Songoftheday 9/19/14 - We're not indestructible baby better get that straight, I think it's unbelievable how you give into the hands of fate...

Robert Tepper - "No Easy Way Out"
from the albums No Easy Way Out (1986) and Rocky IV (Original Soundtrack) (1985)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #22 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 7

Today's Song of the Day is by pop/rock singer/songwriter Robert Tepper, who grew up in Bayonne, New Jersey, right across the river from New York City. His first big success was as a songwriter, co-writing the pedo classic "Into The Night", which made the top-20 for singer Benny Mardones twice in the 80's. But in 1985 he got his own singing shot when he was recruited to record a song for the soundtrack to the fourth installment of Sylvester Stallone's Rocky franchise. "No Easy Way Out", the frenetic gym-ready anthem that sounded like a handful of montage-linking soundtrack cuts, became the third single released from the album after Survivor's "Burning Heart" and James Brown's "Living In America"...

"No Easy Way Out" became Tepper's first and sole top-40 pop hit in March of 1986, while scaling to #12 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock radio chart. He would sport one more minor pop hit with the follow-up single "Don't Walk Away", but continued to have success as a writer, penning songs like "Le Bel Age" for Pat Benatar. But you know, this song sounds a lot better than I remembered (and aged better than "Burning Heart" did I think)...

(Click below to see the rest of the post)


In 2005 remixer/DJ Dave Kurtis interpolated the record on his club banger "No Easy Way"..

The rock band Bullet For My Valentine covered the song in 2008 as well, pretty faithfully I might add..

Finally, here's Tepper singing "No Easy Way Out" in a recent appearance with Brad Brooks...

Up tomorrow: Neo-doo-woppers go for some soft romance.