The History of the Jeff’s Countdown

 

 

Jeff Rogers was born in the early morning of February 19, 1971, a chilly day in late winter in the small town of Sellersville, Pennsylvania.  Though Jeff was always a fan listening to music, his first 20 birthdays passed rather uneventfully, birthdays typical to any adolescent.

 

Growing up, Jeff always had fervor for countdowns of music.  In the late winter of 1992, shortly after his 21^st birthday, Jeff’s roommate at the time John M. Harrison, III, suggested Jeff create a Top 21 Countdown of his favorite music to be played at his upcoming party.  Obviously, he didn’t have to twist Jeff’s arm to make that suggestion a reality.  Jeff’s birthday fell on a Wednesday that year, and passed without much pageantry.  The spectacle would come a few days later, when John and Jeff hosted the Jeff’s 21 Party at the apartment they shared with Marc “Rainman” DenBlyker in Berwick, Pennsylvania.  Those three men were working at PP&L’s Susquehanna SES Nuclear plant at the time during their cooperative leave from Widener University.

 

The Jeff’s 21 Party had two themes.  One was music and the other was drinking.  As stupid as it seems now, Jeff’s set a goal for himself:  to drink 21 12-ounce beers in 12 hours, from Noon to Midnight.  So Jeff opened the first of his Miller Genuine Draft’s shortly after 12 PM, and began working on the Jeff’s 21 Countdown.  After creating a list of his 21 “all-time favorite” songs, Jeff began recording them onto a cassette tape, along with some verbal dedications and other interesting comments.  As more beers were consumed, the comments got more interesting.

 

After completing the countdown in complete secrecy, so it could be unveiled as a surprise later in the evening, Jeff took a break from the beer guzzling and took a nap.  He awoke a few hours later to share a quick dinner with his roommates, and await the party comers.  The festivities began shortly thereafter.  Jeff resumed his rapid drinking pace, welcomed his fellow partiers, and began playing the Jeff’s 21 Countdown Cassette.

 

The Jeff’s Countdown was a hit from the very start, as Jeff and his friends celebrated and danced to classics such as “Jump” by Van Halen (#21), “Pinball Wizard” by The Who (#15), “Kashmir” by Led Zeppelin (#12), and ‘instant’ classics such as “Right Here, Right Now” by Jesus Jones (#20), and “Mysterious Ways” by U2 (#17).  When song #14 came over the airwaves, “The Safety Dance” by Men Without Hats, Jeff quickly solidified himself as “The King of Retro – before being Retro was cool.”

 

As the evening passed, Jeff gave up his quest for 21 beers after puking his guts out between beers 18 and 19.  But the countdown rolled on.  As was customary at any of Jeff’s parties, all party goers swayed when “Piano Man” by Billy Joel (#7) was played.  The countdown ended with “Hotel California” by The Eagles at #1.  The Jeff’s 21 Countdown may have ended, but the Jeff’s Countdown phenomenon was just beginning…

 

The following year Jeff was back at Widener University finishing up his senior year.  By the time his birthday rolled around, Jeff’s final semester of college was nearly half over, so a celebration of gigantic proportions was in order.  This time, Jeff’s birthday fell on a Friday, so the party would be a same-day affair.  There was no beer quota this year, but Jeff did begin drinking before the end of classes that day.  There was an engineering party in Kirkbride Hall that evening which would serve only as a warm up party.  After having seen enough of Ken McNeil with toilet tissue in his ears because of the music being too loud, Jeff and his buddy Ted Sidoriak decided to leave the engineering party and head back to Jeff’s apartment where the real party was already getting underway.  But before leaving Kirkbride Hall, Jeff couldn’t refrain from stealing the cleaning crew’s vacuum cleaner, which was left unattended in the elevator.  Jeff paraded the vacuum cleaner across campus until he reached his apartment.  As he opened the door to his apartment, Jeff greeted his roommates and their friends, who had already begun partying, by lifting the vacuum cleaner above his head with both hands in a display similar to one of Mark Messier’s Stanley Cup celebrations.  The Jeff’s 22 party had commenced.

 

Unlike the Jeff’s 21 party, Jeff did not pre-record the countdown.  He wanted to record the fervor of the party live, so his idea was to play and record the songs live at the party, while recording the dedications and interesting comments of both him and the party goers, live as well, in between the songs.  There was only one flaw with this idea.  Jeff was too inebriated to push the correct buttons.  Only the first few songs were recorded.  The remainder of the party was documented only in photograph form, and in the deep recesses of the minds of the party goers.  A few days later, Jeff re-recorded the songs missed, in order to complete this piece of recorded history.

 

Upon graduating from college and becoming a responsible adult (note:  ‘responsible’ doesn’t necessarily infer ‘mature’), Jeff decided for forgo further Jeff’s Countdown Parties in favor of smaller gatherings with his closest friends.  In these gatherings, Jeff recorded Countdown’s 23 through 28, through the years 1994 to 1999.  These countdown’s were primarily Jeff acting as DJ in making a recorded account of Jeff’s favorite songs as it stood for the year in particular.

 

As the millennium passed, the Jeff’s Countdown went through its dark year.  In early 2000, Jeff was unhappy with his job, in his last semester of graduate school, and anxiously awaiting the birth of his first child.  Needless to say he had many things weighing on his mind other than the Jeff’s Countdown.  Jeff made a small effort to put together a countdown list (small effort as evidenced by “No Scrubs” by TLC at #22) but made no effort at making a recording of the event.  To this day, the Jeff’s 29 Countdown is the only Countdown which does not have an accompanying “Countdown Cassette”.

 

In 2001, Jeff had a new job, a new baby, and a new passion for restoring the Jeff’s Countdown to its proper place in pop culture.  Jeff was “Back in Black” so to speak.  Now 30 years old, Jeff once again created a Countdown Cassette and kicked it off with “Back in Black” by AC/DC as a testament to his new dedication.  One thing didn’t change, and that was the number one song.  Billy Joel’s “Piano Man” occupied the number one spot in the Jeff’s 30 Countdown.  It was the number one song in the countdown for the 7^th consecutive year.

 

But all good things have to eventually come to an end, and Billy’s reign on the countdown top spot took a short hiatus, when “Best of Times” by Styx overtook “Piano Man” for the #1 spot in the Jeff’s 31 Countdown.  This also marked the first time Jeff’s daughter Allison helped him with the recorded version of the countdown.  Obviously the language used in creating the Countdown Cassette was cleaned up quite a bit from this point forward.

 

In 2003, Jeff showed his humanistic side when he decided to share his countdown with the world.  For the Jeff’s 32 Countdown, Jeff created an internet blog in which he dedicated and described each song in the countdown.  He began writing this blog 32 days prior to his birthday and revealed one song per day as his birthday approached.  When February 19, 2003 arrived, the new fans of the Jeff’s Countdown were greeted with the return of Billy Joel to the top spot.

 

Feedback on the Countdown blog was so positive that Jeff repeated the format for the Jeff’s 33 and 34 Countdown’s.  In January 2006, the Jeff’s Countdown has returned to celebrate its 15^th Anniversary.  Thanks to all of those who have participated in the Jeff’s Countdown’s throughout the years.  It is you who have helped make this a true institution. 

 

 

JRR 15-Jan-05