Sniff 'n' the Tears (and there's one of your better band names) began in 1973 in the U.K., but lead singer Paul Roberts gave up after a couple of years of no success and moved to France. In the interim, Luigi Salvoni heard some demos he and Roberts had recorded and gave Roberts a call to see if he was interested in picking up where they had left off. Sniff 'n' the Tears formally came into being in 1977, recorded their debut in 1978, and due to pressing problems with the record, waited until 1979 for its release. The band immediately had a worldwide hit with "Driver's Seat." and shortly thereafter went its separate ways. Roberts continued with the band name and has released 7 more albums through the years, with exactly none of them ever charting. Somehow in this age of bands releasing 90 greatest hits packages for their lone hit, Sniff has only released one. The band has also released eleven singles with just one charting anywhere other than the Netherlands, where they had a whopping three singles hit the charts. While mostly a Roberts production, the band continues touring and recording to this day.
"Driver's Seat" was released as a single in 1979 on Sniff 'n' the Tears debut album, Fickle Heart. "Driver's Seat" would reach #15 (with a bullet!) on the Billboard Hot 100, the only charting single of their career in the U.S. (it would reach #1 in the Netherlands in 1991 thanks to a television commercial--so many cool kids in the Netherlands!). The album would reach #35 on the Billboard 200, and was one of only two albums of theirs to chart in America. Surprisingly, they have never had an album chart in their native U.K.
They should make a law that any time you like a song, you should have to read a lyric sheet as the song plays. I have literally loved this song since 1979 and never noticed that about a quarter of the way into the song after every line Roberts sings, the band alternates between an "ooh" on the first and a "yeah" on the second, and how much these small harmonies make the song so much better. For its time, "Driver's Seat" was actually quite different as a single--I've often thought of it as a precursor to the New Wave movement that would hit a few years after its release. While the song mentions driving, Roberts claims it's actually about the disjointed thoughts one often has after a relationship ends. Be that as it may, once the song opens with an acoustic guitar part (and how many songs have I loved that open with an acoustic guitar part?), and the drums drive and an electric guitars blasts into the first verse, one is easily hooked by the music before the lyrics even begin. "Driver's Seat" is another in a long line of songs featured here on FNJ where for a little more than three minutes, a band executes perfection...and another in a long line of songs that makes a lifetime of devotion to pop music worth the while.
Lyric Sheet: "Doing all right/A little driving on a Saturday night/And come what may/Gonna dance the day away..."
Enjoy:
Fuck Donald Trump,
emaycee
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