On this day in 1979, the Toto single “Hold the Line” peaked at #5 on the US Billboard Hot 100 (January 13)
It was Toto’s debut single from their self-titled, debut album.
Toto keyboard player and “Hold the Line” songwriter David Paich recalled that the song was relatively easy to develop.
He began with the piano riff, which would become the song's iconic intro and chorus.
After toying with the piano riff one night, he started singing "Hold the line, love isn't always on time", and found the lyric to be a suitable fit. The verses were subsequently finished two hours later.
Jeff Porcaro, the band's drummer, gave a definition for the song:
"'Hold the Line' was a perfect example of what people will describe as your heavy metal chord guitar licks, your great triplet A-notes on the piano, your 'Sly'-hot-fun-in-the-summertime groove, all mishmashed together with a boy from New Orleans singing... and it really crossed over a lot of lines."
Guitarist Steve Lukather remembered hearing "Hold the Line" for the first time on the radio:
"I flipped the first time I heard myself on the radio.
My mom called me up and said, "Turn on KLOS." It was the song "Hold the Line," and I started running around the house in my underwear, screaming, "I'm on the radio!"
My wife was cracking up. It was just a thrill."
Click on the link below to watch the clip:
On this day in 1979, the Bob Seger single “We’ve Got Tonite” peaked on the US Billboard Hot 100 at #13 (January 13)
Seger wrote the song after seeing the movie “The Sting”, starring Robert Redford and Paul Newman.
In the film, there's scene where Redford puts the moves on a waitress, who says, "I don't even know you." He replies: "You know me. I'm the same as you. It's two in the morning and I don't know nobody."
"That just hit me real hard," Seger told the Detroit Free Press in 1994. "The next day I wrote 'We've Got Tonight,' this song about two people who say 'I'm tired. It's late at night. I know you don't really dig me, and I don't really dig you, but this is all we've got, so let's do it.'
The sexual revolution was still going strong then."
Seger lifted the chords (and slightly changed the melody) from a song he released in 1974 called "This Old House," which was the B-side to his single "UMC (Upper Middle Class)."
The song from Seger’s “Stranger in Town” LP eventually peaked at #9 in Canada, #11 in South Africa, #12 in New Zealand, #13 in the US, #31 in Australia, and #41 in the UK.
Click on the link below to watch a great live performance:
On this day in 1980, the Fleetwood Mac single “Sara” debuted on the Australian charts at #76 (January 14)
The song from the “Tusk” LP eventually peaked at #7 in the US, #11 in Australia, #12 in Canada and New Zealand, and #14 in the Netherlands and Belgium.
Stevie Nicks said the song was partially written about her good friend, Sara, who went on to marry Nicks' ex and bandmate, Mick Fleetwood.
This was the relationship that effectively ended the romance between Nicks and Fleetwood…
Although Eagles Don Henley spoke about another possibility in a 1991 interview with GQ, where he said:
“I believe to the best of my knowledge she [Stevie Nicks] became pregnant by me. And she named the kid Sara, and she had an abortion and then wrote the song of the same name to the spirit of the aborted baby.
I was building my house at the time, and there's a line in the song that says 'And when you build your house, call me.'"
Nicks acknowledged the events in 2014, speaking to Billboard magazine. "Had I married Don and had that baby, and had she been a girl, I would have named her Sara."
Songfacts tells us that “Sara” was effectively 16-minutes long when Nicks wrote it.
They had to edit it down to under five minutes for the album, but Stevie claimed the "real version" has about nine more verses and tells quite a story.
Over the years it’s become a Fleetwood Mac fan favourite.
Click on the link below to watch the video:
New York Dolls guitarist Sylvain Sylvain passed away on this day in 2021 (January 13)
Sylvain was born in Cairo, Egypt, to a Jewish family, but his family fled in the 1950s, first to France and finally to New York.
In the late 60s he had started playing in bands, and worked in a men's boutique that was across the street from the New York Doll Hospital, a doll repair shop, which Sylvain said inspired the name for his future band.
The New York Dolls formed in 1971, and were the prototype for glam and punk bands that would follow in the mid-70s.
Although they weren’t around for a long time, and did not achieve a huge amount of commercial success back then, they were one of the most influential bands of their era, inspiring the likes of the Sex Pistols, Kiss, the Ramones, Guns N' Roses, the Damned, and the Smiths, among others.
The New York Dolls split in 1976 after two cult classic albums, but reunited in 2004, and after a few more albums disbanded again in 2011.
Sylvain also released solo work and collaborated with a variety of artists over the years.
He passed away from cancer on January 13, 2021, aged 69.
Click on the link below to watch “Trash”:
On this day in 1984, the Pat Benatar single “Love Is A Battlefield” debuted on the UK, Singles Chart at #77 (January 14)
“Love Is A Battlefield” was written by Holly Knight and Mike Chapman, who also combined to write “The Best”, which was a hit for Tina Turner, and again in Australia for Tina Turner and Jimmy Barnes.
Songwriting Hall of Famer Knight also co-wrote Scandal’s “The Warrior”, while Chapman is half of the Chinn/Chapman songwriting team that wrote a plethora of hits for artists around the world.
The song from the “Live from Earth” LP was a beauty, spending 5 weeks at #1 in Australia, and 4 weeks at #1 in the Netherlands, making it one of the biggest selling songs of the year in those countries.
It also went to #2 in Canada, #3 in Germany, #5 in the US (tied with "We Belong" as her highest-charting single there), #6 in New Zealand, #9 in Ireland, #11 in Switzerland, and #49 in the UK.
In 1984, the song won Benatar her fourth consecutive Grammy Award for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance, and the video was nominated for an MTV Video Music Award for Best Female Video.
“Love is a Battlefield” was ranked at #30 in VH1's list of the 100 Greatest Songs of the 1980s…
The MTV favourite was one of the first clips to feature dialogue not involved in the actual song, and struck a chord with teenagers everywhere as Benatar plays the girl who’s had enough and runs away from home (even though she was 30 in real life at the time!)
Click on the link below to watch:
This week in 1985, Midnight Oil staged the concert event “Oils on the Water” (January 13)
This was a band at the peak of their powers, the imposing Garrett on vocals, jerking and flailing around the stage in a frenzy like a sweat-soaked whirling dervish, the showman Rob Hirst with his trademark high energy and trademark high straight-arm snare flourish, the best I-2 guitar punch in Australian rock of Martin Rotsey and Jim Moginie, and Peter Gifford driving it home on his Fender Precision.
“Oils on the Water” was put on to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Triple J, Australia's publicly owned youth radio network.
The concert was performed on Sydney Harbour’s heritage listed Goat Island for a small audience of competition winners, and was simulcast on ABC-TV and Triple J.
It was one for the ages…
Click on the link below to watch “Only the Strong” from the show:
This week in 1973, the Slade LP “Slayed?” went to #1 on the UK Albums Chart (January 13)
The lead single "Mama Weer All Crazee Now" was released ahead of the album, and was a raging success, going all the way to #1 in the UK.
The album itself went to #1 in Australia and the UK, #2 in Finland, #3 in Norway and Austria, #10 in the Netherlands and Germany, and #27 in Canada.
The album was also the band's most successful of the 1970s in the US, peaking at #69 and remaining in the charts for 26 weeks.
In 2010, Classic Rock considered the album an "essential classic", adding that it featured "party-hard tracks, and even something approaching a ballad with "Look at Last Nite", ensuring that Slayed? inarguably ticks all the right boxes."
Click on the link below to watch “Mama Weer All Crazee Now”:
On this day in 1980, the XTC single “Making Plans for Nigel” debuted on the Australian charts at #98 (January 14)
"Making Plans for Nigel" was a breakthrough hit for XTC, only progressing to #94 in Australia, but peaking at #12 in Canada, and spending 11 weeks on the UK Singles Chart, peaking at #17.
It also got to #29 in New Zealand, and #32 in the Netherlands.
Guitarist Dave Gregory recalled:
“Despite glowing press reviews [of the “Drums and Wires” album], we were still struggling to fill small theatres in the UK and the brief tour was disappointing.
But then, the unthinkable happened -- Nigel got playlisted at the BBC and in early October, XTC were back in the charts!
And back on Top of the Pops! Twice!
When we resumed touring in late November, every gig was sold out.”
Interestingly, after the song's release, 100,000 steel workers went on strike and contacted songwriter and XTC bassist Colin Moulding for a statement on their issues, but he offered no comment.
British Steel also gathered four Sheffield employees named Nigel to talk about job satisfaction for the trade publication Steel News.
In a 2020 Guardian article about the song, Moulding said: "I've had countless Nigels come up to me over the years and say: 'That song is my life.'"
Click on the link below to watch:
It was Toto’s debut single from their self-titled, debut album.
Toto keyboard player and “Hold the Line” songwriter David Paich recalled that the song was relatively easy to develop.
He began with the piano riff, which would become the song's iconic intro and chorus.
After toying with the piano riff one night, he started singing "Hold the line, love isn't always on time", and found the lyric to be a suitable fit. The verses were subsequently finished two hours later.
Jeff Porcaro, the band's drummer, gave a definition for the song:
"'Hold the Line' was a perfect example of what people will describe as your heavy metal chord guitar licks, your great triplet A-notes on the piano, your 'Sly'-hot-fun-in-the-summertime groove, all mishmashed together with a boy from New Orleans singing... and it really crossed over a lot of lines."
Guitarist Steve Lukather remembered hearing "Hold the Line" for the first time on the radio:
"I flipped the first time I heard myself on the radio.
My mom called me up and said, "Turn on KLOS." It was the song "Hold the Line," and I started running around the house in my underwear, screaming, "I'm on the radio!"
My wife was cracking up. It was just a thrill."
Click on the link below to watch the clip:
On this day in 1979, the Bob Seger single “We’ve Got Tonite” peaked on the US Billboard Hot 100 at #13 (January 13)
Seger wrote the song after seeing the movie “The Sting”, starring Robert Redford and Paul Newman.
In the film, there's scene where Redford puts the moves on a waitress, who says, "I don't even know you." He replies: "You know me. I'm the same as you. It's two in the morning and I don't know nobody."
"That just hit me real hard," Seger told the Detroit Free Press in 1994. "The next day I wrote 'We've Got Tonight,' this song about two people who say 'I'm tired. It's late at night. I know you don't really dig me, and I don't really dig you, but this is all we've got, so let's do it.'
The sexual revolution was still going strong then."
Seger lifted the chords (and slightly changed the melody) from a song he released in 1974 called "This Old House," which was the B-side to his single "UMC (Upper Middle Class)."
The song from Seger’s “Stranger in Town” LP eventually peaked at #9 in Canada, #11 in South Africa, #12 in New Zealand, #13 in the US, #31 in Australia, and #41 in the UK.
Click on the link below to watch a great live performance:
On this day in 1980, the Fleetwood Mac single “Sara” debuted on the Australian charts at #76 (January 14)
The song from the “Tusk” LP eventually peaked at #7 in the US, #11 in Australia, #12 in Canada and New Zealand, and #14 in the Netherlands and Belgium.
Stevie Nicks said the song was partially written about her good friend, Sara, who went on to marry Nicks' ex and bandmate, Mick Fleetwood.
This was the relationship that effectively ended the romance between Nicks and Fleetwood…
Although Eagles Don Henley spoke about another possibility in a 1991 interview with GQ, where he said:
“I believe to the best of my knowledge she [Stevie Nicks] became pregnant by me. And she named the kid Sara, and she had an abortion and then wrote the song of the same name to the spirit of the aborted baby.
I was building my house at the time, and there's a line in the song that says 'And when you build your house, call me.'"
Nicks acknowledged the events in 2014, speaking to Billboard magazine. "Had I married Don and had that baby, and had she been a girl, I would have named her Sara."
Songfacts tells us that “Sara” was effectively 16-minutes long when Nicks wrote it.
They had to edit it down to under five minutes for the album, but Stevie claimed the "real version" has about nine more verses and tells quite a story.
Over the years it’s become a Fleetwood Mac fan favourite.
Click on the link below to watch the video:
New York Dolls guitarist Sylvain Sylvain passed away on this day in 2021 (January 13)
Sylvain was born in Cairo, Egypt, to a Jewish family, but his family fled in the 1950s, first to France and finally to New York.
In the late 60s he had started playing in bands, and worked in a men's boutique that was across the street from the New York Doll Hospital, a doll repair shop, which Sylvain said inspired the name for his future band.
The New York Dolls formed in 1971, and were the prototype for glam and punk bands that would follow in the mid-70s.
Although they weren’t around for a long time, and did not achieve a huge amount of commercial success back then, they were one of the most influential bands of their era, inspiring the likes of the Sex Pistols, Kiss, the Ramones, Guns N' Roses, the Damned, and the Smiths, among others.
The New York Dolls split in 1976 after two cult classic albums, but reunited in 2004, and after a few more albums disbanded again in 2011.
Sylvain also released solo work and collaborated with a variety of artists over the years.
He passed away from cancer on January 13, 2021, aged 69.
Click on the link below to watch “Trash”:
On this day in 1984, the Pat Benatar single “Love Is A Battlefield” debuted on the UK, Singles Chart at #77 (January 14)
“Love Is A Battlefield” was written by Holly Knight and Mike Chapman, who also combined to write “The Best”, which was a hit for Tina Turner, and again in Australia for Tina Turner and Jimmy Barnes.
Songwriting Hall of Famer Knight also co-wrote Scandal’s “The Warrior”, while Chapman is half of the Chinn/Chapman songwriting team that wrote a plethora of hits for artists around the world.
The song from the “Live from Earth” LP was a beauty, spending 5 weeks at #1 in Australia, and 4 weeks at #1 in the Netherlands, making it one of the biggest selling songs of the year in those countries.
It also went to #2 in Canada, #3 in Germany, #5 in the US (tied with "We Belong" as her highest-charting single there), #6 in New Zealand, #9 in Ireland, #11 in Switzerland, and #49 in the UK.
In 1984, the song won Benatar her fourth consecutive Grammy Award for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance, and the video was nominated for an MTV Video Music Award for Best Female Video.
“Love is a Battlefield” was ranked at #30 in VH1's list of the 100 Greatest Songs of the 1980s…
The MTV favourite was one of the first clips to feature dialogue not involved in the actual song, and struck a chord with teenagers everywhere as Benatar plays the girl who’s had enough and runs away from home (even though she was 30 in real life at the time!)
Click on the link below to watch:
This week in 1985, Midnight Oil staged the concert event “Oils on the Water” (January 13)
This was a band at the peak of their powers, the imposing Garrett on vocals, jerking and flailing around the stage in a frenzy like a sweat-soaked whirling dervish, the showman Rob Hirst with his trademark high energy and trademark high straight-arm snare flourish, the best I-2 guitar punch in Australian rock of Martin Rotsey and Jim Moginie, and Peter Gifford driving it home on his Fender Precision.
“Oils on the Water” was put on to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Triple J, Australia's publicly owned youth radio network.
The concert was performed on Sydney Harbour’s heritage listed Goat Island for a small audience of competition winners, and was simulcast on ABC-TV and Triple J.
It was one for the ages…
Click on the link below to watch “Only the Strong” from the show:
This week in 1973, the Slade LP “Slayed?” went to #1 on the UK Albums Chart (January 13)
The lead single "Mama Weer All Crazee Now" was released ahead of the album, and was a raging success, going all the way to #1 in the UK.
The album itself went to #1 in Australia and the UK, #2 in Finland, #3 in Norway and Austria, #10 in the Netherlands and Germany, and #27 in Canada.
The album was also the band's most successful of the 1970s in the US, peaking at #69 and remaining in the charts for 26 weeks.
In 2010, Classic Rock considered the album an "essential classic", adding that it featured "party-hard tracks, and even something approaching a ballad with "Look at Last Nite", ensuring that Slayed? inarguably ticks all the right boxes."
Click on the link below to watch “Mama Weer All Crazee Now”:
On this day in 1980, the XTC single “Making Plans for Nigel” debuted on the Australian charts at #98 (January 14)
"Making Plans for Nigel" was a breakthrough hit for XTC, only progressing to #94 in Australia, but peaking at #12 in Canada, and spending 11 weeks on the UK Singles Chart, peaking at #17.
It also got to #29 in New Zealand, and #32 in the Netherlands.
Guitarist Dave Gregory recalled:
“Despite glowing press reviews [of the “Drums and Wires” album], we were still struggling to fill small theatres in the UK and the brief tour was disappointing.
But then, the unthinkable happened -- Nigel got playlisted at the BBC and in early October, XTC were back in the charts!
And back on Top of the Pops! Twice!
When we resumed touring in late November, every gig was sold out.”
Interestingly, after the song's release, 100,000 steel workers went on strike and contacted songwriter and XTC bassist Colin Moulding for a statement on their issues, but he offered no comment.
British Steel also gathered four Sheffield employees named Nigel to talk about job satisfaction for the trade publication Steel News.
In a 2020 Guardian article about the song, Moulding said: "I've had countless Nigels come up to me over the years and say: 'That song is my life.'"
Click on the link below to watch:
