Double “The Captain of Her Heart” released

The Captain of Her Heart Double

Writer(s): Kurt Maloo, Felix Haug (see lyrics here) Released: November 15, 1985 Peak: 16 US, 20 CB, 18 RR, 4 AC, 8 UK, 17 CN, 64 AU, 1 DF (Click for codes to singles charts.) Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 28.9 video, 20.19 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: Singer and guitarist Kurt Maloo formed the pop-rock duo Double (pronounced doo-BLAY) with keyboardist and drummer Felix Haug in Zurich, Switzerland, in 1983. They only released two albums, 1985’s Blue and 1987’s Dou3le. The former gave them their only real chart success with the single “The Captain of Her Heart,” which went top-10 in the UK and several other European countries. The song hit #16 in the United States, making Double the first Swiss act to crack the top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100. It was their only chart entry in America. Stewart Mason of All Music Guide called it “one of the great lost one-hit wonders of the mid-1980s,” AMG citing the song for its “casual sophistication and melodic grace.” AMG The song came about when Haug recorded a demo on his synthesizer. He said he got the notes from a blackbird singing outside his window. SF Maloo wrote lyrics to it in the studio “about a woman who’s tired of waiting for the man she loves to return.” SF He said, “They were just there out of the blue. It was almost spooky. I never thought the lyrics would touch so many hearts around the world and I’m still overwhelmed from the positive feedback I get.” WK Mason said, “Maloo’s detached, diffident vocals…manage to out cool Bryan Ferry at his own game” AMG while the “waterpiano riff that drives the song…[sounds] like a cross between Floyd Cramer and early Elton John.” AMG It is also features “one of the best alto sax solos this side of Gerry Rafferty’s ‘Baker Street.’” AMG Resources: DMDB encyclopedia entry for Double AMG All Music Guide review by Stewart Mason SF Songfacts WK Wikipedia First posted 10/8/2022.

Bruce Springsteen “My Hometown” released

My Hometown Bruce Springsteen

Writer(s): Bruce Springsteen (see lyrics here) Released: November 21, 1985 First Charted: December 6, 1985 Peak: 6 US, 7 CB, 6 GR, 7 RR, 11 AC, 6 AR, 9 UK, 16 CN, 47 AU, 1 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): 1.0 US Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 68.3 video, -- streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: Bruce Springsteen’s “My Hometown” was the seventh single released from his 1984 Born in the U.S.A. album. More importantly, it was the seventh top-10 hit from the album, matching the record established by Michael Jackson’s Thriller. The song was also the seventh from the album to reach the top 10 on the album rock chart. It is also the only Springsteen song to date to top the adult contemporary chart. Billboard called it a “contemplative, insightful single.” WK The lyrics focus on the protaganist’s memories of the pride his father instilled in him regarding the family’s hometown. By song’s end, the narrator is planning to move, but takes his son driving to experience the same community pride his father had demonstrated. “My Hometown” starts out feeling like it will be a nostalgic look at childhood, but delves into the racial violence and economic depression which the narrator saw in his adolescence and young adulthood. WK Springsteen drew on the racial strife and economic tension he saw in his own hometown of Freehold, New Jersey, offering what Cash Box called a “tender and somber look at the real American hometown.” WK The song’s bleak portrait of the life of the working class extended his audience with the common man, especially during the Reagan era as many small towns were falling apart. SF In a case of life mirroring art, the 3M company closed its factory in Freehold, echoing the line in the song about “they’re closing down the textile mill.” SF Resources: DMDB encyclopedia entry for Bruce Springsteen SF Songfacts WK Wikipedia Related Links: First posted 8/7/2022; last updated 2/21/2023.

Mike + the Mechanics “Silent Running” released

Silent Running (On Dangerous Ground) Mike + the Mechanics

Writer(s): Mike Rutherford, B.A. Robertson (see lyrics here) Released: November 4, 1985 First Charted: November 9, 1985 Peak: 6 US, 5 CB, 5 GR, 5 RR, 7 AC, 15 AR, 21 UK, 8 CN, 23 AU, 2 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 10.9 video, 13.81 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: Bassist/guitarist Mike Rutherford was a founding member of the British rock band Genesis in 1967. He stayed with the band throughout their history, watching them move from their artsier, progressive side with Peter Gabriel on vocals to their more commercial style with Phil Collins at the helm. In the early 1980s, Rutherford released two solo albums. The most successful song from either effort was “Maxine,” a #39 album rock hit in 1982. At the same time, Genesis was reaching its commercial peak. Their self-titled 1983 release was the group’s third straight of five consecutive chart-toppers in the UK and second of four consecutive top-10 albums in the U.S. “That’s All,” from 1983, became the group’s first top-10 hit in the United States, preceding five top-5 hits from their 1986 Invisible Touch album. In between the two Genesis albums, Rutherford formed a side project, Mike + the Mechanics. The group featured Paul Carrack and Paul Young on vocals, Adrian Lee on keyboards, and Peter Van Hooke on drums. Their 1985 self-titled debut produced two top-10 hits, “Silent Running” and “All I Need Is a Miracle.” Carrack, who’d previously taken the mike for hits like Ace’s “How Long,” Squeeze’s “Tempted,” and his own “I Need You,” sang lead on “Silent Running.” Rutherford explained that the song, which he wrote with Scottish musician B.A. Robertson, was about “time travel. The story is about the idea that this father of this family is ahead in time, so he can look back and see what’s going to happen…He’s trying to get a message back to his family to warn them that impending disaster is coming. Hence the line, ‘Can you hear me, can you hear me calling you?” SF According to Casey Kasem’s American Top 40, he titled it after the 1972 sci-fi movie Silent Running because he thought the song had a spacey feel to it, WK although he also told Songfacts.com he hadn’t heard of the movie before writing the song. SF The song was given the subtite “On Dangerous Ground” after it was chosen to be featured in the 1986 movie of the same name, although the movie was retitled Choke Canyon in the United States. WK The video featured clips from the movie. The BBC banned the song during the Gulf War because of its message regarding war, nationalism, and religion, including a direct reference to weaponry (“There s a gun and ammunition / Just inside the doorway.”). WK Resources: SF Songfacts WK Wikipedia Related Links: First posted 11/19/2022; last updated 12/28/2022.

John Mellencamp “Small Town” released as a single

Small Town John (Cougar) Mellencamp

Writer(s): John Mellencamp (see lyrics here) Released: November 2, 1985 First Charted: September 14, 1985 Peak: 6 US, 6 CB, 4 RR, 13 AC, 2 AR, 53 UK, 13 CN, 80 AU, 1 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): -- US, -- UK, -- world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 17.1 video, 99.7 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: Singer/songwriter and musician John Mellencamp was born in 1951 in Seymour, Indiana. He released his first album, Chestnut Street Incident, as Johnny Cougar in 1976. Over the next few years, he cracked the top-40 with hits “I Need a Lover,” “This Time,” and “Ain’t Even Done with the Night” before breaking through to a much wider audience with 1982’s American Fool. The album spawned the #2 hit “Hurts So Good” and chart-topper “Jack and Diane.” The album was the first of five consecutive top-10, platinum-selling albums. Each of the first four produced at least two top-10 hits and he became the #1 album rock artist of the 1980s. While American Fool was his only chart-topper, the 1985 album Scarecrow matched it as his best-selling album with 5 million copies and reached #2. The lead-off single, “Lonely Ol’ Night,” reached #6. Its follow-up, “Small Town,” first charted on the album rock chart in September 1985 and was officially released two months later as a single. It copied its predecessor’s success in peaking at #6 on the Billboard Hot 100. Cash Box called the song “a rocking homage to the small town of the artist’s life and the small towns of America.” WK Mellencamp wrote it about his life in Seymour and Bloomington, Indiana and being “steeped in the sensibilities of his environment.” DM “Many songs have been written about looking to escape the confines of small town America, but Mellencamp celebrates it…most vividly on this song.” SF It can be viewed as “sentimental nonsense derived from America’s myth of agrarian patriotism. But play this record for audience reared in Brooklyn and they’ll tell you that growing up there felt the same way to them.” DM Mellencamp did actually move to New York City after he got a record deal, he “felt overwhelmed and creatively bereft” SF and moved back to Indiana. He told Rolling Stone, “I wanted to write a song that said, ‘You don’t have to live in New York or Los Angeles to live a full life or enjoy your life.’ I was never one of those guys that grew up and thought, ‘I need to get out of here.’ It never dawned on me. I just valued having a family and staying close to friends.” WK He said, “I wrote that song in the laundry room of my old house…We had company and I had to go write the song.” WK He explained that he wrote the words on a typewriter which beeped when he misspelled a word, which amused the guests upstairs. WK He “perfects his latter-day folk-rock (C&W instruments played Rolling Stones-style).” DM Resources: DMDB encyclopedia entry for John Mellencamp DM Dave Marsh (1989). The Heart of Rock & Soul: The 1001 Greatest Singles Ever Made. New American Library: New York, NY. Pages 189-190. SF Songfacts WK Wikipedia Related Links: First posted 10/27/2022; last updated 6/14/2023.