Songoftheday 3/6/14 - Early mornin' lookin' tired and worn and lookin' out for the enemy, you made all the way to Hudson Bay but you're right back here with me...
Kenny Loggins - "Vox Humana"
from the album Vox Humana (1985)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #29 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 4
Today's Song of the Day is by the bearded and be-mulleted rock musician Kenny Loggins, who had a great year in 1984 being a part of the Footloose phenomenon, with a #1 title track and a top-40 follow-up with "I'm Free (Heaven Help The Man)" from the soundtrack. Kenny released his next solo album, Vox Humana, the following year. Straying away from bro-rock into new wave and soul music, he enlisted a few of the top pop-oriented R&B artists to appear on the record, including El Debarge, Sheila E, and Philip Bailey. The title track and first single was co-written by the artist with two of the Pointer Sisters, Anita and June, who appear on the song as well as Sheila, and it came off like a robotic sequel to his 1980 hit "I'm Alright" from Caddyshack...
Despite Kenny's heightened exposure from Footloose, the single was only a moderate success, stopping in the top-40 on the pop chart for about a month in May of 1985. It did better on rock radio, climbing to #18 on Billboard's rock radio chart. The album itself stopped right below the top-40 at #41, becoming his first to miss that mark.
As tacky and dated as the song is (and by far the video is), I had much love for this back in the day, and the whole album is a soft-rock treat, nice to relax on a hammock to.
(Click below to see the rest of the post)
Here's Kenny on a TV appearance in 1985...
Up tomorrow: The sea-worthy singer is stricken immediately.
Comments
You know, this album is actually quite solid, the cuts with Debarge are particularly good.