Ye Olde Hit Parade: The Logical Song

A lot of things were happening in 1979. The Me Decade was getting ready to segue into the high-rolling '80s, the Iran hostage crisis was underway, Disco Demolition Night led to the trashing of Comiskey Park, the Pioneer 11 visited Saturn and I turned 12.

1979: Supertramp - The Logical Song
 
My love of the rock music was growing. Disco was starting to fade and I was paying a lot of attention to the radio. While I still was following a lot of the pop stuff going on, it was the heavier music that started to appeal to me. These were the pre-MTV days, although videos were getting played on local shows like "The New Music" in Toronto.

One pivotal moment occurred when a classmate of mine decided to sell off a bunch of his brother's possessions (while said brother was away at college). These included a collection of Playboy magazines that he brought to school at recess in a gym bag, and they also included records. I ended up trading a bunch of extra hockey cards (aka "doubles") for two albums: Led Zeppelin II and Rush's Fly By Night (he ended up having to buy them back after big bro got home from school and found a lot of his shit was gone). I had already commandeered my dad's turntable; even though it remained in the living room, it no longer played Neil Diamond, Frank Sinatra or Indian records. I had begun buying .45s including "My Sharona" by the Knack and "Let's Go" by the Cars, among others.

The first album that I bought with my own money was Supertramp's Breakfast in America, which I procured for $4.99 at Eaton's in the mall. And that was driven by my obsession with the single "The Logical Song." I was familiar with the band because they'd gotten some radio airplay with "Give a Little Bit," a single from their previous album that still pops up in Gap ads from time to time. They fell into the category of prog-pop, a band that can break out a catchy ditty alongside a 10-minute synth-driven suite.


"The Logical Song" was a sort of a combination of both styles, featuring the high-pitched Roger Hodgson singing about his boarding school days. It also featured John Helliwell's hot sax solo. It was a breakthrough for the band, hitting #6 in the U.S. and was even bigger in Canada, where I lived; it hit #1 in Canada and was picked the top song of the year in the Great White North.

The album was a monster, spawning two more hits with "Goodbye Stranger" and "Take the Long Way Home," going quadruple platinum and winning two Grammy awards the following year. But the band wasn't really able to capitalize on it. They released a live album in 1980 and didn't come out with their next studio record until 1982's ...Famous Last Words. It got up to #5 on the album charts and scored a minor hit with "It's Raining Again," but it didn't have the same mojo as Breakfast In America or the previous albums. And Hodgson soon left the band to go solo. Supertramp released a few more records over the years, but they didn't amount to much.

The '80s didn't prove to be a great decade for Supertramp, but '79 was a hell of a year for them. As for me, it was the start of a lifelong love affair with music.

Honorable mentions: Cheap Trick - "I Want You to Want Me"; The Cars - "Let's Go"; The Knack - "My Sharona"; Joe Jackson - "Is She Really Going Out With Him?"; Chic - "Good Times," M - "Pop Muzik"; Blondie - "Heart of Glass"; KISS - "I Was Made For Loving You"; Wet Willie - "Weekend"; The Doobie Brothers - "What a Fool Believes"