Songoftheday 12/5/14 - People say I'm crazy just a fool, But I'm the pigeon and baby you're the stool...

Andy Taylor - "Take It Easy"
from the albums Thunder (1987) and American Anthem (Original Soundtrack) (1986)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #24 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 7

Today's Song of the Day comes from guitarist Andy Taylor, who was a part of the neo-British Invasion new wave group Duran Duran since the beginning of the 80s. However, after taking part in the DD side-project the Power Station in 1985, Andy left the group to start out a solo career. The first release under his name was a single taken from the soundtrack to a cheesy 80s movie capitalizing on the Olympic gymnast craze, American Anthem. Starring gold-medal athlete and Razzy-nominated actor Mitch Gaylord, the toss-off film had three songs of Andy's in it. The single, "Take It Easy" (written by Taylor with Sex Pistols guitarist Steve Jones),  actually got him singing, over a guitar riff clearly robbed from his Power Station cover of "Bang A Gong"...

"Take It Easy" became Andy's first and only top-40 pop hit in August of 1986. The following year he had another minor hit single with a TV-tie-in, this time Miami Vice with his track "When The Rain Comes Down" (#73), but by the time his solo debut album Thunder was released (originally without "Take It Easy"), it failed to have any more hits (though some Durannies bought it, making it chart at #46). Two tracks from that set did make the Mainstream Rock radio chart, though, with "I Might Lie" reaching #17 in 1987.

After helping with the recording of Rod Stewart's Out Of Order album, Taylor released a second solo album that went nowhere, and stayed pretty low-key until he reunited with Duran Duran in 1994 for one glorious album, Astronaut, before again taking off.

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And here's Andy performing live on MTV's New Years Bash in 1987...

Up tomorrow: a guy in traffic scores a lofty comeback hit.