We lost one of the greats with the passing of Neil Sedaka. The songs, like “Calendar Girl”, “Love Will Keep Us Together”, “Oh! Carol” and “Breaking Up is Hard to Do” are so recognizable and the melodies so deceptively simple, it’s like they’ve always been with us. And if you’ve ever heard Sedaka being interviewed, you can’t miss the joy and passion that he had for the work.

For this special tribute, we have 3 sets of interview clips from one of the top songwriters of his era.

Neil remembers his earliest hits with the late Andy K of 1050 CHUM in Toronto. He also tells CHUM's Roger Ashby about the challenges he faced in his career.

And we even hear from Elton John, who helped facilitate Sedaka's comeback with songs like "Bad Blood" and "Laughter In The Rain".

Neil Sedaka continued to perform as recently as 2025. His legacy of songs as a writer and performer will always be with us.

For the Season 11 finale, we present part two of our series on the ‘80s. We continue in the alt-rock/indie/new wave vein from our last episode – where we featured the likes of U2, The Cult, Bryan Ferry, Fine Young Cannibals and more.

This week, we continue with:

• Robert Smith of The Cure in conversation with Christopher. Robert is painfully shy and yet quite revealing and is, in Tom’s words, “downright lovable”.
• The B-52s, who remember their early days and the struggle to continue after the death of guitarist Ricky Wilson.
• Dave Gahan and Martin Gore from Depeche Mode in a short chat with Christopher.
• Peter Garrett and the late Rob Hirst of Midnight Oil talking about being famous in Australia and trying to win over audiences in the Canada and the U.S.
• Toronto’s Jane Siberry, who was recently inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame, talks about her unique vision for her music – and why she carries around a “very soft bat” to ward off her fans.
• Christopher’s interview with Annie Lennox of Eurythmics as she talks about fashion and anti fashion.

Producers note: The promised interviews with Pet Shop Boys, The Fixx and Thompson Twins will air in Season 12. We promise. 😉

Famous Lost Words, hosted by Christopher Ward and Tom Jokic, is heard in more than 100 countries worldwide and on radio stations across Canada, including Newstalk 1010 Toronto, CJAD 800 Montreal, 580 CFRA Ottawa, AM 800 CKLW Windsor, 610 CKTB St Catharines, CFAX Victoria and 91x in Belleville. It is in the Top 20% of worldwide podcasts based on the number of listeners in the first week.

We start by talking about “songs that are factually incorrect”, with artists like U2, Alanis, Journey, Fleetwood Mac, Toto, ABBA and Pitbull being taken to task. Christopher and Tom have a ton of fun ranting about these “egregious” errors.

Speaking of U2, we feature at 1985 interview with bassist Adam Clayton as he and his mates come to grips with the growing popularity of the band. Adam talks about playing for screaming fans (not ideal) and comparisons between U2 and Bruce Springsteen.

The remainder of the episode includes other artists from the ‘80s. Some highlights:

• Ian Astbury of The Cult talks about spending five years of his youth in Canada – and how he didn’t much care for it.
• Brian Ferry of Roxy Music discusses the importance of solo work
• Roland Gift talks about Fine Young Cannibals and his acting career
• Montreal’s The Box discuss marrying politics and music
• And we try to find at least ONE interesting moment in what could be the most boring interview in our archives…

Famous Lost Words, hosted by Christopher Ward and Tom Jokic, is heard in more than 100 countries worldwide and on radio stations across Canada, including Newstalk 1010 Toronto, CJAD 800 Montreal, 580 CFRA Ottawa, AM 800 CKLW Windsor, 610 CKTB St Catharines, CFAX Victoria and 91x in Belleville. It is in the Top 20% of worldwide podcasts based on the number of listeners in the first week.