The AT40 Blog/October 28, 1978: A No. 1 hit via ... child prostitution?

The inspirations some find to write a song.

There's love. There's heartbreak. There's a party. There's cars, trains, planes, walking, talking, etc., etc., etc.

But very few songs had the kind of subject matter in a hit song than Nick Gilder's "Hot Child In The City." That song had a completely different meaning than your run-of-the-mill hit single. And it was something, Gilder said, he witnessed himself while the Canadian-raised singer was living in Los Angeles.

"I've seen a lot of young girls, 15 and 16 (years old), walking down Hollywood Boulevard with their pimps," Gilder told Rolling Stone magazine in 1978. "Their home environment drove them to distraction so they ran away, only to be trapped by something even worse. It hurts to see that, so I tried writing from the perspective of a lecher -- in the guise of an innocent pop song."

Out popped "Hot Child In The City," Gilder's tale of a girl who on the outside is the desire of most older men, but a troubled girl who shouldn't be out on the streets.

The man who admitted in that same Rolling Stone interview that he was "intrigued by sex" was dubbed "Nabokov of the Jukebox" for the man who wrote the tale of "Lolita." Gilder was born December 21, 1951, in London, England, but moved to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada when he was a young lad. In the early 1970s, Gilder fronted a glam-band known as Sweeney Todd, a band that for a short time carried a young singer who would rise to fame named Bryan Adams. In 1976, Sweeney Todd went to No. 1 in their country with "Roxy Roller." The song would go on and win the Juno Award (the Canadian equivalent of the Grammys) for "Best Selling Single" of the year.

Feeling like he needed to branch out from his band, Gilder, along with guitarist James McCullough, left and signed a record deal in the United States in 1977. Gilder's debut album was "You Know Who You Are" on Chrysalis Records. But even with the addition of the Sweeney Todd song "Roxy Roller" on the album, it didn't fare well in this country, so for the next album, "City Lights," Gilder changed up Stuart Alan Love and brought in a more established producer in Mike Chapman. For the next album, Gilder and McCullough composed all the songs. It is McCullough delivering the heavy guitar solo on "Hot Child In The City." Also on the album was a remake of the Them tune from the 1960s, "Here Comes The Night."

But Chapman and Chrysalis were both convinced and and adamant that the first release from the new album should be "Hot Child In The City." So in the spring of '78, the song was released and debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 at No. 88 on June 10, 1978. After a pair of 10-notch climbs, the song stalled at No. 68 the week of July 1, 1978. Uh-oh. Maybe radio listeners weren't quite into this new track. But after slow leaps to No. 64 and No. 62 the next couple of weeks, it regained its bullet and climbed 10 more spots to No. 52.

Two weeks later, the song was among eight new entries into the Top 40 of August 5, 1978, coming in at No. 34. The next week, it zoomed up 10 places to No. 24, then a more modest three-notch climb to No. 21. Three weeks later, the song had climbed close to the Top 10 at No. 11. But when "Hot Child In The City" held at No. 11, there was a surreal feeling that this song may not be a Top 10 hit after all.

But on the week of September 23, 1978, that was just nonsense. It kick-started back up and hit the Top 10 when it moved up two places to No. 9. One week later, it was up to No. 7, the on October 7, 1978, the song leaped four places to No. 3. One week later, "Hot Child In The City" had move up one more spot to No. 2 in its 19th week in the Hot 100. The next week, "Hot Child" was still at No. 2 as another song produced by Chapman, Exile's "Kiss You All Over," held at the top for the fourth week. It had also earned a gold record for 1 million copies sold for the single.

Then on the week of October 28, 1978, it happened -- Gilder knocked out Exile from the top spot and with the song getting to the top in its 21st week, "Hot Child In The City" became the slowest-climbing song to ever hit No. 1, ending the two-year run of Walter Murphy & The Big Apple Band's disco-flavored "A Fifth Of Beethoven" as the slowest climber to the top at 20 weeks. A year later, Robert John would tie Gilder with a 21-week climb to get to No. 1 with "Sad Eyes." Ultimately, the pair would be passed up in 1982 by Vangelis' theme from "Chariots Of Fire," which took 22 weeks to make it to the top.

And the song that put the spotlight on child pornography had become the biggest hit in America, two weeks after it had climbed to No. 1 on the Canadian chart. Gilder was a superstar as a solo performer. But the man who would win a pair of Juno honors for the song would see his follow-up, that Them remake of "Here Comes The Night," peak at No. 44 in the U.S. Later in 1979, "(You Really) Rock Me" only got as high as No. 57 in this country. Gilder would continue to record and release his own albums throughout the 1980s without another song going to the Top 40.

However, Gilder found some success as a songwriter in 1984. Teamed with Holly Knight, they co-wrote the hit "The Warrior" for the band Scandal featuring lead singer Patty Smyth. It got as high as No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100.

After that, though, Gilder moved into making music for movies and television, writing for the movies "Barb Wire," "The Wraith" and "Youngblood" and showing up on TV shows like "That '70s Show," "Nip/Tuck" and "Sex And The City." These days, Gilder is living in British Columbia with his family and has been touring on occasion since the 1990s.

And he will forever be known for the rousing, sleezy rocker that exposed the world of child prostitution through his eyes.

Oh the inspirations artists come up with to be successful!

The AT40 Blog/October 24, 1981: The Secret is Un-Sealed

Years after their first Top 40 hit came and went, Jane Wiedlin looked at the music video of the song that made her band, the Go-Go's, a smash hit, and winces.

"I have horrible '80s poodle hair in it," she told MTV in 2011.

But then a warm thought comes over her when remembering how she and the rest of her band mates drove around Los Angeles in shooting the landmark music video for the group. ""But there's a simplicity and innocence to the video that appeals to me."

When the Go-Go's began their careers in southern California in 1978, Wiedlin and lead singer Belinda Carlisle admitted they really didn't know how to play their instruments. As a matter of fact, they figured they didn't have to because they were considered a "punk" band.

But as the band evolved, so, too, was its penchant for music. They were slowly moving away from the punk music they thought could make them an easy buck and evolving into a pop band with a rocker's taste to it. The band started bringing in more people who could understand the musical side of things. Bass player Kathy Valentine came in to the group in 1981 to replace original bassist Margot Olavarria. Keyboardist-guitarist Charlotte Caffey joined the band and Gina Schock took over as the band's drummer for original drummer Elissa Bello.

They recorded a demo for a song they wrote called "We Got The Beat" and caught the ears and eyes of British label Stiff Records in 1980. They signed them. Before long, they landed a record deal in this country on I.R.S. Records for president Miles Copeland. That spring and summer, the band was ready to make the first big step in their careers by recording a debut album for veteran producer Richard Gottehrer.

One song they put out there was called "Our Lips Are Sealed." Wiedlin wrote the song while the band was touring the U.S., opening for the hot British reggae/ska band The Specials. Wiedlin was smitten by lead singer Terry Hall, who struck up not only a friendship with Wiedlin, but a behind-the-scenes romance. There was one problem though -- Hall had a girlfriend back in England and anything and everything was on the down low.

It was at that time they wrote "Our Lips Are Sealed," where they put their feelings into this composition. Featuring Schock's pounding backbeat opening, the song had a solid feel to it from start to finish and the band liked it. So did Gottehrer and Copeland, who when the album was officially done and released, insisted that "Our Lips Are Sealed" should be the leadoff single.

So as the song was being released by I.R.S. Records here, the band went off to do the music video, though they weren't all crazy about the idea. Copeland told them they were doing the video whether they liked it or not or were enthusiastic over it or not. As a matter of fact, Copeland was using some of the money for his brother's band to do a music video ... that is brother Stewart Copeland, the drummer of The Police.

So the idea was simple -- if you weren't enthusiastic, well, heck, make yourself enthusiastic and play along.

And so the band did. They searched all of the Los Angeles area for the car that would fit all five members and be their "fun" car. They found what they were looking for -- a 1960 Buick -- at, of all places, Rent-A-Wreck. The purpose of the car was to drive around Los Angeles, scoping places out to hang at or to just ride around. They got to do so, stopping places to shop and then later in the shoot, going to the Electric fountain at the corner of Wilshire and Santa Monica boulevards, just to play around in the fountain. Said Wiedlin of shooting at the fountain, "I thought at any moment the cops were going to come (and arrest them). This is gonna be so cool."

By the end of the spring of 1981, the band, Gottehrer and co-producer Rob Freeman had wrapped up work on "Beauty And The Beat." And the consensus from everyone involved with the album that the first single from the album be "Our Lips Are Sealed" and to save the one with the biggest "hit potential," "We Got The Beat," as the next release.

And so on the week of August 29, 1981, "Our Lips Are Sealed" debuted at a modest No. 90 on the Billboard Hot 100. The next week, it moved up 10 places to No. 80, then leaped an impressive 14 places to No. 66 the week after that. The song was on its way to becoming a big hit. Three weeks later, it was sitting at No. 45 and ready to crack the Top 40. The next week, it was one step away from the Top 40 at No. 41.

But then the road block ... "Our Lips Are Sealed" was stopped at No. 41 for the second straight week in its eighth week on the Hot 100, teetering on the brink of missing out on the Top 40, a big blow to the band and the record company if the song didn't make it into the Top 40 after showing such promise.

Then came the week of October 24, 1981. Somehow, it showed enough strength to leap one more notch and barely make the Top 40 at No. 40. No matter what happened from here, at least Belinda, Jane, Charlotte, Kathy and Gina had a Top 40 hit. They became the second all-girl band to hit the Top 40 after Fanny scored a pair of Top 40 hits -- "Charity Ball" in 1971 and "Butter Boy" in 1975 -- in the 1970s.

However, the band was beginning to get another boost to their careers -- the fledgling new network, Music Television aka MTV, was playing that silly, fun video the ladies had no original plans of making in the first place in heavy rotation, and giving the Go-Go's the exposure that they needed. It showed on the chart, too.

On the week of November 7, 1981, "Our Lips Are Sealed" got a second wind and moved up four places from No. 39 to No. 35. The next week, it climbed five places to No. 30. Then it jumped to No. 26, then No. 23, then No. 21 and then No. 20 on the week of December 12, 1981, where the song would peak for two straight weeks before starting to fall back. As a matter of fact, the song would stay in the Top 40 until the week of January 16, 1982 before falling off for good after 13 weeks.

In the end, "Our Lips Are Sealed" spent 30 weeks total on the Hot 100, not bad for a debut single. By the time "Our Lips Are Sealed" fell off the chart, the anticipated follow-up, "We Got The Beat," had already cracked the Top 5 and peaked at No. 2 for three weeks behind Joan Jett & The Blackhearts' rock anthem "I Love Rock 'N Roll."

Before the band broke up in 1985 and their hit-making days were all but over, the Go-Go's scored five Top 40 hits with "We Got The Beat" and "Vacation" being Top 10 hits in 1982. And the album "Beauty And The Beat" would reach No. 1 on the album chart and spend six weeks at the top in the spring of '82, selling over 2 million copies in this country.

As for the other half of the "smitten" duo who wrote "Our Lips Are Sealed," Hall and his band Fun Boy Three would record it as well and take it to No. 7 in 1983 on the British chart.

"Our Lips Are Sealed" helped two bands succeed as a sure-shot, can't-miss hit. The song was every bit 1980s -- right down to the look of individual band members of the Go-Go's.

Good or bad, according to them.

The AT40 Blog/October 22, 1977: Slowly swayin' to the last Top 10 hit

Johnny Rivers had seen and done it all as a superstar singer and producer of the 1960s. He had claimed 14 Top 40 hits between 1964-67, mostly with remakes from Chuck Berry's "Memphis" and "Maybellene" to Harold Dorman's "Mountain Of Love," blues standards "Seventh Son" and "Midnight Special" and the Four Tops' "Baby, I Need Your Lovin'."

Interestingly, though, his only No. 1 hit was with an original he co-wrote with famous producer Lou Adler, "Poor Side Of Town," in November 1966.

Then in 1967, the man who was born Johnny Ramistella in New York City on November 7, 1942, but grew up in Baton Rouge, La., tried his hand at a new venture – owning a record label. He founded Soul City Records and right out of the box, he was on the production of the two-time Grammy Award-winning smash by the Fifth Dimension, "Up, Up And Away."

But as the 1960s became the 1970s, things changed. Rivers sold the record company with the help of friend David Geffen to Bell Records. Rivers went back to recording and scored three Top 40 hits between 1972-75, including the Top 10 remake of "Rockin' Pneumonia And The Boogie Woogie Flu."

Still, Rivers didn't have the kind of success in his 30s as he did when he was in his 20s. He was looking for one more bit of glory – even if it was his last. And he found it when he heard a song that came out by a little-known act called The Funky Kings, which featured future songwriting stars Jack Tempchin and Jules Shear. On The Funky Kings' version of a song called "Slow Dancing," he heard the smoky, rich vocals of the song's writer, Tempchin, over a simplistic musical backdrop of acoustic guitar, percussion and lively backing vocals.

The song reached No. 61 on the Billboard Hot 100 in January 1977, but made the Top 15 on the easy listening chart (now adult contemporary chart). Another version of the song was recorded by Olivia Newton-John, but never charted.

Rivers resurrected his old Soul City Records label after recording the Funky Kings' song. He finished the album that would become "Outside Help" after recording the song. But there was one thing Rivers needed to do – he changed the title from "Slow Dancing" and made it the sub-title, renaming it "Swayin' To The Music (Slow Dancing)" because earlier in 1977, the songwriting-singing brother act The Addrisi Brothers had a Top 20 hit with "Slow Dancing (Don't Turn Me On)" and he wanted to avoid confusion.

The song is about a young man with his young lady all alone, the radio on, and the mood hits them enough to just slow dance together with the feeling of "there's nowhere else I'd rather be than here." Unlike the Funky Kings' version of the song, Rivers added an electric guitar and an orchestra behind him. And for special effect, he recorded the sound of crickets making noise at night for the backdrop during his vocals.

Rivers had not scored a hit with a ballad since 1967's piece of nostalgia, "Summer Rain." And when it hit the Hot 100 at No. 88 on June 25, 1977, it was not so certain how well it would do. But it would move up the chart 10 or more notches at a time and on July 30, 1977, it made its Top 40 debut at No. 36. The next week, the song zoomed up eight places to No. 28.

But then came the long trip: It moved up from No. 28 to No. 26 to No. 24 to No. 22 to No. 20 to No. 17 to No. 16 to No. 14 to No. 13 to No. 12 to No. 11 on the week of October 15, 1977, a painful and slow dance up the Top 40.

Then on the week of October 22, 1977, Rivers' slow climb with "Swayin' To The Music (Slow Dancing)" came to an end when it skipped up one last notch from No. 11 to No. 10. The song would turn out to be the ninth and last Top 10 hit. It would slip down the Top 40 from that point to No. 19 then to No. 27 before falling off, but in the end, "Swayin' To The Music (Slow Dancing)" would spend 15 weeks in the Top 40, his longest-running Top 40 hit in his career. By the end of 1977, "Swayin' To The Music (Slow Dancing)" would become Rivers' second gold single after "Rockin' Pneumonia And The Boogie Woogie Flu."

However, it would also be Rivers' 17th and final Top 40 hit. In early 1978, another track from his "Outside Help" album, "Curious Mind (Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Um)," another remake, this time of the Major Lance smash of 1964, barely missed out on the Top 40 when it peaked at No. 41.

That would turn out to be Rivers' last chance at a Top 40 hit. Once again, Rivers abandoned recording on his own label and signed with RSO Records where in 1980 he recorded "Borrowed Time," then in 1983, he was inked to CBS Records and recorded "Not A Through Street." Neither album gained any attention for Rivers. In 1998, he once again resurrected Soul City Records for which he recorded a pair of CD – "The Memphis Sun Recordings" (an album of older cuts done in the 1960s) and a newer CD, "Last Train To Memphis." In 2009 at the age of 66, Rivers recorded the CD "Shadows On The Moon."

You can still find him out on tour doing over 50 dates a year, even in his early 70s.

As for the man who wrote Rivers' last hurrah, Tempchin became a bigger star when he made friends with Eagles member Glenn Frey, co-writing the smash hit "Already Gone" and writing "Peaceful, Easy Feeling" solo. When the band broke up in the early 1980s, Tempchin and Frey began to write songs together for Frey's solo albums, hits that became '80s classics like "Smuggler's Blues," "The One You Love," "You Belong To The City" and "True Love."

Johnny Rivers had seen and done it all in his career. And with his last Top 40 hit being a Top 10 smash, he got to experience one last major accomplishment in "Swayin' To The Music (Slow Dancing)."

Not a bad ending, really.

The AT40 Blog/October 10, 1987: Slithering to the top

Unless you were an uber-fan of the band, little did people know the hard rock band Whitesnake had been together since 1978. As a matter of fact, the band recorded six albums before their self-titled 1987 album and CD that pushed the group over the top.

Still, it took a song they had recorded five years earlier to make its way to not only be the band's first Top 40 hit, but their first No. 1 hit.

It was on their 1982 album "Saints & Sinners" that lead singer David Coverdale and guitarist Bernie Marsden wrote "Here I Go Again." The band did a performance music video for it, nothing spectacular really, just to put the product out there. And while the album it came from went to No. 9 on the British album chart, it never dented the Top 200 album chart here. The song peaked at No. 34 in their native land, but never charted here like the album.

And so Whitesnake trudged on. There would be numerous lineup changes in the band and by 1987, Coverdale was surrounded by a whole different band compared to the one who made "Saints & Sinners" five years earlier. In between, the band's 1984 album, "Slide It In" got as high as No. 42 on the album chart here.

So with nothing to lose, Coverdale, guitarist John Sykes, bassist Neil Murray and drummer Aynsley Dunbar went back into the studio to record "Whitesnake" with power producer Mike Stone.

Now as stated before, Coverdale had nothing to lose with Whitesnake. Why, you wonder? He was ready to disband Whitesnake after they finished the "Slide It In" Tour in 1985. That's how disillusioned Coverdale was feeling about the business. But his new record label, Geffen Records, wasn't going to allow Coverdale to go off easy. In fact, they asked Coverdale to work with Sykes to see how the project would work for the two of them.

Turns out it was awfully good. In the spring of 1985, the pair flew to the south of France to begin work writing songs for a project. Two songs they immediately jammed out were "Still Of The Night," which Coverdale actually had started a decade earlier when he was lead singer of the heavy metal band Deep Purple with guitarist Ritchie Blackmore, and a ballad called "Is This Love?" which Coverdale had Tina Turner in mind when he was writing it.

From there, the pair and Murray connected and moved on to Los Angeles to look for a drummer. That's where they found Dunbar, who reportedly got the job over 60 others auditioning for the job. With the band settled in, they flew up to Vancouver to begin work on the new album in September 1985.

Immediately, though, there were problems. Though things had gone great with Sykes in putting the songs together, the "sound" he was looking for in the studio they were cutting the "Whitesnake" album was not right to him. Sykes was frustrated and to the rescue went Coverdale, who placed a call to a guy who was already in Canada working on another album – Bob Rock, who was producing Bon Jovi's new project that would become "Slippery When Wet." Rock worked with Sykes to find the sound he was looking for and ultimately, he got it in the studio because of Rock's familiarity to it.

One problem down, but another to soon crop up. This one, though, involved Coverdale. He came down with a sinus infection and it was so horrible that he needed surgery to fix the problem. Coverdale began a six-month rehabilitation and Sykes became so frustrated with being held back from recording that at one point he suggested bringing in a totally new lead vocalist.

That was not a wise thing to do. Coverdale reportedly got so angry with both Sykes and Stone that both eventually left. Coverdale recovered quick enough to begin doing vocal tracks with another veteran of the rock business, Ron Nevison. Ultimately, Nevison turned the tracks over to Keith Olsen. Olsen had worked with such acts as Journey, Rick Springfield, Ozzy Osbourne, Fleetwood Mac, Heart and Pat Benatar, so he certainly knew his way around a recording studio. 

Meanwhile, Bill Airey and Don Cuomo were brought in to add keyboards to the work and Adrian Vandenburg was asked to add the guitar solo on the song Coverdale and former guitarist Marsden had written five years earlier, "Here I Go Again." Coverdale liked the Dutch-born guitarist's work so much, he even discussed him staying on as a Whitesnake member, which he would for the next five years.

So the band re-recorded "Here I Go Again" as well as "Crying In The Rain," both originally on that "Saints & Sinners" album from 1982. On "Here I Go Again," the only difference was that the 1986-87 version of the song was "heavier" than the original and unlike the original with an organ playing behind Coverdale's opening verse, a synthesizer is playing in the backdrop behind Coverdale's opening salvo. Otherwise, the two versions sound similar with the 1986-87 version sounding "richer."

And there was one other thing, too. On the original version, Coverdale sang, "Like a hobo I was born to walk alone." On the re-recorded version, he sings, "Like a drifter I was born to walk alone." Why the word change? Because, according to Coverdale, when he sang "hobo," he believed people thought he was singing "homo."

The things people believe, I guess.

Meanwhile, Geffen Records, knowing they had a winner in this new re-recorded version of "Here I Go Again" asked to make a "radio edit" version. Unlike the album version that features Coverdale's opening solo with the heavy synthesizer in the backdrop, the single version features guitars and drums going right into that solo. The single version also doesn't feature Coverdale scaling that high note when he sings "Here I Go Again" for the third time in the middle before Vandenburg's guitar solo. Heart drummer Denny Carmassi and future country music producer and guitarist Dann Huff were asked to provide extra help on the radio version.

But there was one little thing left to do – the music video to promote the song. So Coverdale called in good friend Marty Callner, a veteran of music videos who made other Whitesnake videos as well as Twisted Sister's famous videos for "We're Not Gonna Take It" and "I Wanna Rock" in 1984. Callner was looking for something eye-catching to get everyone's attention to the song.

And Coverdale had the "eye-catching" standing right next to him in his beautiful 25-year-old redheaded girlfriend. Tawny Kitaen was asked to "act" in the video, doing everything from splits to lying down and performing cartwheels on the Jaguar XJs in the video to hanging out the passenger-side window to even making out with Coverdale while he's driving.

That certainly will get anyone's attention.

This time around, "Here I Go Again" had all the ingredients to be a bona fide hit. And on the week of August 8, 1987, seven weeks after it debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 at No. xx, "Here I Go Again" debuted at No. 34 within the Top 40. Within two weeks, the song had climbed to No. 26, then to No. 20. On August 29, it had gotten to No. 15 and on the week of September 5, it climbed seven notches to land at No. 8, giving Whitesnake a Top 10 hit. A week later, it was in the Top 5 at No. 4.

After two weeks at No. 4, things began to get serious again as "Here I Go Again" went up again ... this time two notches to No. 2. It seemed like No. 1 was inevitable. But the song would have to wait a week as Whitney Houston's "Didn't We Almost Have It All" stayed first at No. 1 for the second straight week. But on the week of October 10, 1987, there was plenty of "go" left in "Here I Go Again."

It knocked Houston out of the top spot as it became the band's first – and to this day only – chart-topper. It would spend one week at the top as Lisa-Lisa & Cult Jam would dance "Here I Go Again" out of the top spot the next week with "Lost In Emotion."

And it was a triumph for the perseverance of that 5-year-old song finally making it. But in the case of both versions, only Coverdale remained at the end of the day. By the time the "Whitesnake" album was finished, and the first song was a smash, Coverdale fired everyone in the band with the exception of Vandenburg. He brought in new people to play on tour, one of those being future Def Leppard guitarist Vivian Campbell.

"Is This Love?" the song that was originally set for Tina Turner to do, became a No. 2 hit for Whitesnake as the follow-up to "Here I Go Again." And the album it came from, "Whitesnake," went all the way to No. 2 on the album chart, a triumph there at long last.

The band would have only one more Top 40 hit in 1990 with "The Deeper The Love" from their 1990 CD/album "Slip Of The Tongue." By the end of 1990, Coverdale was exhausted and made the decision to take a break, especially with his 2-year marriage to Kitaen crumbling and ultimately ending. He had "retired," but a year and a half later, he teamed up with legendary guitarist Jimmy Page from Led Zeppelin to make the "Coverdale-Page" CD in 1993.

And a year after that, he reformed Whitesnake, but after recording the "Restless Heart" CD in 1997, Coverdale disbanded the band again and went solo for a few years. Then in 2002, he reformed a new version of Whitesnake, which is still out there performing today and just finished the American portion of their 2015 tour, still having dates in Japan and Europe still ahead, all promoting the band's latest CD, "The Purple Album."

At 64 years old, Coverdale is still rockin' out night after night. The uber-fan still enjoys Whitesnake.

So does the regular music fan, too, even if he or she hadn't known Whitesnake was a band nine years before they broke through in 1987.

The AT40 Blog/October 10, 1970: One mighty fine wine

Who knew the story about lonely Indians and a bottle of wine in northern Canada would be the backdrop to the first No. 1 hit for Rock 'n Roll Hall of Famer Neil Diamond?

But, as Diamond would tell the story to Rolling Stone magazine writer David Wild, that was such the case when writing "Cracklin' Rosie" in 1970.

Yeah, "Cracklin' Rosie" was all about a bottle of wine and not about some random girl Diamond's character met one night and had a fling.

"Cracklin' Rosie" was a brand of red wine sold in Canada that was popular around a native tribe in the northern part of the country. In this particular tribe, there were more men than women in it, so the ones who didn't have a woman stayed back and were left with just their bottle of wine to drink for the weekend, pretending that it was their woman and not the flesh-and-blood kind of female.

Diamond heard the tale of these lonely Indians while he was up in Toronto on tour and thought it would be a perfect backdrop to a new song. So when he wrote it, he made the wine feel like a woman, writing, "Oh, I love my Rosie child. You got the way to make me happy. You and me we go in style. Cracklin' Rose you're a store-bought woman, but you make me feel like a guitar hummin'. So hang on to me, girl, our song keeps runnin' on."

It could be easily seen that Diamond might have had a woman in mind when writing "Crackin' Rosie," but great songwriters have a way of interrupting that thought for something completely different. Producer Tom Catalano, Diamond's longtime producer at Uni Records, thought the song would be a hit and made it the leadoff single from Diamond's newest album, "Tap Root Manuscript."

Turns out, though, this hit was a little different than anything else Diamond had done. You see, Diamond had scored 12 Top 40 hits between his work at both Bang Records and Uni Records and had scored just one Top 5 hit -- 1969's "Sweet Caroline." Sure, Diamond had a No. 1 hit as a songwriter with the Monkees' "I'm A Believer," but a No. 1 hit as both a singer and songwriter would be a bigger deal.

"Cracklin' Rosie," backed with horns, legendary Wrecking Crew member Hal Blaine's percussion, some orchestration, backing vocals, hand claps and Diamond's acoustic guitar, debuted at No. 62 on the Billboard Hot 100 the week of August 22, 1970, and one week later, leaped 22 places to get to No. 40. The rush up the chart was on for "Crackin' Rosie," as it moved up from No. 40 to No. 29 to No. 22 to No. 12 the week of September 19, 1970. A week later, September 26, 1970, Diamond was in the Top 10 at No. 6. Then the next week, "Cracklin' Rosie" jumped up two more places to tie for his biggest hit ever at No. 4.

But on October 10, 1970, Diamond finished the run to his first No. 1 hit as "Cracklin' Rosie" leaped up three places to the top. It would hold at No. 1 for just one week before the Jackson 5's fourth straight No. 1 hit, "I'll Be There," displaced it and sent Diamond down the chart.

 "Cracklin' Rosie," though, was not just a No. 1 hit. It was a happening. Throughout college campuses on the West Coast of this country, students were freely swigging the "Rosie," which some Diamond fans have figured over the years was a Sparkling Mateus Rose, a low-priced and artificially carbonated product. Some have claimed the "Rosie" was a Centerra Wine Company favorite, a Richards Wild Irish Rose.

Either way, the sales of wine went up in 1970 thanks to "Cracklin' Rosie" and Diamond. He would have two more No. 1 hits throughout the 1970s -- neither about alcohol in "Song Sung Blue" in 1972 and "You Don't Bring Me Flowers" in 1978, his duet with Barbra Streisand.

However, this would not be the last time a taste of the red stuff would top the chart with Diamond's pen all over it. In 1988, the British reggae band UB40 scored their first No. 1 hit with a song originally done by Diamond in 1968. The title? "Red Red Wine."

Pretty sure that Diamond has heard all the "lush" talk over the years. But, like everything else, he takes it all in stride. Diamond still performs "Cracklin' Rosie" and all his hits on tour. In 2011, Diamond was inducted into the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame at long last.

Diamond has been blessed to have the kind of career he's had for over 50 years.

Then again, the bottle he was getting his first No. 1 hit wasn't too bad, either.

The AT40 Blog/October 12, 1974: How the Polish Prince was born

Musical artists are always looking for ways to revamp their look, whether it's David Bowie, Elton John, Olivia Newton-John or Stevie Wonder. They are always looking for a way to be recognized.

Some acts turn out to be like Garth Brooks when he tried his "rock" persona Chris Gaines and failed miserably. Or some tried to turn from pop to country like the band Exile or Dan Seals of England Dan & John Ford Coley fame did and succeeded.

There's stories of those acts each and every day.

But in the case of Bobby Vinton, his transformation was more of a "heritage" thing.

Most music fans remember Bobby Vinton the Pop Star, where form 1962-72, he scored 28 Top 40 hits, including four No. 1 hits in almost 2 1/2 years -- "Roses Are Red (My Love)," "Blue Velvet," "There! I Said It Again!" and "Mr. Lonely." And even as the Beatles were becoming superstars and the British Invasion was wiping out the pre-Beatles artists off the charts, Vinton was one of the very few who stayed on. A lot of that was because he was doing standards from the days leading up to the 1964 British Invasion that the anti-rock 'n roll establishment fell in love with, hits like "I Love How You Love Me," "Sealed With A Kiss" and "Take Good Care Of My Baby."

Vinton was also a winner on the nightclub set and was still bringing them in, long after his "hit potential" had died down.

But to be relevant, Vinton needed to do something that was going to catch the music lover's attention. Those remakes were great, but a new song with a good-time feel for that audience could also be a benefit to bring in a younger crowd. In 1974, Vinton was 39 years old and had not had a Top 40 hit in two years. Father Time has a way of tapping a star on the shoulder and telling him or her, "It's time."

It was during a stint in his nightclub act in Las Vegas that Vinton found the song that might shake his career up a little. It was written in German by Henry Meyer. The title was, "Herzen haben keine Fenster," translated to "Hearts have no windows." Vinton got a listen to the song and found the hit potential in it done by Austrian singer Elfi Graf. An English translation by the British duo of Peters and Lee made it to No. 3 in their native country as "Don't Stay Away Too Long."

Vinton liked both versions, but he felt it needed his own stamp of approval. So with Meyer's permission, he got to rewrite the lyrics, but this time, he was doing it in a language music lovers didn't see coming.

Coming from Polish heritage in his hometown of Canonsburg, Pa., the same Canonsburg that the legendary Perry Como came from, Vinton's message of love was to be heard in both English and in Polish. So when it came to the chorus, he did it by switching up in two languages.

"Moja droga, ja cię kocham,
Means that I love you so.
Moja droga, ja cię kocham,
More than you'll ever know.
Kocham ciebie całym sercem,
Love you with all my heart.
Return to me, and always be, my melody of love."

With Al Capps doing the arranging and Bob Morgan on production, Vinton surrounded himself with an "oompah" band that gave this record a feel of Oktoberfest every day.

"My Melody Of Love" was set as the kickoff single for Vinton's newest album "Melodies Of Love." It debuted on the Hot 100 chart the week of September 21, 1974 at No. 88 and moved up modestly the next two weeks to No. 77 and then No. 65.

But like it was set off on a rocket launcher, "My Melody Of Love" made a huge splash the week of October 12, 1974, when it debuted within the Top 40 at No. 33, leaping 32 notches as the biggest mover in the Hot 100. And it kept on rising from there. It leaped to No. 27, then No. 21, then No. 17 and on the week of November 9, 1974, "My Melody Of Love" pounded the Top 40 pavement 11 more notches to land at No. 6, Vinton's first Top 10 hit since "I Love How You Love Me" in late 1968. The next week, it jumped up three places to land at No. 3, making it Vinton's biggest hit since "Mr. Lonely" became his fourth and last No. 1 hit in December 1964.

That was it, though. "My Melody Of Love" stalled at No. 3 for two straight weeks and started its plunge back down the Top 40. It would be Vinton's ninth Top 10 hit. However, it would also be his last Top 10 hit. Still, Vinton's career was resurrected. And in the spring of 1975, the man who was now being dubbed The Polish Prince due to "My Melody Of Love" and his last Top 40 hit, "Beer Barrel Polka," was rewarded nicely.

Vinton was given the chance to host a television variety show for Canadian-based CTV, which he did in 1975. He would host the show shown in this country and Canada from 1975 through 1978 and he had a couple of famous people behind the show. It was packaged by none other than Chuck Barris, the man behind the success of such game shows as The Newlywed Game, The Dating Game and his own The Gong Show. And one of the young producers of the show was a Canadian actor named Alan Thicke.

Later in 1975, ABC Records released a soundtrack for The Bobby Vinton Show and over the years, acts as wide in variety from Anne Murray to Ethel Merman to Tanya Tucker to Donna Summer appeared on the show.

At 80 years old, Vinton now lives in southwestern Florida with his wife of 53 years, Dolly. In 2016, Vinton will be on a limited tour, performing in The Villages, Fla., the Golden Nugget in Atlantic City, N.J. and in Verona, N.Y., at the Turning Stone Resort & Casino.

And yes, he's still The Polish Prince to his fans and still does "My Melody Of Love," which gave him another audience and "look" in his career.

It also provided him a comeback single when most people didn't expect one -- no matter the language it was performed in.

The AT40 Blog/October 6, 1979: The slow climb for a song far from "Sad"

The rise for Robert John's first No. 1 song was a long one. First, it was 20 years between his first chart single and the one that got him to the top. And then when he got there, it took him a record-amount of time for being slow.

Robert John was born Robert John Pedrick Jr. in Brooklyn, N.Y. in 1946, but at the age of 12 years old, he made his first musical impact with a song called "White Bucks And Saddle Shoes," written by the recognizable pair of Mort Shuman and Doc Pumus. In 1958, the song charted on the Billboard Hot 100 and peaked No. 79, billed as Bobby Pedrick Jr.

Unfortunately, nothing else came out of his young career and in 1965, 19-year-old Bobby Pedrick made a career decision -- he decided to go by his first and middle name from that point on.

Great idea, but no positive results. In 1968, "If You Don't Want My Love" missed hitting the Top 40, peaking at No. 49. Two years later, John hit No. 71 with "When The Party Is Over."

John was starting to wonder what he needed to do to have that breakthrough single he chased for over a decade. He had started with Diamond Records, then moved on to MGM Records, then to Columbia Records. From there, it was on to Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss and A&M Records, then to Atlantic Records.

It was there in late 1971, John recorded a song that was first a No. 1 hit for the Tokens in 1961 called "The Lion Sleeps Tonight." The song found another favorable audience and in March 1972, not only did the song hit the Top 40, but would peak at No. 3. John was on the Top 40 for the first time and the 26-year-old was finally enjoying the success he long chased.

But just when he was ready to take his career to the next level, the follow-up, a remake of the 1950s classic "Hushabye," was an absolute flop, peaking at No. 99.

Atlantic let John go and the once-promising star wandered around in obscurity for the next few years, looking for a record label, while doing small clubs, waiting for another chance. Meanwhile, John took on a job as a laborer in New Jersey, carrying books on a construction job.

His chance came in late 1978 when EMI Records signed him to a deal. He went into the studio with producer George Tobin to record his self-titled debut on the record label. It was during that time that a song on the radio was playing constantly by a group called Toby Beau. It was a Top 15 hit called "My Angel Baby." Tobin reportedly loved the song and insisted that John pursue a song similar to the sound of that hit single.

John would take three months to write what would be the composition called "Sad Eyes," re-writing it constantly. As Tobin would say later in an interview, "Every time he'd go write it, I'd go, 'Nah, change this and this.'" Finally, when Tobin said, "Yeah, let's go with it," Tobin brought in a group of stars into the session.

There was the legendary Hal Blaine, who didn't have to do a whole lot of drumming, but is heard on the drums. There's keyboardist Stewart Levine, who was a well-known producer, producing the No. 1 hit "Grazing In The Grass" for Hugh Masakela in 1968 and the Academy Award-winning "Up Where We Belong" by Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes in 1982 from the movie An Officer And A Gentleman.

The great Rock 'n Roll Hall of Famer Darlene Love of the Crystals and later the Lethal Weapon movies and her annual Christmas visit to perform "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" on The Late Show With David Letterman was placed on backing vocals along with Tobin himself and Edna Wright. And guitarist-vocalist Mike Piccirillo, Tobin's right-hand man in the studio who would help Tobin produce on big hits like Kim Carnes' "More Love" and Smokey Robinson's "Being With You," is also an engineer on this one.

This beautiful ballad made its Hot 100 debut on May 19, 1979, at No. 85. Thus began the slow rise toward the Top 40.  On June 30, 1979, the song made its Top 40 debut at No. 38. And just as the hit made it there, the pedestrian crawl of climbing the chart began. "Sad Eyes" went from No. 38 to No. 36 to No. 34 to No. 32 until the week of July 28, 1979, when it leaped nine places to No. 23.

Finally, momentum! One week later, "Sad Eyes" leaped seven more places to No. 16. Three weeks later, "Sad Eyes" jumped two places from No. 12 to No. 10 in the song's 15th week on the Hot 100.

But "Sad Eyes" wasn't done climbing. August turned to September, and "Sad Eyes" continued to move. It moved up from No. 10 to No. 8 to No. 7 and No. 6. But for the week of September 22, 1979, it held at No. 6 for the second week. It looked as if the run of "Sad Eyes" had come to its teary-eyed ending right there just outside of the Top 5.

However, the music business can be a funny thing. And on the week of September 29, imagine the surprise of all chart watchers when "Sad Eyes" got an extra bit of zoom, leaping four places from No. 6 to No. 2.

One more notch to go. And on October 6, 1979, 14 weeks after it debuted in the Top 40, "Sad Eyes" knocked The Knack's "My Sharona" out of the top spot after it spent six weeks at No. 1. As a matter of fact and to put emphasis on how slow a climb "Sad Eyes" took, both Chic's "Good Times" and "My Sharona" debuted within the Top 40 after "Sad Eyes" had debuted there and went to No. 1 before "Sad Eyes" reached the top. Numerous songs passed "Sad Eyes" up the Top 40, but yet, they didn't get to the No. 1 spot.

John had his second breakthrough hit and his first No. 1 hit, 20 years and 11 months after making that debut when he was 12 years old. That length of time between his first chart single in late 1958 and "Sad Eyes" was the longest amount of time an artist waited to have a No. 1 hit and would last for less than five years before Tina Turner blasted through that with a 25-year wait from her first single with then-husband Ike until "What's Love Got To Do With It" in September 1984. And "Sad Eyes" tied Nick Gilder's "Hot Child In The City" as the slowest-running song to get to No. 1 at 21 weeks, a record both songs held until Vangelis' "Chariots Of Fire" theme took 22 weeks on the Hot 100 to get to the top on May 8, 1982.

It looked as if the comeback story would be nicer for John this time around. However, "Lonely Eyes," the follow-up single, barely missed hitting the Top 40, peaking at No. 41 in late 1979. But another remake, this time of Eddie Holman's big No. 2 hit from 1970, "Hey There Lonely Girl," would make the Top 40 in the fall of 1980, peaking at No. 31.

Two more singles, though, would miss the Top 40 and John's career as a productive singer on the charts was all but over. In 1992, he re-recorded his big Top 5 hit from 1972, "The Lion Sleeps Tonight," for his greatest hits package. Not much is known of what Robert John is up to these days.

Still, "Sad Eyes" lives on as the song that made the man born Robert John Pedrick Jr. a star with a No. 1 hit. And that made the 20 years of waiting -- and the 21 weeks of climbing with that No. 1 song -- all worth it.