Songoftheday 4/24/13 - I've never seen you look like this without a reason, another promise fallen through another season passes by...

Big Country - "In A Big Country"
from the album The Crossing (1983)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #17 (three weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 9

Today's Song of the Day is by the Scottish rock group Big Country, who were led by singer/guitarist Stuart Adamson of the art-punk band the Skids, and with fellow axe-man Bruce Watson had the knack for being able to process their guitar sound to make it sound like bagpipes. They released their first single, "Harvest Home", in 1982, which became a minor hit for the quartet. The followup, "Fields Of Fire", was their breakthrough, reaching #10 on the British charts in the beginning of 1983, an exposing them to a much wider audience.

For their third release, and the one that would be their American pinnacle, they recorded a "namesake" song, "In A Big Country", written by the band and produced by "big-sound" genius Steve Lillywhite.


Big Country-In A Big Country by adiis

"In a Big Country" went to #17 on both the US and UK pop charts, and was a huge hit on rock radio, peaking at #3 here in the States. It would be their only American top-40 pop hit, though there was one more minor pop hit the next year with the excellent "Wonderland". They would continue to flourish through the 80s in their homeland, with three more top-10 singles, and 1986's "Look Away" going the highest at #7 (and reaching top-5 on the American rock chart as well). Two years later, "King Of Emotion" stalled right under the top-10 on the newly-minted Modern Rock chart, which they again climbed with their last American hit, "The One I Love", in 1993.

However with diminishing returns and Stuart Adamson's alcoholism and depression, after their millenial tour, he went missing, evenutally turning up dead in a hotel room in Hawaii. After a break, the rest of the members decided to reform and carry on, enlisting vocalist Mike Peters of the Alarm to take Stuart's place. They were (and remain) one of my favorite underrated bands of the 80s, and deserved a better fate in the States than a "one-hit wonder" status.

(Click below to see the rest of the post)


Here's Big Country in their prime in concent with the song...

Up tomorrow: a German goes back to space.