Songoftheday 1/12/16 - Sometimes I lead sometimes I follow, this time I'll go where she wants me to go...

"The Valley Road" - Bruce Hornsby & The Range
from the album Scenes From The Southside (1988)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #5 (one week)
Weeks in the top-40: 11

Today's song of the day comes from the Virginia rock band Bruce Hornsby and the Range, whose debut album The Way It Is had landed them a #1 hit on the second go-around with the title track, along with top-20 follow-up "Mandolin Rain" and "Every Little Kiss". Two years later, with new guitarist Peter Harris, Hornsby released Scenes From The Southside. The first single from the set, "The Valley Road" (written by Bruce and his brother John), continued in the western-style sound (not exactly country in those time, but would be totally now)...

"The Valley Road" became Hornsby's third and so-far last top-ten pop hit in the U.S. in July of 1988. The single landed the band their first #1 hit on Billboard's Mainstream Rock radio chart, while also topping their Adult Contemporary chart (their third after "The Way It Is" and "Mandolin Rain"). Internationally, the song climbed to #2 in Canada, and just missed the top-40 at #44 in the UK.

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In 1989, Hornsby hooked up with the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band to cover the song bluegrass style, and won a Grammy in the process...

 Finally, here's the band performing "The Valley Road" at Live Aid in 1990...

Up tomorrow: tell me how to get to the Purple One. Perhaps.