hit singles

Same title, different hit songs

Posted on by brucehhackett

I always found it a curious thing to do when artists would release new singles that have the identical title as a completely different well-known song by another artist.

You’d think this might be confusing to the listening public, but apparently not, because it’s pretty remarkable how often this kind of thing has happened in rock music history, especially in the ’50s, ’60s, 70s and ’80s, and still occurs more frequently than you might expect in recent decades.

Perhaps the duplication of a song title isn’t all that important if they’re in different genres (country rock versus disco, or hard rock versus MOR ballad).  In those cases, it’s possible, maybe likely, that the songwriter wasn’t even familiar with the other tune because it’s not in a genre he/she listens to much.

I found nearly 100 great examples of notable song titles that were used in multiple hit songs, and I’ve whittled that list down to the 21 I’ve featured in this blog.  Most of the rest I’ll merely list as “honorable mentions” as a way of showing how prevalent the practice has been in pop music.  No doubt readers will think of many I’ve neglected to mention.

“Missing You” was the title of a minor hit (peaking at #23) for Dan Fogelberg in 1982, and then John Waite soared to #1 with his own song called “Missing You” in 1984.  Later that same year, Diana Ross reached #10 with Lionel Richie’s “Missing You,” a tribute to Marvin Gaye.

Here’s another:  “Best of My Love,” written by Don Henley, Glenn Frey and J.D. Souther, was The Eagles’ first #1 hit in the summer of 1974.  A completely different “Best of My Love,” composed by Maurice White and Al McKay, was also a #1 hit for the female disco group The Emotions in 1977.

“Feel Like Makin’ Love,” an R&B tune written by Eugene McDaniels, was a big #1 hit for Roberta Flack in 1974. Less than a year later, singer Paul Rodgers and guitarist Mick Ralphs of Bad Company wrote a harder rocking, different “Feel Like Makin’ Love” that went to #10 here.

Sometimes so many years have passed since the title’s first appearance that the songwriter, artist or record company felt confident there will be no confusion if a new song comes out with the same title as an earlier hit.  The great Roy Orbison reached #2 with his classic ballad “Only the Lonely” way back in 1959, so when Martha Davis, singer of New Wave group The Motels, came up with an unrelated song called “Only the Lonely” in 1982, nobody saw any reason it couldn’t also do well, and it reached #9 that year.

There often might be dozens of little-known songs (or classic rock tracks that never charted as singles) that share a title with better known hits.  “Heartbreaker” is an explosive album track by Led Zeppelin on their 1969 second LP, but you won’t find it on the Top 40 charts.  Instead you’ll find three different songs called “Heartbreaker” over the years:  a 1973 Jagger-Richards song, technically called “Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker),” that reached #15 for The Rolling Stones; Pat Benatar’s first hit in 1979 by two obscure British songwriters; and a Dionne Warwick number in 1983 written by the Gibb Brothers that made it to #10.

How about the simple title “Fire,” which has at least three hit songs bearing that title.  The Crazy World of Arthur Brown went first with their 1968 song, peaking at #2; then the Ohio Players with their dance track in 1975, a #1 hit; and then Bruce Springsteen’s smoldering tune (he wrote it for Elvis, who never got the chance to record it) was made into a #2 hit by the Pointer Sisters in 1979.  Actually, the first rock recording called “Fire” was a Jimi Hendrix tune from the “Are You Experienced?” debut LP in 1967.

Then there’s Venus,” a song title that reached #1 three times.  First, teen idol Frankie Avalon did it in 1959 with a chart-topper written by Ed Marshall and Peter DiAngelis. A decade later, the Dutch band Shocking Blue reached #1 with guitarist Robbie Van Leeuwen’s song of the same title, and 16 years after that, the British female pop band Bananarama did a cover of Shocking Blue’s song that also peaked at #1 in the US.

“Jump” was such a humongous #1 hit for Van Halen in 1984 that The Pointer Sisters’ record label chose to alter the title of their own “Jump” the same year to “Jump (For My Love),” which still managed to reach #3.

In 1967, the world got a hearty taste of “the San Francisco sound” when Jefferson Airplane reached #5 on US pop charts with “Somebody to Love,” written by Grace Slick’s brother-in-law Darby, who had been guitarist in her previous band, The Great Society. Nearly a decade later, Queen‘s lead singer Freddie Mercury wrote another track called “Somebody to Love,” based on a gospel choir arrangement. It peaked at #13 in the US, and #2 in the UK.

Most everyone knows Steely Dan’s #6 hit “Do It Again,” a Fagen-Becker original that jump-started their career in 1972, but four years before that came a different “Do It Again,” a Brian Wilson-Mike Love ditty that was a #20 charter for The Beach Boys.

One of the more unusual duplications of a song title was “Shining Star,” because both compositions were bonafide R&B songs.   First came the Maurice White-Philip Bailey dance classic, a #1 hit for their group Earth, Wind & Fire in 1975.  Then in 1980, The Manhattans, a vocal group dating back to the early ’60s who were reborn with a new lead singer in the late ’70s, had a #5 hit with another “Shining Star,” written by Leo Graham and Paul Richmond.

Joe Walsh was both a solo artist and a member of The Eagles in 1980 when he composed “All Night Long,” a #19 hit from the “Urban Cowboy” film soundtrack.  Three years later, Lionel Richie went to #1 with a different “All Night Long,” although it was technically known as “All Night Long (All Night).”

George Harrison wrote, arranged and played guitar on Ringo Starr‘s #1 hit “Photograph” in 1973. Ten years later, Def Leppard reached #12 on the US charts with a heavy-metal slab that sported the same title.

The Pacific Northwest pop band Paul Revere and the Raiders had a #4 charting in 1966 with “Good Thing,” a Mark Lindsay-Terry Melcher tune.  More than 20 years later, Roland Gift and his Fine Young Cannibals wrote and recorded their own “Good Thing,” which topped the charts in 1989.

In 1971, the third single from Carole King‘s multiplatinum LP was the ballad “So Far Away,” which peaked at #14. When Dire Straits assembled their mega-successful 1985 album “Brothers in Arms,” one of its singles was also titled “So Far Away” and reached #19 on US charts.

Barrett Strong had Motown’s first charting hit in 1959 with the song he co-wrote with Berry Gordy called “Money (That’s What I Want).” It stalled at #50 in the US but reached #5 in the UK and #7 in Canada, and The Beatles recorded it on their second LP. In 1973, Pink Floyd‘s progressive rock classic “Dark Side of the Moon” album featured the single “Money,” peaked at #13.

“My Love,” as written by Tony Hatch (who also wrote “Downtown”), was a #1 for Petula Clark in 1966.  That didn’t stop Paul McCartney from writing his own tune called “My Love,” which topped the charts in 1973.

Del Shannon‘s tune “Runaway” held the #1 slot for four weeks in 1961. Seventeen years later, Jefferson Starship had a hit single with their song “Runaway,” which peaked at #12.

The Isley Brothers — Ron, Rudy and O’Kelly — co-wrote and recorded their call-and-response tune “Shout” in 1959, which reached only a modest #45 on charts that year. Its use during the toga party scene in the 1978 film “Animal House” gave it a whole new life, and it has since become a wedding reception must in the years since. British duo Tears for Fears had their own #1 hit with their unrelated song “Shout” in 1985.

Harry Nilsson wrote a lovely ballad about loneliness called “One,” which Three Dog Night made into a #5 pop hit in 1969. Two decades later, The Bee Gees‘ tune called “One” peaked at #7. Finally, U2 scored a #10 hit with its identically titled “One” in 1992.

We can’t forget the timeless title “Lady,” which appears on the top of the sheet music page for three different hit songs:  First came power pop band Styx’s number by Dennis DeYoung (#6 in 1975); and then, in rapid succession, Little River Band’s tune (#10 in 1979) and the Lionel Richie-penned #1 smash in 1980 by Kenny Rogers.

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Here are a few more honorable mentions to explore of “Same Title, Different Songs,” should the mood strike you:

“Good Times” — Sam Cooke, 1964;  Chic, 1979

“Power of Love” — Joe Simon, 1972;  Huey Lewis and The News, 1985

“Gloria” — Them, 1965;  Laura Branigan, 1982

“Real Love” — Doobie Brothers, 1980;  Jody Watley, 1989;  The Beatles, 1995

“Games People Play” — Joe South, 1969;  Alan Parsons Project, 1981

“Angel” — Aretha Franklin, 1973; Fleetwood Mac, 1979; Madonna, 1985; Aerosmith, 1987

“It’s a Miracle” — Barry Manilow, 1975;  Culture Club, 1984

“Love Will Find a Way” — Pablo Cruise, 1978;  Yes, 1987

“Baby Blue” — The Echoes, 1961;  Badfinger, 1972

“America” — Simon and Garfunkel, 1968;  Neil Diamond, 1980

“I’m On Fire” — Dwight Twilley, 1975;  Bruce Springsteen, 1984

“Hold On” — Ian Gomm, 1979;  Santana, 1982

“Crazy Love” — Paul Anka, 1958;  Poco, 1979

“It’s My Life” — The Animals, 1965;  Talk Talk, 1984

“On the Road Again” — Canned Heat, 1968;  Willie Nelson, 1980

“Nobody’s Fool” — Cinderella, 1987;  Kenny Loggins, 1988

“Question” — Lloyd Price, 1960;  The Moody Blues, 1970

“Revolution” — The Beatles 1968; The Pretenders, 1994

“Turn to Stone” — Joe Walsh, 1972; Electric Light Orchestra, 1977

“Evil Woman” — Spooky Tooth, 1969; The Doobie Brothers, 1973; ELO, 1975

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I’ve prepared two Spotify playlists.  The first one compares the songs discussed in the main body of the blog post; the second one contrasts the tunes listed in the “honorable mentions.”

If the wind is right, you can sail away and find serenity

Posted on by brucehhackett

In the late ’70s/early ’80s, there existed a commercially successful sub-genre of rock music that had been called “the West Coast sound,” or “adult-oriented rock” (AOR). Basically, it mixed pop, R&B, soul, funk, and jazz into impeccably produced radio-ready songs that emphasized melody and mellow vibes and downplayed rock’s harsher elements. “Soft rock,” some called it, although some of the songs were not ballads or even all that “soft.”

In 2005, J.D. Ryznar, a Southern California writer/director/producer who considers himself a fan of that music, became fascinated with how much of it seemed to be recorded by the same community of Los Angeles-based studio musicians. He developed a comedy video web series he dubbed “Yacht Rock,” which poked fun at what he guessed would be the music you’d hear if you frequented the marinas where the wealthy hung out sipping drinks on their yachts.

Although the songs of artists like Michael McDonald, Steely Dan, Christopher Cross, Toto and others were never referred to as “yacht rock” at the time the music was created, the moniker is now widely used, both lovingly and pejoratively, to characterize the precise, polished, sublime sounds that commanded a great deal of airplay in the 1975-1985 period.

Indeed, for almost two decades now, an Atlanta-based ensemble known as Yacht Rock Revue has been touring for up to 100 shows per year, pumping out convincing cover versions of songs that fall into the loosely defined category. I attended one of these shows in Nashville last week and found it be fun and entertaining, even if it was pretty much just a bunch of unidentified musicians operating as a competent cover band. They’re not unlike the “tribute bands” that cover songs of one specific group (like Dark Star, the famous Grateful Dead tribute band), except Yacht Rock Revue offer renditions of songs by a couple dozen different artists.

To my ears, many of the tunes played are great songs, even favorites of mine — tracks like The Doobie Brothers’ “What a Fool Believes,” Christopher Cross’s “Ride Like the Wind,” Toto’s “Hold the Line,” Kenny Loggins’s “This Is It,” Nicolette Larson’s “Lotta Love,” Boz Scaggs’s “Lowdown” and Fleetwood Mac’s “You Make Loving Fun.” Sure, they were (and still are) overplayed, but that’s really the fault of unimaginative radio programmers rather than the artists who recorded them.

Ryznar admits that the “yacht rock” phrase was meant to gently mock the non-threatening, smooth pop that served as the soundtrack for his short-lived comedy video series, but the name stuck, thanks in large part to jaded music critics who seized on it in their effort to disparage anything that didn’t rock out aggressively with shrieking vocals and shredded guitar solos.

I asked a few music-loving friends what the term “yacht rock” meant to them, and one said, “It’s music for preppy, upper-class, entitled kids (or wanna-be’s thereof) who took the easy-listening way out of having to understand what rock ‘n’ roll was all about.” Another friend added, “Think Tad and Muffy on the back deck in the harbor, dressed in casual (but expensive) Abercrombie attire, with a pitcher of margaritas.”

I beg to differ. Even Ryznar said he used the term affectionately, and those who like this style have embraced the “yacht rock” term. They sold out the Ryman Auditorium last week, as they have in most cities where Yacht Rock Revue have performed, many showing they were in on the joke by wearing captain’s hats and other nautical gear.

It’s music with strong R&B and smooth jazz influences, high production values, clean vocals and light, catchy melodies. In 2014, music writer Matt Colier identified what he feels are the key defining rules of the genre: 1) Keep it smooth, even when it grooves; 2) Keep the emotions light even when the sentiment turns sad; 3) Keep it catchy; 4) Offer the exhilaration of escape.

Bands like Toto and Steely Dan featured a very clean, precise sound that was painstakingly produced, and critics who prefer a rawer brand of rock find that pristine sound to be a negative, synonymous with “too commercial” and “lacking soul or spontaneity.” Rock and roll is meant to be rough around the edges, uncultured, with in-your-face energy and immediacy, they claim. Well, hey, I like loud, growling hard rock too, but there’s room in my music library for both.

On Sirius XM, there’s a station called Yacht Rock Radio that plays this stuff exclusively. “We celebrate the smooth-sailing soft rock from the late 70s and early 80s,” says its website. “It’s the kind of rock that doesn’t rock the boat!”

“Yacht Rock: A DOCKumentary,” released in 2024, examines the phenomenon, interviewing a variety of musicians and music industry types who, either enthusiastically or grudgingly, concede that the music in question is sonically top-shelf and melodically satisfying. Thundercat, a Grammy-winning bassist from L.A., said, “I’ve never identified it as yacht rock. I’ve always looked at it from the inside, like, ‘Dang, that’s just amazing songwriting.'”

Comedian/actor/musician Fred Armisen had this to say in the documentary: “Yacht rock, to me, is a very relaxing feeling. The singers all seem to be saying, ‘Hey it’s gonna be OK.'”

In its review of the film, Rotten Tomatoes concluded, “Retroactively dubbed “Yacht Rock” in 2005 by a parody website series, the easy listening, relaxing sounds of the late 1970s and early 1980s, which were beloved by many, came to be gently mocked and even dismissed by rock lovers and critics, but have since reclaimed their legitimate place in music history and are celebrated in this groove-infused film.”

So which artists and songs qualify as yacht rock? The boundaries are actually rather fuzzy, but you might start with Steely Dan. On albums like “The Royal Scam,” “Aja” and “Gaucho,” Donald Fagen and Walter Becker used a broad range of LA-based studio musicians to create the stylish palette they were looking for, and they were perfectionists about it, sometimes trying a half-dozen different guitarists (or drummers or keyboardists) to get just the right take.

Sometimes they used the truly professional musicians who went on to become the members of Toto, who, along with singer Michael McDonald, also guested on the recorded work of Christopher Cross, or Boz Scaggs, or James Ingram, or Nicolette Larson. It was fairly incestuous the way the same names kept popping up on these albums, but that’s because they were the “first call” session musicians most in demand at the time.

Said highly regarded guitarist Jay Graydon, “Many of these songs offered jazz chord changes, but rock/pop grooves. We’re closet jazz guys making pop records — confident, even cocky, and perfect performances every time.”

There are artists who might have a few songs that fall into the yacht rock template but the bulk of their catalog does not. People like Ambrosia, Little River Band, Pablo Cruise, Lionel Richie, Alan Parsons Project, Stephen Bishop, Art Garfunkel, Seals & Crofts, Air Supply, Phil Collins, Grover Washington, Eric Carmen, Steve Winwood and Hall & Oates have heard some of their music played on Yacht Rock Radio. Some are cool with it, but Daryl Hall, for one, took umbrage.

“It’s just R&B, with maybe some jazz in there,” he said. “Mellow R&B, smooth R&B. I don’t see what the yacht part is. It was just a fucking joke by two jerkoffs in California, and suddenly it became a genre. I never understood it. People misjudged us because they couldn’t label us. The music press always came up with all these kinds of crap labels. Soft rock, yacht rock. It’s nonsense, really.”

Toto ran into this same problem. Founders David Paich and Jeff Porcaro were seasoned studio players who formed Toto in 1977, blending rock, pop, jazz, funk, even some progressive. Their music didn’t fit easily into a single category, so critics didn’t know how to evaluate them. Ironically, their huge commercial success with tracks like “Africa” and “Rosanna” worked against them, as certain critics looked down their noses and dismissed them as “mainstream” and “anti-rock.” They were called technicians rather than legitimate artists, which were prejudices that had little to do with their actual musical performances.

There are those who label Cross’s 1979 megahit “Sailing” as the ultimate yacht rock anthem largely because of its chill nautical theme. Others say, “Anything with Michael McDonald on it qualifies.” McDonald himself finds the yacht rock designation “hilarious. It’s a bit exaggerated, but these things always have a bit of truth to them. They hit on something, and it has struck a chord for a lot of people out there who find the music nostalgic.”

My friend Paul, who has a lot of experience sailing, noted, “Yacht rock has had a bad rap because it sounds snooty and upper class, while the music is not. I think ‘Summer Breeze’ by Seals and Crofts sums it up very well.”

I’ve collected 30 songs from a variety of “yacht rock” playlists (including 15 from Yacht Rock Revue’s setlist last week) and included my own preferences in the playlist below. If you’re a yacht-rock naysayer, I’d bet good money there are at least five or six songs on this list that you admire, even if only secretly as a “guilty pleasure.”

One of my friends summed up one of the appealing things about yacht rock: “This should be your playlist of choice if you’re trying to get laid.”

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