In honor of American Idol's premiere, Rick Dees Weekly Top 40 hosted by PAULA ABDUL - 9/24/1995

Here's yet another Rick Dees show that won't be on XM. This show is from September 24, 1995 and is co-hosted by Paula Abdul.

(I posted an earlier show from 1989 with Paula co-hosting, which can be found here. This is not the same show.)

One thing I didn't like: Number 38, "This Is How We Do It" by Montell Jordan is omitted. Paula announces the song's rank, and then moves on. This was one of the things that Rick did occasionally that I didn't like.

But, there's a lot else to enjoy about this show. For one thing, Paula has gotten much better at "talkin' on the radio" since the late 80's, though she's not quite as articulate (??) as she is today on American Idol. (It's fairly obvious she's reading from the script.) I did find it interesting that in one segment Rick talks about her taking kickboxing lessons, and Paula goes on and talks about this small, quiet, family owned workout place owned by Billy Blanks, who would shortly thereafter invent TAE-BO and become anything but. (Apparently Billy used to be a softspoken individual.)

Rick also heavily promotes "The National O.J." which is a courtroom parody periodical, in the style of the Onion, which was written by himself and Peter Green.

There's also an ad campaign by AT&T that asks us if we've ever played video games online with our friends, sent a fax from the beach, or any number of other things that are routine for us in 2009, but in 1995 when folks were still pretty new to the internet these things MUST have sounded like stuff the Jetsons would do. "You will," promises AT&T, though I'm somewhat sure they weren't entirely the pioneers of any of it.

It's things like those that make these shows fascinating for me.

Anyway, here ya go. Ripped directly from the original CDs, all network ads and promos included.

Hour 1

Hour 2

Hour 3

Hour 4