Songoftheday 1/20/13 - No one looked as I walked by, just an invitation would've been just fine...

Stevie Nicks - "Stand Back"
from the album The Wild Heart (1983)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #5 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 14

Today's Song of the Day is by singer/songwriter Stevie Nicks, who kicked off a solo career apart from her band Fleetwood Mac with the mega-successful Bella Donna album. That record spun off four top-40 singles, the top-ten duets "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around" and "Leather And Lace", her iconic "trademark" song "Edge Of Seventeen", and the countryfied nugget "After The Glitter Fades". After rejoining Fleetwood Mac for another album and tour, Stevie set out to record her sophomore solo effort, The Wild Heart. The first single from the album was the aggressive pop of "Stand Back", which she generously cribbed the chord structure from Prince's "Little Red Corvette". After talking with the Purple One (probably to get an OK), he actually showed up in the studio and played keyboards on the track (uncredited) which set the song apart from most anything she had done to that point. There's an actual proximity to funkiness on this song that revitalized her singing and the reaction by the public to the new sound was positive...

Gotta love those "80's dancers"...

"Stand Back" returned Nicks to the top-5 on the pop chart, as well as #2 on the rock radio format list. It also initially was released in an extended version, which also made the top-20 of the dance chart. The song also made the top-10 in Canada, and was successful around the world, but in England, where she hasn't done so well, it failed to even make the pop singles chart.

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The video for the song actually had to be done twice (she thought she was "fat" besides the fact that it's cheesier than a Velveeta factory...)

Rod Stewart recorded "Stand Back" for his Europe-only compilation Lead Vocalist in 1993..

In 2002 singer Pure Polly Esther covered the song pretty faithfully to the original, albeit with ESL vocals...

A year later, Scottish club act Linus Loves reworked "Stand Back" with singer Sam Obernik that was more successful in both execution and reaction...

Stevie herself re-released remixes of the song by A-list DJ's like Ralphi Rosario, Tracy Young, and Morgan Page in 2007, and the single hit #2 on the dance chart...

Showing the other lipsyncing bands how it's done, here's the real live Stevie on Solid Gold...

 
Finally, here she is live in Chicago from a couple years ago...

Up tomorrow: Androgyny goes to sleep, and goes to the top.