Songoftheday 3/27/15 - Sometimes you twist always insist that you know a way...

"Stay The Night" - Benjamin Orr 
from the album The Lace (1986)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #24 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 6

Today's Song of the Day is by the late Benjamin Orr, who was the bassist for the Boston new wave band the Cars since their start in the late 70s. While lead singer Ric Ocasek's ultra-cool presence and fashion sense dominated the public perception of the band, Orr actually sang lead on many of the band's classics, including their first hit "Just What I Needed" and their biggest hit "Drive". On a break after their first Greatest Hits set, both Ocasek and Orr released solo albums in 1986. On Orr's first, The Lace, the first single from the set, "Stay The Night", became his first solo hit single. Written with girlfriend Diane Page and produced by Mike Shipley, the song was a dreamier, softer version of the new wave sound that was hinted on with "Drive"...

"Stay The Night" became Orr's sole top-40 solo pop hit in February of 1987. The record was an even bigger hit on adult contemporary (or "easy listening") radio, topping out at #2 for a week, while also reaching the top-10 on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart in Billboard (#6). The single was a top-40 hit in Canada as well. Orr's follow-up single, "Too Hot To Stop", went to #25 on the rock radio list, but failed to make the Hot 100. Orr would reunite with the Cars for their album Door To Door later that year. He would pass on from pancreatic cancer in 2000.

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And here's Benjamin on a live appearance in 1995...

Up tomorrow: The 80's favorite bar-band finds their stairway to heaven.