Songoftheday 6/11/12 - the world will keep on turnin', let it turn you on...

REO Speedwagon - "Keep The Fire Burnin'" 

from the album Good Trouble (1982)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #7 (three weeks)

Weeks in the top-40: 13

Today's song of the day is by the Illinois rock band REO Speedwagon. Initially formed in the late 60s, the band didn't fully coalesce until the addition of lead singer Kevin Cronin, the man with the accent I'm not able to pin down (Irish?), in 1972.

But it wasn't until 1980 that the band broke through in a big way, with their ninth studio album Hi Fidelity, and their #1 hit "Keep On Loving You". Selling more than 9 million records, the album put the band on the A-list of arena-rock bands in the early eighties. Their followup album, Good Trouble, was released two years later, and the first single was the by-the-numbers pop-rock tune "Keep The Fire Burnin'".

The album also became a (smaller) hit, selling over a million copies, and "Keep The Fire Burnin'" made the top-10 on the US pop chart and #2 on the rock radio chart, their highest ranking there.

Up tomorrow: blues-rock virtuoso plays with a little magic.