Songoftheday 5/28/18 - From Mozambique to those Memphis nights, the Khyber Pass to Vancouver's lights...
from the album Mad Mad World (1992)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #6 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 20
Today's song of the day comes from Canadian rock musician Tom Cochrane, who was born in the rugged western part of the country before eventually settling with his family in the Toronto area. In 1974, he released a solo album, Hang On To Your Resistance, and had a minor pop hit in his homeland with "You're Driving Me Crazy (Faith Healers)". Unable to build on that, after a dry spell of four years, Tom joined the rock band Red Rider as their lead singer. They were much more successful off the bat, with debut single "White Hot" peaking at #20 in Canada and landing on the American pop chart at #48 in 1980. The following year, they released their sophomore effort, As Far As Siam, and on Billboard's newly-christened rock radio chart "Lunatic Fringe" made it to #11, partly due to its inclusion in the movie Vision Quest and being on its soundtrack. The band continued with moderate success in their country and on rock radio in the U.S. through the early 80s, and scored a second minor pop hit in the U.S. in 1984 with "Young Thing, Wild Dreams (Rock Me)" (#71 pop, #13 rock, #44 Canada). Starting in 1986 Tom would share equal billing with Red Rider, and two years in, they landed their biggest rock radio hit as a unit with "Big League" (#9), which took them to the pop top ten in Canada for the first time at #4. It was from their sixth studio album Victory Day, as was the follow-up single "Good Times", which was their highest-charting hit at #2. After an album recorded with an orchestra, Cochrane left Red Rider for a solo career again starting the new decade of the 90s.
Tom's first album after leaving Red Rider was Mad Mad World, produced by the artist with Joe Hardy, and continued his version of American Heartland rock for the Great White North. The first single from the record was the road-trip anthem "Life Is A Highway". Written years before, Tom was inspired by a trip overseas to record this peppy number for radio consumption...
"Life Is A Highway" became Tom's first and only top-40 pop hit, reaching the top ten in August of 1992. The song also climbed to #6 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock radio chart (his biggest success there as well), and crossed over to their Adult Contemporary (or "easy listening") radio tally at #45. Internationally, the single went all the way to #1 in Canada, spending two weeks at the top. It also landed in the runner-up spot in both Australia and New Zealand, and reached the top-40 in Sweden (#23), Germany (#31), and the Netherlands (#35). In the UK, the track was a minor hit at #62. While in Canada Tom would have three more top ten pop hits from the Mad Mad World album with "No Regrets" (#3), "Sinking Like A Sunset" (#2), and "Washed Away" (#7), the former did manage to get Tom a second rock top tenner in the States at #7, while "Washed Away" was his second and final minor pop hit at #88. Also, the title track from Mad Mad World hit #25 in Canada, and "Bigger Man" nearly scored Tom a sixth top-40 hit there at #45.
It took four long years for Cochrane to release his next studio album, Ragged Ass Road, and while the first single, "I Wish You Well", became the first domestic single to debut at #1 in Canada, he had lost all momentum in the U.S., and it sputtered out one notch away from the pop Hot 100 (#101 "bubbling under"), though it did creep onto the British chart at #93. Tom's most recent top-40 pop hit in Canada came in 1999 with "Willie Dixon Said" from his X-Ray Sierra album. His most recent record is 2015's Take It Home.
(Click below to see the rest of the post)
Here's Tom appearing on the Letterman show to promote the single...
And in his homeland in concert in Montreal that same year...
In 1999, country cowboy veteran Chris LeDoux released a cover of "Life Is A Highway", and it went to #64 on the American country radio chart...
Cochrane had a global audience when he performed "Life Is A Highway" at the Live 8 concert in 2005...
But probably the most recognized version of the song from the younger set was the version from Rascal Flatts that was featured in the Disney animated film Cars; it reached #7 on the pop Hot 100 and #18 on the country radio chart in 2006...
Finally, Cochrane in 2014...
and as a bonus, the most Canadian thing ever, hockey players and Canadian rock stars jamming to the song...
Up tomorrow: Rap duo desire some bells and whistles.
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