Content tagged 'Soft Rock'

46 years ago today, Stephen Stills released the song that would go on to become the biggest hit single of his entire career. The origins of the phrase that drives “Love The One You’re With” are a bit murky, but the recurring rumor that continued to run rampant on Wikipedia is that Stills heard Billy Preston utter the words, after which he reportedly asked for and received permission to write a song around them. The only problem with this story is that there doesn’t seem to be a single interview with the late Mr. Preston wherein he says anything about it, and you’d think there would be. On the

41 years ago today, Rod Stewart released his sixth studio album as a solo artist and, in doing so, secured his fourth chart-topping album in a row in the UK. Unlike the LPs that had preceded it, however, Atlantic Crossing found Stewart putting the production responsibilities in someone else’s hands. Tom Dowd was already a legend for his work with such artists as the Rascals, Wilson Pickett, Aretha Franklin, Dusty Springfield, and Derek and the Dominos, which was exactly why Stewart wanted to work with him. The title of the album was a reference to the fact that Stewart had shifted his base of

42 years ago today, Roberta Flack found herself atop the Billboard Hot 100 for the third time in her career, this time with a composition by Eugene McDaniels. Released a full nine months before the album sharing its title hit record store shelves, “Feel Like Makin’ Love” was actually produced by Flack herself, albeit under a pseudonym (Rubina Flake), but in an interview with JazzWax, she was quick to credit the song’s musicians as a significant reason for its tremendous success. “When Gene [McDaniels] first called and sang his song to me, he just strummed it,” said Flack. “I basically had that

35 years ago today, Stevie Nicks released her first-ever solo album, kicking off a career which has resulted in 10 top-40 singles and more than a few classic LPs. Stevie Nicks’s evolution from a member of Fleetwood Mac into a solo artist in her own right was one which came about organically: when you’re part of a band that has three songwriters, it’s hard to keep things fair and spread the wealth while still providing space for all of the material that was being written. As a result, Ms. Nicks took some time during the sessions for TUSK to record demos for a solo project, but that was in ’78

38 years ago this month, Genesis released the second single from …And Then There Were Three, but while the song hit #43 in the UK, its failure to reach the upper heights of the singles chart has led many to forget that it was released as a single at all. Written by Tony Banks, the ballad “Many Too Many”– which was described by its composer as having “a simple love lyric” – was issued as the follow-up to Genesis’s “Follow You, Follow Me,” which had taken the band into the UK top 10 for the first time in their career. Unfortunately, the masses weren’t quite as taken with the track as they had

37 years ago today, the Bee Gees flew to the pinnacle of the Billboard Hot 100 for the ninth and – at least as of this writing – final time in their career. Written by the eternal trifecta of Barry, Robin, and Maurice Gibb, “Love You Inside Out” was the Bee Gees’ third single from their 1979 album Spirits Having Flown, and just to make sure we mention the number three at least once more in this sentence, we should also note that it was, in fact, the third single from the album to hit #1, following in the footsteps of “Too Much Heaven” and “Tragedy.” Given that those three songs came on the

36 years ago today, Genesis surprised their Los Angeles fans in two ways: they announced that they’d be playing an unexpected show at a very intimate venue, and when the tickets went on sale, they were situated squarely in the box office, selling the tickets themselves. By 1980, Genesis were firmly in the realm of rock superstardom on both sides of the Atlantic, as evidenced not only by their album sales but also by their ticket sales, a status which was handily proven by the fact that they’d sold out shows at both the Long Beach Arena and the Greek Theater. In addition to these performances

29 years ago today, The Doobie Brothers, who’d been broken up for half a decade, kicked off a mini-reunion tour which subsequently led to a permanent regrouping of the band that has continued in some capacity or other ever since. When the brothers Doobie made the decision to go their separate ways, it was because they’d reached a level of tension amongst the various members that had resulted in the whole thing just not being fun anymore. Past problems were set aside, however, when drummer Keith Knudson started calling around to the past members to see if they’d be willing to regroup for a

Radio in 1980 was a hangover from the ‘70s, with artists like Olivia Newton-John, Captain and Tennille and Neil Diamond continuing their chart-topping ways, and new acts like Air Supply scoring hit records with a familiar brand of soft rock. Into this fray stepped a pudgy Texan singer/songwriter with a penchant for laid-back songs and pink flamingoes. Christopher Cross’ self-titled debut sent four of its songs into the Top Forty (including the Number One hit “Sailing” and the iconic “Ride like the Wind”) and won five Grammys, establishing him as a potential hit-maker for the new decade. What