Hey everyone! The first episode of the new school year for The Gus Knorr Show will begin momentarily. For those wondering, I will be providing updates for the Packers-Bears game throughout, but aside from that, I will be playing some great music for the next hour and a half. Seeing as The Gus Knorr Show hasn’t been on the air for the past four months, tonight’s theme will be songs played by musicians (or their bands) who passed away between May and September of 2012, in memory of them. I’ll also be playing some of my favorite newer songs in between by some familiar and some more obscure artists who have released albums in the past few months.

• The first song tonight is by Donna Summer, the Queen of Disco, who passed away on May 17th at the age of 63 from lung cancer. This song, one of her best known and highest-charting singles, is “Hot Stuff.”
• A song from another female pioneer in a particular genre is next, namely Kitty Wells, one of the first highly successful woman country singers. Wells was 92 years old when she died on July 16, and the next song was a number-one single on the country charts back in 1952; it’s “It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels.”
• Switching off to a new song by an older legendary musician, the next song is by Bob Dylan, who is thankfully still alive, and is off his just-released album Tempest. This song is the second track on the album, called “Soon After Midnight.”
• Moving off to a band from the 1950s, the next song is by one of the biggest vocal groups of the mid-50s, The Platters, who had one of their original members, and the last surviving one, pass away on June 4th. This was, of course, Herb Reed, who sang on the following song, “The Great Pretender.”
• The next song is by a British band that formed in the late 1960s, and was well known for their keyboardist, Jon Lord, who died on July 16th. Lord was a member of Deep Purple, and the next song was released off of Deep Purple’s first album from 1968, which coincidentally, was written by Joe South, who also passed away this summer; it’s “Hush.”
• The next song is a new one, though the band that performed it actually initially formed in 1980. From their new album, Researching the Blues, it’s Stay Away from Downtown, by Redd Kross.
• Moving back to an older song, the next one is by Bob Welch, who was a member of Fleetwood Mac before leaving to start a solo career. Welch committed suicide on June 7th, and will be missed. This song was arguably his best known solo song, and was actually first recorded when he was a member of Fleetwood Mac, which is “Sentimental Lady.”
• Next up is a song from a new album by a garage rock band from Nashville, Turbo Fruits. This song, the first single from their new album Butter, is “Sweet Thang.”
• Eduard Khil, who died this summer at the age of 77, is next. If you don’t know who he is, he’s the Trololo guy, who everyone in America was introduced to by that internet video of him singing the song a few years ago. In memory of this great man, here is “Trololo.”
• The next song is by a band from Milwaukee, The Frogs, which consisted of brothers Jimmy and Dennis Flemion. Unfortunately, Dennis died this summer when he drowned in Wind Lake, which is located in Racine County southwest of Milwaukee. As a unique band, they released many concept albums, and this song, “Lord Grunge,” was part of an EP called Starjob, which referenced Kurt Cobain.
• The Wesley Willis Song of the Week is next, and is fittingly enough, about Willis’ experience at a concert for The Frogs. Guess what? It’s called “The Frogs!”
• Next up is a song played in memory of a member of the Funk Brothers, the backing band for Motown Records in Detroit. The band’s bassist for a few years in the late ’60s and early ’70s, Bob Babbitt, died this summer at the age of 74 of brain cancer. One of the best known songs he played on is the next one on The Gus Knorr Show, which was performed by Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, so in memory of Babbitt, here’s “The Tears of a Clown.”
• The next song consists of another bassist of a backing band for a record label, though for Stax Records in Memphis. Donald “Duck” Dunn died on May 13 of this year, and played bass on many of Stax’s hits, including the next song on The Gus Knorr Show: “Hold On, I’m Comin,'” by Sam and Dave.
• Next is a song from a new band also from Tennessee, though from Nashville, namely blues rock band Jag. This song, “Foolin’,” is from their new self-titled EP.
• The second-to-last song on The Gus Knorr Show tonight was written by Hal David in conjunction with Burt Bacarach, who wrote many popular songs during the late 1960s. David died on September 1st at the age of 91 This song, performed by B.J. Thomas for the 1969 film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, is “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head.”
• The final song on The Gus Knorr Show tonight was written by Marvin Hamlisch, a well-known composer and conductor who died on August 6th of this year. Released in 1965 and performed by Lesley Gore, it’s “Sunshine, Lollipops, and Rainbows.”

That’s it for The Gus Knorr Show tonight, but stay tuned next week, as well as the rest of the semester, on Thursday at 8:00 PM for the next episode of The Gus Knorr Show. Thanks for listening!