That Thing I Do

In That Thing You Do, the 1996 Tom Hanks-directed flick about a smalltime band in the 60's who unexpectedly find themselves with a hit record, there's an awesome scene, my favorite in the movie, where the band first hears themselves on the radio. The band members race to the drummer's family's appliance store and scream themselves silly as they turn on every radio in the place to the same station, and then bounce around in pure unadulterated joy. It's a fun scene.

I had a taste of that last night when I was on my way home from a Vocal Majority practice, rescheduled from last Thursday because of messy weather. I had just climbed into my car and I put my radio on my default news/talk station, WBAP, but they were discussing finance. I switched over to another talk station. More finance. Going down the row of preset buttons, I passed Radio Disney and landed on KAAM, "Legends 770," a local oldies station (although these days "oldies" apparently includes the 1970's!).

There was a beautiful, string-filled orchestra accompanying a men's chorus singing "My Special Angel." Hmm. I... think I know this song. In fact, I think I know the specific arrangement -- because the VM is performing it at a show this Sunday afternoon and I'd just pulled out the music recently to refresh my memory of it! They were playing a cut from the Vocal Majority's With Strings Volume II, which was released a few years ago.

Oh, I'd heard the VM on the radio before, long before I joined the group, but this was different. I'm in the Vocal Majority now, and the radio is playing us!

Okay, so there was no jumping around in an appliance store. And KAAM is a long way from being a station that plays current hits. And... I'm not actually on the album myself, having just joined the VM last year.

But it is pretty cool being in a group that occasionally gets played on the radio.