | Gene Stevens

Share on About a year after the deaths of Buddy Holly, Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens, we lost another of rock’n’roll’s early stars. Eddie Cochran died in a car crash near London, England on April 17th, 1960. Next week marks the 65th anniversary of Eddie’s tragic death, and the loss of so much potential. Despite his brief career, Eddie left us some wonderful rock’n’roll music, and a lasting influence on British pop, as well as hard rock and the rockabilly revival.
This Week on Vintage Favourites: April 6th

1 month ago | zoomerradio.ca | Gene Stevens

Share on A few weeks ago we featured some of the big hits from 1965 – each marking its 60th anniversary this year. Well, one good spotlight deserves another, so let’s make it ‘the sequel’ this Sunday with the big songs from 1975 – each marking its 50th anniversary. We’ll enjoy the wide range of music genres so popular in the mid-70s from pop and rock to disco and the early days of ‘outlaw country’.
This Week on Vintage Favourites: March 30th

1 month ago | zoomerradio.ca | Gene Stevens

Share on When we think of the major artists of the 1960s, we usually think of The Beatles and Rolling Stones, Elvis and The Supremes, maybe Frank Sinatra or The Beach Boys. They were all big, indeed. But in 1966 nobody outsold Herb Alpert and The Tijuana Brass. Herb’s band landed eight consecutive albums in the top five of the Billboard album charts in just over three years during the mid-60s. He and the TJB were a sensation – defining the easy listening instrumental sounds of that era.
This Week on Vintage Favourites: March 23rd

1 month ago | zoomerradio.ca | Gene Stevens

Share on Late March means spring’s in the air; there’s a spring in our step, and many a young man’s (and young woman’s) fancy turns to thoughts of …. baseball !? Really ?!Well, let’s pretend anyway. It’s a great excuse to play some songs we just don’t get around to playing the rest of the year. Those amazing baseball songs from yester-year celebrating the legends like Willy Mays, Joe DiMaggio and Mickey Mantle, along with more recent songs too.
This Week on Vintage Favourites: March 16th

2 months ago | zoomerradio.ca | Gene Stevens

REMEMBERING 1965The recent buzz over the Bob Dylan biopic ‘A Complete Unknown’ – the title quoting Dylan’s masterpiece ‘Like a Rolling Stone’ – has brought the pivotal year, 1965, back into the spotlight. I’m looking forward to sharing some of the big pivotal hits from 60 years ago that shaped the future of pop music. America’s response to the British Invasion included Motown soul, California surf and the emergence of folk-rock … not to mention our own ‘Toronto Sound’, as well.
This Week on Vintage Favourites: March 9th

2 months ago | zoomerradio.ca | Gene Stevens

Share on This Saturday, March 8th is International Women’s Day and it’s my spotlight feature for Sunday’s edition of ‘Vintage Favourites’. I’ll play a dozen classics of empowerment – and fun – by some of the greatest women artists ever; from Peggy and Barbra to Donna, Cyndi, Annie and many others. ‘The Sunday Sock Hop’ celebrates the great music of the Fifties and early Sixties during the show’s first hour (2-3pm.) – I’ll be sure to include some of the great women artists of that time.