WLS Music Survey - February 6, 1982 (Part Two: The Extras)

The flip-side of this week's WLS Survey from 1982 does not feature an artist Bio but rather the oddly titled Bio Feedback, a memorial for The Day The Music Died aka February 3, 1959, that saw the lives of Buddy Holly, The Big Bopper, and Richie Valens snuffed out in a small plane crash. My Dad, like Don McLean and countless others, claimed he delivered newspapers the next morning bearing the sad news, a forgotten weekly paper in a small Texas town he also forgot to remember.

There are no song lyrics on the reverse side of the survey either just an Etcetera, Etc. depicting Larry Lujack's School Central Central which seems very apropos for the winter of 2019.

Back on the front-side of the survey, the Forty-fives list features seven Extra songs, including a rocking single from some unknown dude named Peter Cepera about the trappings of fame, featuring some heavy riffs from Steve Lukather

The melodic rock of "Don't Let Him Know" was Prism's only single to make WLS's weekly survey. Written by the Canadian songwriting team of Jim Vallance (Prism's first drummer though he was no longer with the group at the time) and budding rockstar Bryan Adams (fresh off his You Want It, You Got It album) would peak at #22 the following month.

"Edge Of Seventeen" from Stevie Nicks is driven by Waddy Wachtel's little-engine-that-could-chug riff and would peak at #11 on WLS's chart in March, as well. There was a live version on the single's B-side but one of Tucson's rock stations at the time (KLPX or KWFM) played an extended live version of "Edge Of Seventeen" one night and it took me more than a few years to find a copy of the promo only twelve-inch single with that version, later included in the context of the original concert recording from December 13, 1981, as part of the Deluxe Edition of the Bella Donna album in 2016.

Sammy Hagar's "I'll Fall In Love Again" stopped at #30 on its rise up the Forty-fives chart. The track was from Hagar's better-than-fine Standing Hampton album but would reappear a few years later on the Vision Quest soundtrack album in 1985 as well as on the B-side of Journey's "Only The Young" spun off from the album here in the States.

Easily the odd man out of the seven songs tacked on to the list of Forty-fives as Extras, Fogelberg's deeply heartfelt biographical song about his own father would climb to #15 but it did absolutely nothing for me, not in 1982 nor any other year until 2015, when Dad passed. Suddenly, as if a switch was flipped, "Leader Of The Band" and all of those father/son songs ("Cat's In The Cradle", "My Father's Eyes", "The Living Years", "Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy)", etc.) caught up to me and I find it difficult to remain dry-eyed when I hear any of them. Heck, I'm tearing up a little just typing in the titles.

In February 1982 (or March, April and most of May 1982 for that matter), I did not know any songs by Survivor. Around Memorial Day of that year, however, I became their biggest fan for all of four minutes when I first heard "Eye Of The Tiger". Even though their prior single "Summer Nights" crept up to #30 on WLS's singles chart, the song didn't even register and listening to it now, I got nothing. Bupkes. It's a universal theme for sure (remember those summer nights of yore) and it kind of reminds me of a Journey song, both in structure and parts of the vocal performance.

"Peter Cepera", when correctly spelled, is Peter Cetera, lead singer/bassist in a little band formerly known as the Chicago Transit Authority before they evolved into plain ol' Chicago. "Livin' In The Limelight" is Cetera's first solo single, decidedly heavier and more world-weary than his group's previous sound, with absolutely no horns to be heard. The sleek, metallic guitar solo that comes in around the 2:27 mark is courtesy of Toto's Steve Lukather. The song scooted up to #29 despite a lack of promotion although it seems like it should have been a bigger hit, especially in Chicago. I heard "Livin' In The Limelight" frequently on rock radio down here in the Sonoran Desert at the time and liked it a lot, dubbing it in its entirety during a sweet Sunday Six Pack though I didn't add the actual album to my stash until a couple of decades later.

Which brings us to the sleeping giant of the Extras, the future Number One Song on WLS's Big 89 of 1982, Joan Jett & The Blackhearts massive cover of "I Love Rock 'N Roll". While most fans know the song was a cover of The Arrows song from 1975, few fans realize that Joan had first covered it in 1979 backed by a couple of former members of The Sex Pistols before re-recording it with The Blackhearts in 1981. (That 1979 first attempt by Jett can be found on 1993's Flashback compilation.)

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That's all we have time for today. Join us again real soon for Part Three: The Forty-Fives.