Song Number 48
Introduced by Jeff Sudbrook
Song #48 in the Riverside Class of 1980 Top 50 Countdown brings the sound of Northeast Ohio pride roaring back through the speakers.
This entry is loud, defiant, and full of Cleveland attitude from a time when the city was taking plenty of shots and answering back with guitars, radio swagger, and hometown stubbornness.
For anyone who grew up around Riverside, heard WMMS blasting through a car speaker, or knew exactly why Cleveland’s chip on its shoulder mattered, this one should feel very familiar.
Watch the next entry in our Top 50 Countdown below.
Welcome to the July 2026 edition of the Riverside Class of 1980 Top 50 Countdown of songs from our years in High School.
There are songs that make you feel good about where you’re from — and then there’s this one, which practically dares you to feel anything else. It opens with a guitar riff that lands like a fist on a locker, raw and deliberate, and then the lead singer’s voice comes swaggering in with the kind of conviction that could only belong to a guy who actually believed it. And what he was saying was simple: this city, this lake, these streets — they matter. They rock.
At a time when Cleveland was taking shots from every late-night comedian and national magazine that could find us on a map, hearing that coming out of a WMMS speaker felt like a battle cry. Didn’t matter if you were sitting in the parking lot at Riverside waiting for a Friday night to figure itself out, or cruising past the Agora on a Sunday just to feel close to something bigger than homework — when this song came on, you sat up a little straighter.
Northeast Ohio had a chip on its shoulder in those years, and this song was the sound of us deciding that was just fine. Loud, defiant, and built for exactly the kind of people who grew up in Leroy, Concord, or Painesville Township and never needed anyone’s permission to be proud of it.
And if you’ve ever been to an Indians or Guardians game, you know they play this loud and proud after every victory.
And speaking of Cleveland baseball crazy,
Now here to introduce the song is classmate Jeff Sudbrook from the mancave inside his Avon, Ohio home.
Do you know what song he’ll introduce?