Songoftheday 1/15/14 - And even as I wander I'm keeping you in sight you're a candle in the window on a cold dark winter's night and I'm getting closer than I ever thought I might...

REO Speedwagon - "Can't Fight This Feeling"
from the album Wheels Are Turnin' (1984)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #1 (three weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 14

Today's Song of the Day is by midwestern rock group REO Speedwagon, whose eleventh studio album Wheels Are Turnin' started out pretty modestly with the moderate pop hit "I Do'wanna Know", which topped out in the top-30. For the follow-up, the band went with the uber-powerballad "Can't Fight This Feeling", which starts almost like a lullaby then comes on at full-force behind Kevin Cronin's subdued voice with banging guitars and piano chords to spare...

"Can't Fight This Feeling" became the band's biggest pop hit to date, spending three weeks at #1 in March of 1985.  Surprisingly, the song only made it to #3 on the adult-contemporary (or "easy listening") format (rock was still a "new" thing there), but it matched their previous single's rank on the rock chart at #5. Proving how huge the record was, it even got play on R&B stations, placing at #89 on that format's list. Internationally, the single went to #16 in England, their third and final hit there, while topping the charts in Canada and going to #5 in Ireland.

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There was another version of the music video that featured Kevin working out his song's composition and key with the other members of the band before miming in the studio, but that seems to have disappeared from the interwebs...

REO Speedwagon performed the song at Live Aid in 1985 as well...

The British rock band Smokie recorded the song for one of their Uncovered albums...

In 2009, the television show Glee used "Can't Fight This Feeling" to introduce Cory Monteith in the character of Finn Hudson to the world..

The movie Rock Of Ages had Russell Brand and Alec Baldwin taking the song in a new, hilarious direction...

Lastly, here's REO themselves from 2010....

Up tomorrow: a boyband has some issues with Ma Bell.