Sept 19th in Pop History
On this day, September 19th, in:
• 1972 - America released the single Ventura Highway. The song went to # 8 on the Billboard Hot 100, and # 3 on the Easy Listening chart, spending 12 weeks on the charts. It also reached # 43 on the UK Singles Chart staying in that chart for 4 weeks.
In the early and mid-1970s, radio airplay and Billboard charts were filled with all kinds of acoustic pop/rock: Simon & Garfunkel, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, James Taylor, Joni Mitchell, Jim Croce, & John Denver to name only a few. But none seemed bigger than a new band that exploded on the scene in the Spring of 1972 with their huge hit song A Horse With No Name. The band just called themselves America. That first record was quickly followed by a single called I Need You, and then yet another top ten hit song released on today’s date, Ventura Highway.
America is a rock band that was formed in London in 1970 by Dewey Bunnell, Dan Peek, and Gerry Beckley. The trio met as sons of US Air Force personnel stationed in London, where they began performing live. Achieving significant popularity in the 1970s, the band was famous for its close vocal harmonies and acoustic rock sound. They released a long string of hit albums and singles, many of which found lots of airplay on pop/soft rock stations.
The song Ventura Highway contains the phrase "purple rain", later the title of the 1984 song, album, and film from the artist Prince. Regarding a connection to this America song, writers for both The San Diego Union and the Post-Tribune have written that Prince in fact got the title directly from Ventura Highway. Asked to explain the phrase "purple rain" in Ventura Highway, Gerry Beckley responded: "You got me….”
America's albums — six certified gold and/or platinum, with their first greatest hits collection, History, hitting four plus million in sales — displayed a fuller range of the trio's talents than did their singles. The trio won the Grammy for Best New Artist in 1972 and began working with George Martin (who produced the Beatles) and Geoff Emerick in 1974. This successful team went on to record seven albums and several Top Ten hits, including Tin Man, Sister Golden Hair, and Lonely People.
More background on Ventura Highway,…
Dewey Bunnell, the song's vocalist and writer, has said that the lyric "alligator lizards in the air" in the song is a reference to the shapes of clouds in the sky he saw in 1963 while his family was driving down the coast from Vandenberg Air Force Base, near Lompoc, California, where they had a flat tire. While his father changed the tire, his brother and he stood by the side of the road and watched the clouds and saw a road sign for "Ventura.”
In the booklet for the boxed set, Highway, he states that the song "reminds me of the time I lived in Omaha as a kid and there were cold winters, and I had images of going to California. So I think in the song I'm talking to myself, frankly: 'How long you gonna stay here, Joe?' I really believe that Ventura Highway has the most lasting power of all my songs. It's not just the words — the song and the track have a certain fresh, vibrant, optimistic quality that I can still respond to.” The song has a "Go West, young man" motif in the structure of a conversation between an old man named Joe and a young and hopeful kid.
He also stated "I remember vividly having this mental picture of the stretch of the coastline traveling with my family when I was younger. Ventura Highway itself, there is no such beast, what I was really trying to depict was the Pacific Coast Highway, Highway 1, which goes up to the town of Ventura.”
Ventura Highway has now become a classic California anthem, one of the great L.A. songs. If you’re a “youngster,” and haven’t heard it, I hope you’ll tap the Spotify link below.
Check out Ventura Highway on Spotify:
Here is my America Playlist on Spotify:
Check out this video of America performing Ventura Highway live in Central Park (1979)
And continuing on Sept. 19th…
• 1960 - The Twist worked its way to # 1 for Chubby Checker
• 1968 - Steppenwolf was awarded a Gold record for the single Born To Be Wild
• 1968 - CCR sat on top of the charts with Bad Moon Rising
• 1977 - The Bee Gees released the single How Deep Is Your Love
• 1987 - Suzanne Vega released the single Luka
Although the song bravely tackles the disturbing issue of child abuse, Luka remains Vega’s highest-charting hit, reaching # 3 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song also earned several Grammy nominations in 1988, including Record of the Year, Song of the Year and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance
