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Tom Johnston – “Savannah Nights”
When Johnston finally came back, it wasn’t with the Doobies. It was with a 1979 solo single that sounded a whole lot like his previous band.
Richard Challen
Apr 22, 20206 min read
801 views
5 comments
Rita Coolidge – “I’d Rather Leave While I’m In Love”
By this point, Coolidge was a battle-scarred veteran of rock 'n roll’s misogyny; intended or not, that history seeps into the margins.
Richard Challen
Apr 13, 20205 min read
506 views
7 comments
Blackfoot – “Train, Train”
“Train, Train” is folklore and Appalachian tradition colliding with Marshall-stack ferocity on the floor of a ruffneck bar.
Richard Challen
Apr 10, 20203 min read
913 views
4 comments
Sugarhill Gang – “Rapper’s Delight”
“Rapper’s Delight” changed music. “Rapper’s Delight” changed culture. “Rapper’s Delight” got everything wrong and still made history.
Richard Challen
Apr 8, 202015 min read
2,120 views
4 comments
Herb Alpert – “Rotation”
As one of the earliest "chillout" tunes, you could expand this track to a full half-hour and lose none of its hypnotic pull.
Richard Challen
Apr 6, 20208 min read
1,091 views
3 comments
ABBA – “Chiquitita”
Here in the States, “Chiquitita” barely cracked the Top 30, yet another victim of America’s ABBA apathy.
Richard Challen
Mar 30, 202010 min read
1,999 views
9 comments
Foghat – “Third Time Lucky (First Time I Was A Fool)”
Foghat made their bones playing unrepentant Neanderthal blues for stoned teenagers, but their second-biggest single was pure country.
Richard Challen
Mar 25, 20203 min read
972 views
5 comments
The Alan Parsons Project – “Damned If I Do”
At some point, probably when an entire orchestra crashes in on top of the synthesized trumpets, it all becomes a bit too much.
Richard Challen
Mar 23, 20205 min read
879 views
4 comments
Daryl Hall & John Oates – “Wait For Me”
Long before the public got back on board, Hall and Oates had already figured out the direction that would reshape the rest of their career.
Richard Challen
Mar 16, 20207 min read
1,563 views
10 comments
Pablo Cruise – “I Want You Tonight”
“I Want You Tonight” sounds like Pablo Cruise decided to glom onto every trend that was happening in late ’79. At the exact same time.
Richard Challen
Mar 11, 20204 min read
525 views
2 comments
The Buggles – “Video Killed The Radio Star”
A deeply sad song delivered like an advertising jingle, a triumph of technological wizardry bemoaning our obsession with technology.
Richard Challen
Mar 6, 202012 min read
1,625 views
17 comments
Prince – “I Wanna Be Your Lover”
“I Wanna Be Your Lover” is a sex song like most Prince songs are sex songs, but far too bright and fizzy to be confused with his later work.
Richard Challen
Mar 4, 20206 min read
1,015 views
4 comments
Jefferson Starship – “Jane”
“Jane” is gloriously stupid trailer-park rock’n’roll at its finest, no apologies necessary.
Richard Challen
Mar 2, 20205 min read
1,552 views
12 comments
Dr. Hook – “Better Love Next Time”
Every element of "Better Love Next Time" amounts to pure fluff, studio-engineered soft-rock dressed up in a polyester leisure suit.
Richard Challen
Feb 28, 20204 min read
641 views
5 comments
Foreigner – “Head Games”
"Head Games" is sneakily subversive, and that weirdness never once gets in the way of its elemental arena rock stomp.
Richard Challen
Feb 26, 20204 min read
655 views
4 comments
Little River Band – “Cool Change”
"Cool Change"is a piece of pleasant and competent soft-rock that goes down easy and dissipates immediately upon fadeout.
Richard Challen
Feb 19, 20203 min read
1,843 views
9 comments
Cliff Richard – “We Don’t Talk Anymore”
For one brief, twenty-four month stretch, Richard took a chintzy, harmless pop ditty and parlayed it into some modicum of Stateside success.
Richard Challen
Feb 17, 20205 min read
647 views
8 comments
Kool & The Gang – “Ladies’ Night”
“Ladies’ Night” is the sound of a veteran group recalibrating their entire aesthetic in an unabashedly craven bid for commercial acceptance.
Richard Challen
Feb 14, 20204 min read
606 views
4 comments
Kenny Rogers – “Coward Of The County”
"Coward Of The County" presents gang rape, cold-blooded murder, and triple homicide as a redemption arc. And that’s all kinds of messed up.
Richard Challen
Feb 12, 20206 min read
911 views
6 comments
Stevie Wonder – “Send One Your Love”
A gorgeous wisp of a song also functions as a disarming, straightforward entry into the most head-scratchingly odd release of his career.
Richard Challen
Feb 7, 20204 min read
583 views
9 comments
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