Amanda (Boston song)

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This article is about a song by the rock group Boston. For the country song popularized by Don Williams and Waylon Jennings, see Amanda (Don Williams song).
"Amanda"
Amanda single cover.jpg
The sleeve of the "Amanda" single.
Single by Boston
from the album Third Stage
B-side"My Destination"
ReleasedSeptember 26, 1986 (1986-09-26)
Recorded1980–1981, 1986
StudioHideaway and Blue Jay Recording Studios
GenreSoft rock
Length4:16
LabelMCA
Songwriter(s)Tom Scholz
Producer(s)Tom Scholz
Boston singles chronology
"Feelin' Satisfied"
(1978) 		"Amanda"
(1986) 		"We're Ready"
(1986)
Audio
"Amanda" on YouTube

"Amanda" is a power ballad by rock band Boston written by Tom Scholz. The song was released as the first single from the band's third album, Third Stage, in 1986, six years after it was recorded.

Although the song did not have a promotional music video, "Amanda" became the band's highest charting single in the United States and Canada. In the United States, the single topped the Billboard Hot 100 in November, 1986, for two consecutive weeks (the band's only number 1 on the Hot 100),[1] and topped for three consecutive weeks on the Mainstream Rock chart, in October of the same year,[2][3] while in the latter the single topped RPM magazine's Top Singles and Adult Contemporary charts.[4][5]

It was the band's first officially released single since 1978 and their first released by MCA Records. The 12-string guitar parts are played by Scholz.

Background[]

Guitarist Tom Scholz recorded some demos in 1980, including the guitar solo that would later be featured in "Amanda". A couple years went by, and he had to rework the song to finish it. He stated:

I think all that I had were some drums and some rhythm guitar that I played with an electric guitar instead of the acoustic, just to get through the chord changes and to see how it went. [...] I played that little lead electric part after the second chorus, doing it in a hurry as I was running by, and I decided that it was exactly the way I wanted it. I then had to go back and play all of the other parts and keep everything in exactly the same place to match up with that one track that was not going to change.[6]

"Amanda" was not an actual girl. Instead, the name was chosen because it flowed well with the lyrics.[7]

Reception[]

In late 1984 a raw demo of the song was leaked to radio stations via a syndicated satellite feed. Despite the poor audio quality the first new studio Boston song to be heard in six years became the most requested song at AOR (Album-oriented rock) stations that played the bootleg. "Amanda" is a relatively rare example of a song that reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in or after the 1980s without having a performance music video made for it.[8] An interview for British television, made while the band was promoting the Third Stage album, does show a couple of minutes of a music video near the end. The band does not appear in that video, which intersperses shots of a model smiling for the camera with special effects footage of the band's spaceship logo flying over the Boston skyline. One shot shows the animated spaceship almost colliding with the John Hancock Tower. Despite being released in that country, the single failed to chart on the UK singles chart.[9]

The song was eventually certified gold by the Canadian Recording Industry Association with sales of over 5,000 units.[10]

Charts[]

Chart (1986–87) Peak
position
Australian Singles Chart[11] 25
Canadian Adult Contemporary[4] 1
Canadian Top Singles[5] 1
Germany (Media Control AG)[12] 46
Netherlands (Single Top 100)[13] 22
New Zealand (Recorded Music NZ)[14] 32
Norway (VG-lista)[15] 10
South Africa (Springbok Radio)[16] 29
Switzerland (Schweizer Hitparade)[17] 12
US Billboard Hot 100[1][3] 1
US Album Rock Tracks[2][3] 1
US Adult Contemporary (Billboard)[18] 13
Year-end chart (1986) Rank
US Top Pop Singles (Billboard)[19] 50

References[]

  1. ^ Jump up to: a b "Boston Chart History: Hot 100". Billboard Magazine. Retrieved 2019-10-16.
  2. ^ Jump up to: a b "Boston Chart History: Mainstream Rock Songs". Billboard Magazine. Retrieved 2019-10-16.
  3. ^ Jump up to: a b c Whitburn, Joel (2010) [Originally published in 1983]. The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits (9th ed.). Billboard Books. p. 81. ISBN 978-0-8230-8554-5.
  4. ^ Jump up to: a b "Adult Contemporary" (PHP). RPM. 45 (10). November 29, 1986. ISSN 0315-5994. Retrieved July 10, 2011.
  5. ^ Jump up to: a b "100 Singles" (PHP). RPM. 45 (11). December 6, 1986. ISSN 0315-5994. Retrieved July 10, 2011.
  6. ^ "Boston's Tom Scholz got it right the first time on 'Amanda': 'Exactly the way I wanted it'". Something Else. September 26, 2015. Retrieved July 25, 2021.
  7. ^ "The Story of BOSTON's "Amanda"". My Rock Mixtapes. October 14, 2016. Retrieved July 25, 2021.
  8. ^ "The Top 10 Hits the Band Wishes Didn't Exist". Archived from the original on 2010-06-25. Retrieved 2010-06-29.
  9. ^ "Boston singles". officialcharts.com. Retrieved 2013-09-27.
  10. ^ "Gold & Platinum Database Results". Music Canada. Canadian Recording Industry Association. Archived from the original (ASPX) on March 23, 2012. Retrieved July 10, 2011.
  11. ^ Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Books 1970–1992. Australian Chart Book. ISBN 0-646-11917-6.
  12. ^ "Chartverfolgung / BOSTON / Single" (in German). Archived from the original on 2012-10-17. Retrieved 2011-07-10. Media Control Charts. PhonoNet GmbH.
  13. ^ "Dutchcharts.nl – Boston – Amanda" (in Dutch). Single Top 100.
  14. ^ "Charts.nz – Boston – Amanda". Top 40 Singles.
  15. ^ "Topp 20 Single uke 50, 1986 – VG-lista. Offisielle hitlister fra og med 1958" (in Norwegian). VG-lista.
  16. ^ "SA Charts 1965 - 1989: Songs A-B". Retrieved 17 January 2018.
  17. ^ "Swisscharts.com – Boston – Amanda". Swiss Singles Chart.
  18. ^ "Boston Chart History (Adult Contemporary)". Billboard.
  19. ^ Nielsen Business Media, Inc (December 27, 1986). "1986 The Year in Music & Video: Top Pop Singles". Billboard. 98 (52): Y-21.

External links[]

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