Songoftheday 8/12/13 - See chameleon lying there in the sun, all things to everyone...

Slade - "Run Runaway"
from the albums Keep Your Hands Off My Power Supply (1984 US) and The Amazing Kamikaze Syndrome (1983 UK)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #20 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 8

Today's song of the day is by the British "glam-rock" band Slade, who were the biggest band in Britain in the 70s singles-wise, but pretty much unknown in America until one of their songs became the first "heavy metal" top-10 hit of the 80s.

The band members, who hail from the industrial middle of the country, came together in the late sixties under singer and guitarist Dave Hill. First called the 'N Betweens, and then Ambrose Slade, as they were when they released their debut album in 1969, they weren't an out of the box hit.  Dropping the "Ambrose", the band's second record, Play It Loud, didn't do any better than the first, though a track from the French release of the album (and their first live album), a cover of Little Richard's "Get Down and Get With It", became the band's first success, reaching #16 on the British singles chart. The follow-up, "Coz I Luv You", went all the way to #1 in 1971, becoming the first in a string of hugely successful spelling mistakes. It was the first of their six #1 records of the 70s; the second, "Take Me Bak 'Ome" also dented the American pop chart in 1972, stalling at #97. They continued to have a few minor hits in the US, the highest-charting one being "Gudbuy T'Jane" which topped off at #68 in 1972. One of those songs, "Cum On Feel The Noize", would eventually land them notice in the States after the California band Quiet Riot covered the song and reached #5 on the American pop chart form their album which was the first #1 "heavy metal" album of the 80s.

By this time, Slade's success in Britain was just rejuvenated after a dry spell with their first album on RCA records, The Amazing Kamikaze Syndrome, which gave them a #2 hit with the ballad "My Oh My", a rank they haven't been at since 1974. After the Quiet Riot success, Slade gave another go (after a failed mid-70s try) at the American market, releasing the 1983 UK album as Keep Your Hands Off My Power Supply, and with the rocking "Run Runaway" as the lead-off single. The lilting track, written by Hodder with fellow bandmate Jim Lea, and produced by John Punter, who worked worked with Roxy Music and Sad Cafe', and the song broke them in America at last...

A combination of the song's almost timeless melody (it sounds like a drinking song from the 1800s) and the picturesque video taken at a castle, and MTV was all over it. The song topped the rock radio charts for two weeks, while reaching the top-20 on the pop chart and becoming the band's biggest success in the US.

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In 1990, Swedish dance act Dominoo covered "Run Runaway" for a single...

Canadian Celtic rockers Great Big Sea recorded the song for their first single in 1995...

Lastly, here's the band on Top of the Pops in 1984...

Up tomorrow: Australian group needs some help, Medic-alert style.