Coming up, it’s time for a POR throwback. Back in the early days of the channel, we had our regular series #1 in Our Hearts where we honored songs that were so unbelievably great, they should've been #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. But for whatever reason, whether it was lack of radio play or marketing, or maybe the label just wasn’t behind the track… these songs came up short. Well, now we are going to zero in on a specific year and look at the top 10 songs that didn’t quite make it to #1, and we’re going to give. Today we're heading back to the late 70s. Let’s see if you can guess the year. It was the year that rock made a huge comeback and decimated Disco on the strength of several big hits, including Sultans of Swing that was inspired by the most self-delusional band in town. This band played in an empty pub, and it inspired a Dire Straits’ breakout hit. Then there’s the two-hit wonder Nicolette Larson, who found her biggest hit in a dusty cassette tape that was being stepped on as it sat on the floor of a rock legend's truck. And finally, there’s the Toto keyboardist who wrote an iconic hit on his piano in his apartment… he couldn’t stop messing with the catchy tune until he figured it out. It took him three days, and his neighbors were banging on the door for him to stop. He even got evicted due to the noise.” But in the end, it paid off, going top 5 and making his band a household name. Let’s get into it.
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Executive Producer
Brandon Fugal
Honorary Producers
David Roche, Bob Bell, Holly, W.T.F, James Dorsey, Bruce Suit
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Hey Music junkies, Professor of Rock always here to celebrate the greatest songs and the greatest artists of all time. If you tried to build a masterpiece with Tinker Toys as a kid. You’ll dig this channel of deep musical nostalgia. Make sure to subscribe, like, share, and comment. Ok, today we are doing a special edition of our classic show #1 in our Hearts. All of these songs were top 10 hits. But they came up just short of #1; many of these were so much better than the songs that did rule the top of the charts… So today we are changing history. And give these songs their due. It’s time to head back to the last year of the seventies, where Disco was still holding on, but as you’ll see in this countdown. A couple of rock bands took it out for good from the #1 hit My Sharona by the Knack to the song that I chose as #1 on this countdown that obliterated Disco for Good! Can you guess what it is? Let me know in the comments.
Alright, let’s get this countdown rolling. In at #10… it’s I’ve got one of the most beloved groups in history. EWF After the Love Has Gone …ah Earth, Wind and Fire. They are the best. This song came together in late 1978 through a moment of desperate improvisation from producer David Foster. The young Foster was sitting face-to-face with Motown mastermind Berry Gordy, playing tracks for him from singer Jaye P. Morgan’s unreleased album. During the session, Gordy told Foster that the music was good, but that he wanted to hear a track that combined pop and R&B. So Foster lied and said, "I have something like that.” Then he sat down at the piano and completely pulled something out of thin air. Foster described it as “one of those moments where the chorus for the song just poured out of me like a gift from heaven: Oh woh, after the love has gone / what used to be right is wrong.”
He couldn’t believe that it came out of him on the spot and under so much pressure. Of course, Berry Gordy loved it. From there, co-writer Jay Graydon built the verse chord progression around it, and future Chicago vocalist Bill Champlin wrote the lyrics. And Champlin actually recorded it first… for his own 1978 solo debut album Single. Foster cut three full versions of the track with him. But David Foster was also writing music with Maurice White of Earth, Wind and Fire at the time. Foster played After the Love is Gone for Maurice, and once he heard it, he loved it and wanted to record it for EWF. So, to Champlin’s dismay, it was pulled from his record and given to Earth, Wind and Fire and landed on EWF’s next album, I Am. It was released as a single in July 1979, following "Boogie Wonderland,” and became a summer staple.
