Songoftheday - You know, not too long ago, you used to close your eyes and say we loved..

Franke & The Knockouts - "Without You (No More Lonely Nights)"

from the album Below The Belt (1982)

Billboard Hot 100 peak; #24 (two weeks)

weeks in the top 40: 7

Today's Song of the Day is by the rock group Franke & The Knockouts. The band came together in New Brunswick, New Jersey, in the early 80's, under lead singer Franke Previte, and their debut self-titled album gave them two top-40 hits, including the top-10 "Sweetheart". The group followed that up with Below The Belt, and the first single from that LP, "Without You (Not Another Lonely Night)", made the top-40, and sounded like 10cc filtered through a bar band (which I liked, apparently).

"Without You" would be the band's last pop hits, but Previte's biggest success would be to go on to write two of the biggest hits from the Dirty Dancing movie, "Hungry Eyes" (done by Eric Carmen) and the #1 "(I've Had) The Time Of My Life" (by Jennifer Warnes and Bill Medley), for which he won an Oscar for Best Song. The band itself split in 1986, Meanwhile replacement drummer Tico Torres (who came in after this song) went on to higher heights as the drummer for Bon Jovi.

Up tomorrow: Scottish lass polishes her man up.