REO Speedwagon - "Keep On Loving You"

(Debuted November 29, 1980, Peaked #1, 28 Weeks on the Chart)

While this is another song that was included in the soundtrack for the film The Last American Virgin, it is better known on its own terms. In 1981, it hit #1 on the pop chart and solidified REO Speedwagon's stature as much more than a live band. Adding the power ballad to their arsenal, it helped gather them more fans than their vaunted live sets ever could.

A listen to the lyrics reveals that the protagonist of the song is borderline possessive. His girl is beginning to look for other men and has begun to act on those impulses. It isn't really said in the song if their relationship has ended or not (though I'm guessing it has), but this poor guy isn't ready to let go of something that once seemed so right. Seen through that lens, the lines "when I said that I loved you, I meant that I love you forever" can be ominous rather than resilient. Dude...she's moving on, you need to let her go. For your own good.

In any case, "Keep On Loving You" was the first #1 hit for a band that was poised to become one of the biggest acts of the 1980s. The song was everywhere in 1981, and soon it seemed that all of their music was pulled out of the vaults because of it. That's good, because certain songs like "Ridin' the Storm Out" were too good to merely be brushed off only when a hurricane or tornado were in the area.

REO Speedwagon - "I Do' Wanna Know"

(Debuted Ocober 27, 1984, Peaked #29, 12 Weeks on the Chart)

After two years, REO Speedwagon came out with a new LP called Wheels Are Turnin' in 1984. The first single (and leadoff track) of that album was a guitar and piano-driven adrenaline shot that was quite memorable to me as a 12 year-old. Not only did the guitar catch my ear, but the words "I don't wanna do what I'm supposed to do, I don't want to wear what I'm supposed to wear" definitely appealed to the budding nonconformist in me.

And then, just as quickly as the song arrived, it disappeared. Other (bigger) REO Speedwagon hits -- "Can't Fight This Feeling," "One Lonely Night" -- replaced it and caused it to be unfairly forgotten. In that sense, "I Do' Wanna Know" is the perfect type of song to feature in this blog: something that should have been better remembered than it was. It's something I fondly remember, seemingly out of place on the radio with "I Just Called to Say I Love You," "Missing You" and "Caribbean Queen" yet still great to hear when its turn came.

REO Speedwagon -- "One Lonely Night"

(Debuted May 30, 1985, Peaked #19, 16 Weeks on the Chart)

Yesterday's blog entry featured a song from a band whose sound has aged the last three decades well. As for today...well, let's just say they're often viewed better in the perspective of their time.

I remember hearing "One Lonely Night" in 1985 and thinking it was a better song than the single it followed, "Can't Fight This Feeling." However, I felt both songs were inferior to the first single that came off the Wheels Are Turnin' album, "I Do' Wanna Know." At the time, I didn't appreciate the soft ballads and didn't understand their appeal beyond the fact that the girls liked them. Today, I've come to realize why one song is still remembered and the other isn't.

That's not to say that "One Lonely Night" should be forgotten. While its synthesizer part dates it, it features a guitar solo -- remember when every other song that played on the radio had to have a guitar solo tacked onto the middle eight? -- that probably dates it even further. Having a rock-styled guitar solo in the middle of a ballad is sometimes a tough sell, but it sure shows up in a lot of the ones that came out back then.

"One Lonely Night" was written by keyboardist Neal Doughty, a departure for the group since the hit singles mainly came from singer Kevin Cronin. What made the song memorable to me as a 12 year-old listener, however, was the video that accompanied the tune on MTV. Shown below as a YouTube video, it uses a pun on the work "night" and features a Medieval knight who searches for his true love. Like I said, I was 12 then, living in a small town and easily amused at that age.