Songoftheday 12/2/13 - Sitting on the doorstep of the house I can't afford, I can feel you there...

Julian Lennon - "Valotte"
from the album Valotte (1984)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #9 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 12

Today's Song of the Day is by Julian Lennon, who was the first child of John and his first wife Cynthia born 50 years ago in Liverpool. As a child he proved to be a prodigal muse, inspiring his father's song "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds" with a crayon drawing of a schoolmate, as well as fueling and almost being the titular name for Paul McCartney's "Hey Jude", written to console the boy upon his parents' divorce.

After being signed as a recording artist in 1983, Lennon and two other bandmates holed themselves up in a castle in the central French town of Nevers named Valotte to write the songs for his debut album that would eventually be named for the place. After recording the actual songs in high-profile places such as the Hit Factory in New York and Muscle Shoals in Alabama, he released the set at the end of 1984. While in Britain his first single would be "Too Late For Goodbyes", in America our first taste of Julian's work was the title track, which didn't contain the word "Valotte" but did sound so uncannily like his father that many casual listeners were rightfully confused. The song, produced by Phil Ramone, who gave it a classic, echoing backdrop, had a video directed by the film great Sam Peckinpah...

"Valotte" became Julian's first top-10 hit in the US in January of 1985, while going all the way to #2 on the rock radio chart and #4 on adult-contemporary in Billboard magazine. In his native England, where the comparison to his father may have cut too much to the quick on this song, the record managed to reach only #55 as the follow up to "Too Late For Goodbyes".  However I think this song is one of the underrated gems of 1985, which was a pretty scatter-shot year for pop music (either really good or more often horribly bad).

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Peckinpah also directed Lennon's first tour film, and here's his performance of "Valotte"..

Up tomorrow: Boston new wavers re-greet you....