Radio on Record – Radio Loves You

Writing a song with radio in the title is a surefire way to grab some airplay. With luck that airplay will translate into a hit record. Perhaps that thought was going through the mind of songwriter Paul Battle when, in 1977, he penned Radio Loves You a paean to the joys of listening to the radio “a love affair on the air.”     

Promotional copies of the single were sent round to US radio stations with a stereo mix on one side and a mono version on the flipside, to cater for both FM and AM stations. Paul’s version was released in the States and in Australia by A&M and in Europe, or at least the Netherlands, by CBS. On the B side was another of his songs Baby, I’m Falling in Love With You. Paul Robert Battle (1949-2012) wrote over 200 songs but this song remains his best known.  

But it doesn’t end there because in November of that year another version of the song was released, this time by an act calling themselves Gadzooks. It seems likely that Gadzooks was a group of session players and singers brought together for this recording. Again a stereo/mono promotional copy was circulated. It went on general release on the GRT label with Holiday, written by Jack Grochmal, on the B side. Interestingly the lyrics for the second verse were re-written for the Gadzooks version.

The original lyrics read:

Lovely maid in your Cadillac that day was serenaded by the sounds of I’ll be true,

The three of us were there, no one seemed to care, not the radio, not me or even you.

These were changed to:

You’re feeling down and your chin is on the ground from the hassles in your life from day to day,

Then you hear your song and you start to sing-a-long as the radio blows all your blues away.  

Both songs did get US airplay; according to the comments on YouTube uploads stations WRSU-FM, WCOR, KKUA, KSTN, KACY and KHJ are mentioned. As far as I can tell chart success eluded both releases as they failed to make the Billboard Hot 100 or the Dutch or Australian charts.

My attention was drawn to these recordings when they were featured recently on Jon Wolfert’s weekly show on Rewound Radio. Jon also shows us how the Gadzooks record was used by JAM Creative Productions to create a bespoke version for WAKY radio in Louisville. Here’s how this played out on Jon’s show on 7 January 2024.

The song lived again two years later when, in 1979, Swedish group Säwes recorded it under the title Radion spelar för dig with lyrics by Björn Håkanson (you can find it on YouTube). Säwes seemed to specialise in cover versions as their records also included Let Your Love Flow, Paloma Blanca and RFSU (their equivalent of YMCA).   

Jon’s three hour show, a mixture of music and jingle features, can be heard online on Rewound Radio each Sunday at 3 pm US Eastern time.