Todd Rundgren on Rolling Stone's "The First Time"

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Originally published at: Todd Rundgren on Rolling Stone's "The First Time" | Boing Boing

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He seems like a really fun guy. Saw him a couple of years ago playing with Ringo’s All Stars and he was the best part of the show.
A wizard, a true star.

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i guess i got confused and thought this would be rundgren talking about the rolling stones’ “the last time.”

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Yeah, I was similarly confused, but Todd’s a real gem…

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Of all the people I ran into while I was still in music, none was as big a butthead as this guy.
Really though, I wanted to post John Lennon’s (he was no fan) nickname for the guy, Todd Rumpleforeskin. Always gives me a chuckle.

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Yeah, as much as I love Todd’s musical talents, he is known for being a Class A asshole. Shame, really.

I think I posted that letter that Lennon sent to Todd here on BB years ago.

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There wasn’t even a B-side, so the record was sent to DJs one-sided. They immediately started playing it and by the end of the week, the song was in the top 25. By the time they’d finished recording the album, , the song was in the top 5

I’m sure most rock stars exagerrate things, so it’s not a big deal but his recollection doesn’t line up with chart realities. A one-sided radio-only single wasn’t eligible to make the charts back then (not for another 25 years). The album was released on July 15 and the song debuted on Billboard “the week of” July 28, 1973. Billboard’s dates were a few weeks after their survey period in general but the song didn’t make the top five until mid-September, long after the album was in stores.

It probably did start getting airplay immediately, and it did go to number one, but Todd has filled in some other points on the timeframe since then.

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