Songoftheday 11/17/13 - Can you feel me tremble when we touch can you feel the hands of fate, reaching out to both of us this love affair can't wait...

Survivor - "I Can't Hold Back"
from the album Vital Signs (1984)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #13 (two weeks) 
Weeks in the Top-40: 13

Today's Song of the Day is by the rock band Survivor, who went to the top of the pop chart in 1982 via the theme song to Rocky III, "Eye Of The Tiger". They followed that up with another top-20 single "American Heartbeat", but they weren't so lucky with their next album, which failed to send a single into the top-40. Lead singer Jimi Jamison left the group shortly thereafter with voice issues, to be replaced by Dave Bickler from the group Cobra. His first cut with Survivor was another soundtrack song, "The Moment Of Truth" from The Karate Kid, but the lackluster single also stalled in the bottom half of the pop chart.

Bringing in producer Ron Nevison to helm their first full-length effort with Bickler, Vital Signs, the band tightened their sound and put together a much better selection of songs. The first single from the set was "I Can't Hold Back", written by Survivor guitarists Frankie Sullivan and Jim Peterik, much more effectively introduced Bickler to the MTV audience...

"I Can't Hold Back" went to the top of Billboard's rock radio chart for three weeks, and while it peaked just below the top-ten on the pop chart in December of 1984, all in all it did better than a good chunk of the singles that did in the long run. It also was a minor hit in both England and Australia as well.

(Click below to see the rest of the post)


Here's the band on tour in 1985...

Up tomorrow: A "shady" Canuck isn't satisfied.