Just before 8:00pm on Saturday, February 18, 1978, a boy who’d turned 14 earlier in the week slid a tape recorder in front of a portable radio tuned to 630 WLAP-AM in Lexington. Following the hourly update from CBS News, just as the opening theme to American Top 40 began, he pushed the record button. The song leading off the countdown was by a band from Florida the boy hadn’t heard before. It was the only week that tune was on the show, but the tape made that night became the seed for the boy’s appreciation of the group’s music.
The Music of My Life 