Song on the Radio

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Song on the Radio"
Song on the Radio - Al Stewart.jpg
Single by Al Stewart
from the album Time Passages
B-side"A Man For All Seasons"
ReleasedJanuary 1979
GenrePop rock
Length4:10
LabelArista Records 0389
Songwriter(s)Al Stewart
Producer(s)Alan Parsons
Al Stewart singles chronology
"Time Passages"
(1978) 		"Song on the Radio"
(1979) 		"Midnight Rocks"
(1980)

"Song on the Radio" is a composition by Al Stewart introduced on his 1978 album release Time Passages. [1]

Background[]

Al Stewart on Song on the Radio
"I was kind of making fun of Arista Records" who had "asked for a mid-tempo ballad with a saxophone...They wanted a song that could be played on the radio, [so] very tongue-in-cheek I wrote...'Song on the Radio'. I thought they'd [get that] I was actually joking, but of course they didn't & ...put it out as a single [which] made the Top 30, [so] the joke was on me because I screwed up a preposition" - referring to the opening lines "I was making my way through the wasteland/ The road into town passes through" which ends with a preposition - "Worse, I used the same word [through] twice in the same sentence."[2]

"Song on the Radio" was released in January 1979 as the second single from the Time Passages album, following the title cut which had been a Top Ten hit on the Hot 100 in Billboard magazine[3] whose Adult Contemporary chart had afforded "Time Passages" a ten week tenure at No. 1[4]

"Song on the Radio" would peak at No. 29 on the Hot 100[5] and rise as high as No. 10 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart[6]

In Canada "Song on the Radio" also peaked at No. 29 on the national hit parade as ranked by RPM magazine[7] whose Adult Contemporary chart afforded the track a peak of No. 3.[8]

Chart performance[]

References[]

  1. ^ Time Passages - Al Stewart|AllMusic
  2. ^ Al Stewart’s cast of characters - Boulder Weekly
  3. ^ "Al Stewart".
  4. ^ "Al Stewart".
  5. ^ "Al Stewart".
  6. ^ "Al Stewart".
  7. ^ Jump up to: a b "Image : RPM Weekly - Library and Archives Canada". Bac-lac.gc.ca. 17 July 2013. Retrieved 15 October 2016.
  8. ^ Jump up to: a b "Image : RPM Weekly - Library and Archives Canada". Bac-lac.gc.ca. Retrieved 15 October 2016.
  9. ^ Joel Whitburn's Top Pop Singles 1955-1990 - ISBN 0-89820-089-X
  10. ^ Billboard Adult Contemporary, March 24, 1979
  11. ^ "Image : RPM Weekly - Library and Archives Canada". Bac-lac.gc.ca. Retrieved 15 October 2016.

External links[]

Stub icon

This 1970s single–related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by .

  • v
  • t
Retrieved from ""