"Song on the Radio" is a composition by Al Stewart introduced on his 1978 album release Time Passages.[1]
| "Song on the Radio" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Single by Al Stewart | ||||
| from the album Time Passages | ||||
| B-side | "A Man for All Seasons" | |||
| Released | January 1979 | |||
| Genre | Pop rock | |||
| Length | 4:10 | |||
| Label | Arista Records 0389 | |||
| Songwriter(s) | Al Stewart | |||
| Producer(s) | Alan Parsons | |||
| Al Stewart singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
Background
edit| 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 Billboard Hot 100[3] as well as being afforded a ten week tenure at No. 1 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart.[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
editReferences
edit- ^ Time Passages - Al Stewart|AllMusic
- ^ Al Stewart’s cast of characters - Boulder Weekly
- ^ "Al Stewart". Billboard.
- ^ "Al Stewart". Billboard.
- ^ "Al Stewart". Billboard.
- ^ "Al Stewart". Billboard.
- ^ a b "Image : RPM Weekly - Library and Archives Canada". Bac-lac.gc.ca. 17 July 2013. Retrieved 15 October 2016.
- ^ a b "Image : RPM Weekly - Library and Archives Canada". Bac-lac.gc.ca. Retrieved 15 October 2016.
- ^ Joel Whitburn's Top Pop Singles 1955-1990 - ISBN 0-89820-089-X
- ^ Billboard Adult Contemporary, March 24, 1979
- ^ "Image : RPM Weekly - Library and Archives Canada". Bac-lac.gc.ca. Retrieved 15 October 2016.
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