Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. CDLIX--Raspberries: Go All the Way

 A week late and a dollar short...or something like that....

For whatever reason, when I do my weekly half-assed research, I always do my readings on the performing artist, the album, and the song itself before I listen to it with the lyric sheet (the last one is usually repeated several times before I write the post).  However, this week I listened to the song first (mostly because it had been a while since I heard it) and was only about halfway through it when I realized (better late than never), "Jesus, this song is on a whole nother level."  And somewhat to my surprise, my half-assed research found that many others have had that very same thought....

Raspberries formed in 1970 in one of rock and roll's truly great cities, Cleveland (Cleveland rocks!).  While the band had a relatively short career disbanding in 1975, they are considered one of the pioneers of Power pop.  Their frontman, Eric Carmen, would go on to have quite a solo career, registering three top five singles, and writing hits for several other artists.  For their career, Raspberries released four studio albums (with two hitting the top 100 albums) and ten singles (three of which reached the top twenty).  They had a quasi-reunion in 1999-2000 (without Eric Carmen), and the original four members reunited in 2004-2005 for a very successful and critically acclaimed tour.

"Go All the Way" was the second single released from their debut album, the rather adventurously entitled Raspberries.  The single was the biggest of their career, reaching #5 (with a bullet!) on the Billboard Hot 100 and eventually selling over a million copies.  The album peaked at #51 on the Billboard 200. 

Fun Fact:  When Carmen wrote this week's featured tune, he hoped that by making the female the aggressor in the sexually provocative song it would help with the censors.  While the song had few problems in America (though whether Carmen's hopes were realized is debatable), the BBC in the U.K. was having none of it and banned the song from its airwaves.

One can literally listen to the first forty-five seconds of "Go All the Way" and realize that one is hearing a song on "a whole nother level."  It opens with a rollicking guitar solo before segueing into a lush melody and Carmen's silky-smooth vocals.  The chorus is as sweet as the nectar of the Gods (good things, too, as it makes up most of the song--the stanzas are remarkably short).  I would be remiss if I didn't mention the "Come ons" in the bridge --when you hear it you'll know what I mean.  If ever there was a song that is the very essence of Power pop, "Go All the Way" is it.  A truly stunning accomplishment.

Lyric Sheet:  "Please go all the way/Just hold me close/Don't ever let me go..."

Enjoy:

Republicans = Nazis

Peace,

emaycee