Band SANG This MADE UP Word as a JOKE...Became an All Time CLASSIC! | Professor of Rock
3,906Today we're going “Casey Kasem style,” counting down ten stone-cold classics from 1983. It’s our weekly Saturday Morning countdown where we feature songs from a throwback year that left a lasting mark on rock history… and shockingly never made the top 40, even though many of these are some of the biggest songs of the time. It's a musical mystery — how did these rock standards get passed over? As usual, we’ve got some great stories and guests, including how Billy Idol stole the master tapes for his new record and held them hostage to get the label to change the cover art on the album. He was about to bootleg them to the public if they didn’t cave. Or how about the song Blue Monday that New Order wrote because they were sick of coming back out on stage for encores. Their plan was to just have sequencers play it and have a robot sing it while they walked off. But it became their most famous song. And then there was the band that made up a word in their song as a joke, and it became a classic. And then there was the Journey classic Ask the Lonely that got pulled from an album at the last second and was banished to a crappy movie. Stick around for the latest episode of Professor of Rock.
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Okay, so we’ve already done three of these new yearly countdown shows about the biggest songs that missed the top 40, and I was going to stop, but we got overwhelming support to keep going, so in honor of Casey Kasem, I think we’re going to make Saturday a day for these weekly countdowns. Let me know what you think. This week, we’re going all in on a social year in music. It is the year that Darth Vader was unmasked in Return of the Jedi, 106 million viewers tuned in for the MASH* finale, and McDonald's rolled out the Chicken McNugget. As a reminder, the criteria I am using for each song is the year that its album was released. Okay, let’s go.
Coming in at the #10 spot from their self-titled album, it's Genesis with Taking It All Too Hard. By the early 80s Genesis had pulled off one of rock's most dramatic transformations. After Peter Gabriel's departure in 1975, the band evolved from progressive rock pioneers into commercial juggernauts. Their self-titled album spawned massive hits like "Mama," "That's All," and "Illegal Alien" – showcasing a band fully embracing the MTV era… but also keeping their sophisticated songwriting intact. Hidden among these chart-toppers was a quieter gem that deserved way more attention… Taking It all Too Hard.
This one makes a bold move right out of the gate, diving straight into the chorus instead of easing you in with a verse. It's a grab-you-by-the-collar approach designed to snag attention instantly. Mike Rutherford admitted he was crafting a love song but acknowledged something honest about the process: while the words sounded right within the framework, they didn't necessarily make complete sense. A classic Peter Gabriel trick – emotional impact over literal meaning. Phil Collins delivers vocals that don’t feel far off from his solo work, creating a more intimate Genesis sound. But the acoustic guitar foundation and Rutherford's distinctive playing style kept it in the Genesis ballpark.
In June 1984, "Taking It All Too Hard" was released as a single, backed with "Silver Rainbow.” The song found solid footing on adult contemporary radio, climbing to #11, but stalled out at a disappointing #50 on the Billboard Hot 100. Why didn't it crack the Top 40? Unlike its album predecessors, Taking It All Too Hard lacked a promotional video – crucial in the MTV era. That may have had something to do with it. Or maybe the song's subdued vibe kept it from standing out against the competition on pop radio. Whatever the reason, it’s a shame because Taking It All Too Hard is a great track that deserved more of the spotlight.
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