Songoftheday 10/20/12 - I know what's on your mind, and I know it gets touch sometimes...

Christopher Cross - "All Right"
from the album Another Page (1983)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #12 (three weeks)
Weeks in the top-40: 13

Today's Song of the Day is by Texan singer/songwriter Christopher Cross, who ruled the radio waves as well as the Grammys right before the advent of MTV. After being signed by Warner Brothers records, Cross' self-titled debut album was released in 1979, and the first single from the set, "Ride Like The Wind", became a top-10 hit. The followup to that, "Sailing", did even better, becoming his first #1 pop record in the US. As a hat trick, his third single "Never Be The Same" went to the top of the adult-contemporary (soft-rock) chart.

But what really made Cross an A-lister at that point was at the 1981 Grammys, where he pulled in all four of the big awards (Record, Song, Album, and New Artist). It also was probably the first time most people got to see Cross, whose pudgy frame and wispy hair didn't conform to the usual rock image in peoples' minds. And in that time you could get away with it. That same year he also scored an Oscar for his second #1 pop record "Arthur's Theme (Best That You Can Do)".

It took another two years for Christopher to release his sophomore album, Another Page, and by that time it was four years past the release of his debut set. And in that time, two big things happened - first, MTV rose to youth attention domination, and the reign of the music video was just beginning, where image was just as important as sound. Second, the second "British Invasion" of the New Wave and New Romantic scenes was starting to gain major steam with Culture Club and Duran Duran  breaking through to pop radio, with a slew of smaller versions in tow. The soft-rock (or "yacht-rock") that defined the early-80's started to suffer from this, and Cross' big-name release was a sign. Debuting high on the chart and rising early from name-recognition from radio, the first single, "All Right", was also given exposure as a backdrop song for the college basketball playoffs on CBS TV...

Can you picture them running this song now at Final Four?

But really, the ultra-positive song (written by Cross) managed to make it up almost to the pop-10, stalling at #12, kept out by the newer British bands as well as R&B crossovers like Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie. It did very well on adult-contemporary radio, topping off at #3, and made the top-5 in a couple of European countries as well. As further proof of the changing of the guard, the album peaked at #11 on the LP charts. But Cross wasn't totally done; in a year, he'd return to the top ten thanks to a wildly popular soap opera, General Hospital. And I really miss his positive energy on the pop music world, before you had to look a certain way to have massive success.

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..and here's Chris Cross in 1999 still going with the song...

Up tomorrow: Barbarella spawns the new wave teen heartthrobs. Grrr!