Night Ranger - "Four in the Morning (I Can't Take Anymore)"

(Debuted August 24, 1985, Peaked #19, 13 Weeks on the Chart)

As a writer, I sometimes try not to look at the clock while I'm working. Frankly, most of the time I really don't want to know how late it is. I've been known to write stuff late into the night, so the first line of the song ("Four in the morning came without a warning") is something I've been able to relate to. For Night Ranger member Jack Blades, that was the time it was when he wrote this song. "Write what you know," the saying goes...

As one of three hit singles from Night Ranger's LP Seven Wishes, "Four in the Morning (I Can't Take Anymore)" was a continuation of a string of hits that began with the MTV monster hit "Sister Christian" in 1984. Little did we know at the time, the ride was soon about to end. However, the song was a hook-filled confection that exemplified what we now call "arena rock," chock-full of 1980s music cliches yet still sounding good all these years later. Part of it sounds like a narrator talking to a half-empty beer bottle just before the bar is about to close, but it deserves to be better remembered than it eventually became.