Songoftheday 9/25/12 - You can laugh & joke & make fun of your friends, spin in the middle when the troubles begin...

John Cougar (Mellencamp) - "Hand To Hold On To"
from the album American Fool (1982)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #19 (two weeks)
Weeks in the top-40: 11

Today's Song of the Day is by Indiana native son John Cougar (Mellencamp), with the third single from his breakthrough album, American Fool. The first, "Hurts So Good", peaked at #2 and stayed in the top-10 on the pop chart for four months (16 weeks), longer than any other single that year, while the followup, "Jack and Diane", went to #1 for four weeks (his sole chart-topping hit).

The third single, "Hand To Hold On To", was written by Mellencamp and produced by him and Don Gehman, who had previous worked with Loggins and Messina and Crosby, Stills, & Nash. It would be the last single under the "John Cougar" name alone...

The single made the pop top-20 (his fourth so far to do so), and it was a minor hit in England and Australia.

..and yes, I thought he was singing "drive your four-wheel drive right into some mother" but it's mud. Oops.

Up tomorrow: My all-time favorite of the two-time hits, with an Australian band's song about it's leader's job at an autistic children's center.