Songoftheday 7/28/13 - You should've been gone knowing how I made you feel, And I should've been gone after all your words of steel...

Steve Perry - "Oh Sherrie"
from the album Street Talk (1984)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #3 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 13

Today's Song of the Day is by the (now former) lead singer of the arena-rock band Journey, Steve Perry. After joining them in the late seventies, his amazing voice brought them from a C-level prog-rock outfit in the Bay Area to one of the biggest bands in America, with multi-platinum albums and a string of top-40 singles like "Open Arms" and "Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)". In 1982 he lent his vocals to Kenny Loggins' top-20 hit "Don't Fight It", his first hit outside of the group. After the release and tour behind the band's seventh album with him, Frontiers, Perry released his first solo album Street Talk. The first single from the set put him squarely in the pop milieu, with a love song written for his then-girlfriend Sherrie Swafford.

"Oh Sherrie" was co-written by Steve with a posse including country-rock songwriter Randy Goodrum ("You Needed Me", "Bluer Than Blue") along with studio musicians Craig Krampf and Bill Cuomo, the latter who provided the keyboard hook, just like he did with Kim Carnes' "Bette Davis Eyes". And the video was a "big production that wasn't a production" that was a big event on its premiere on MTV, and featured Swafford as his girlfriend (now that's a perk)...

"Oh Sherrie" became a huge hit for Perry, with enough minor-chord drama to remind people of his band, but with a personal sweetness that helped by having the focus only on him. The song topped out at #3 on the pop chart in June of 1984 (his best outing since 1982's "Open Arms") and ended up topping the Mainstream Rock chart as well (which Journey only did once with "Separate Ways"). Surprisingly, the song was a little "hard" for adult-contemporary, stalling at #33 at the format (since then it's a staple for oldies stations for his work). In the UK, where arena-rock was totally un-cool, the single managed only to reach #89 on the single charts.

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Steve would end up incorporating "Oh Sherrie" into the Journey live shows....here's one from 1986...

Up tomorrow: Give it up for him.