Song on the Radio

"Song on the Radio" is a composition by Al Stewart introduced on his 1978 album release Time Passages. [1]

"Song on the Radio"
Single by Al Stewart
from the album Time Passages
B-side"A Man for All Seasons"
ReleasedJanuary 1979
GenrePop rock
Length4:10
LabelArista Records 0389
Songwriter(s)Al Stewart
Producer(s)Alan Parsons
Al Stewart singles chronology
"Time Passages"
(1978)		 "Song on the Radio"
(1979)		 "Midnight Rocks"
(1980)

Background
Al Stewart on Song on the Radio
"I was kind of making fun of Arista Records" who had "asked for a mid-tempo ballad with a saxophone...They wanted a song that could be played on the radio, [so] very tongue-in-cheek I wrote...'Song on the Radio'. I thought they'd [get that] I was actually joking, but of course they didn't & ...put it out as a single [which] made the Top 30, [so] the joke was on me because I screwed up a preposition" - referring to the opening lines "I was making my way through the wasteland/ The road into town passes through" which ends with a preposition - "Worse, I used the same word [through] twice in the same sentence."[2]

"Song on the Radio" was released in January 1979 as the second single from the Time Passages album, following the title cut which had been a top ten hit on the Billboard Hot 100[3] as well as being afforded a ten week tenure at No. 1 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart.[4]

"Song on the Radio" would peak at No. 29 on the Hot 100[5] and rise as high as No. 10 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart.[6]

In Canada, "Song on the Radio" also peaked at No. 29 on the national hit parade as ranked by RPM magazine[7] whose Adult Contemporary chart afforded the track a peak of No. 3.[8]

Chart performance

References
  1. Time Passages - Al Stewart|AllMusic
  2. Al Stewart’s cast of characters - Boulder Weekly
  3. "Al Stewart". Billboard.
  4. "Al Stewart". Billboard.
  5. "Al Stewart". Billboard.
  6. "Al Stewart". Billboard.
  7. "Image : RPM Weekly - Library and Archives Canada". Bac-lac.gc.ca. 17 July 2013. Retrieved 15 October 2016.
  8. "Image : RPM Weekly - Library and Archives Canada". Bac-lac.gc.ca. Retrieved 15 October 2016.
  9. Joel Whitburn's Top Pop Singles 1955-1990 - ISBN 0-89820-089-X
  10. Billboard Adult Contemporary, March 24, 1979
  11. "Image : RPM Weekly - Library and Archives Canada". Bac-lac.gc.ca. Retrieved 15 October 2016.


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