Ep. 45: In Appreciation of Greg Kihn

RockPopandRoll

Greg Kihn, the California-via-Baltimore pop rocker passed away in August 2024, leaving behind a truly great FM radio hit with “The Breakup Song” and his biggest song, “Jeopardy”, that hit #2 and found heavy rotation on MTV. The same song was famously parodied by Weird Al Yankovic. Kihn also had a long career as a rock radio DJ on KFOX, and he wrote books.

But mostly he was a guy who just kept rocking. After a run of yearly albums for more than a decade, from the mid 70's to the mid 80's, he released his final album (Rekihndled) in 2017, a throwback to the ringing guitars pounding drums, and the echoes-of-The Beatles sound that he mined for a long time. Sure, he's remembered for his two big two songs, but he and his Greg Kihn Band had a couple more kinda-hits and a catalog of under-the-radar power pop.

I liked Greg Kihn's music. Unpretentious working rock and roll. “We want people to come back to hear the music,” he said in a 1982 interview. “I mean, nobody goes to see Bruce Springsteen because of the light show.”