🚢Yacht Pop Anchors #4: Great Buildings, Rick Springfield, Sweet, Jigsaw

⚓Like Yacht Rock, but with a little more octane, more harmonies, infinitely hummable melodies, and some jangly guitars.

The dynamism runs strong in this fabulous foursome of two songs that coulda/shoulda been hits, with two songs that were, but have gotten a bit lost in the cobwebs of time, and deserve far more air time (or at least, covers by someone)!

1. Great Buildings, “Hold On To Something,” 1981

Two words: Danny Wilde. What an astounding and enviable career! You’ve probably only ever heard of him because of his one mid-’90s TV theme-song hit. We’ll get to that. He’s one of my handful of favorite, unheralded, male pop and rock singers (joining Rob Grill, Pat Upton, John Waite, and Tony Burrows).

Born in Maine in 1956, Wilde made his way to L.A., formed power poppers The Quick, and as their singer/rhythm guitarist, released a 1976 album. He was 20. Their lone Mercury Records long-player, Mondo Deco (shown above, Danny, center bottom, in white), was produced by Sunset Blvd denizen/legend, Kim Fowley (Hollywood Argyles in the ‘60s, formed and produced The Runaways in the ‘70s), and engineered by occasional Beach Boys engineer, and early ‘70s guitarist for Halfnelson/Sparks (a definitive influence on Danny and band, as was early’70s glam artists and the ‘60s British Invasion), Earle Mankey.

The Runaways’ debut album was also released in 1976, and also on Mercury.

Five years later, Wilde constructed Great Buildings with multi-instrumentalist, Phil Solem, and got signed to Columbia Records. He took Quick bassist Ian Ainsworth with him for their 1981 Apart From the Crowd LP (shown above).

It was in 1995 that your first introduction to Wilde and Solem may have happened with the Friends TV show and its theme song, “I’ll Be There For You,” as recorded by the duo they formed in 1989, The Rembrandts.

So, there’s your context! “Hold On To Something” was written by Wilde, Solem, and Ainsworth, and produced by John Boylan.

In the same year (1976) as Danny’s and Ian’s Mondo Deco Quick album was released, Boylan was busy running interference between Boston’s whiz-kid guitarist, Tom Scholz, and Epic Records. Boylan ended up with a co-producing credit on the album, but ‘twas actually Tom’s own basement mix that was submitted to Epic, after the label insisted Boylan record the band in a “proper studio.” That story?👇

Breaking Boston: Behind the Scenes the Week CBS Released Boston's Landmark Debut LP, 1976

We also ran into Boylan on-campus, hanging with the Steely Dan lads at Bard:

Audio Archaeology, 1960s-1971: The Steely Dan & Becker/Fagen Songwriting Team Origin Story

“Hold On To Something” is the quintessential rockin’ power pop song that had no excuse not being an AM radio hit, even in 1981. By this point, MTV was still a suckling babe, and even they should’ve hopped aboard the GB train with heavy rotation on a video.

Great Buildings circa 1981 (l-r) Phil Solem, Ian Ainsworth, Danny Wilde, Richard Sandford.

“Hold On To Something” ingredients (don’t try this at home): Urgent chorus (“Hold on!”), catchy melody with 3-part harmonies, well-placed pick scrape, propelling guitars, tom fills, and a modulation.

It bursts out of the gate with Solem’s gripping lead guitar line at the top of the neck, with Wilde supporting with barre chords. Ainsworth snakes a bass line leading into Wilde’s lead vocal, all propelled by Richard Sandford’s drums; Ainsworth and Solem soar on harmonies throughout.

The bridge continues the rollicking, then Sandford goes nuts on his floor toms, and a pick scrape gets us back into the chorus. More toms, and the climax….the modulation! Repeated “Hold on!” choruses leave us joyously breathless by fade.

Substack’sKeith R. Higgonsof Abandoned Albums interviewed Danny and Phil in late 2022 (some explicit language, like this, even before the vid: “I’m envious as hell”-Brad):

Keith accompanies his podcast interview with this excellent article:

NOW HEAR THIS: Great Buildings

Keith and I recently collaborated on a Plimsouls article (and their “Million Miles Away”):

Inside Tracks #32: Plimsouls, 1983, "A Million Miles Away" w/1990 Cover by Goo Goo Dolls (A Collab with Keith R. Higgons of "Abandoned Albums")

2. Rick Springfield, “Jessica,” 1976

He’s synching his performance to track, but it’s fun to see him performing the song on a Latin music TV show called Mean Salsa Machine circa ‘76:

There’s that year again! 1976, the year The Quick released their Mondo Deco album with a 20-year-old Danny Wilde! For the record (and for extra context, I was 21 that year, and making the transition from being a 7-midnight commercial FM rock radio jock at Baton Rouge’s WFMF to moving back to Houston to work retail at Cactus Records).

I had both The Quick and Springfield’s Wait For Night albums, from whence “Jessica” leapt (produced by Mark K. Smith), and loved them both. In fact, this is still my favorite of his 22 albums.

His breakthrough Working Class Dog album and its 1981 hit, “Jessie’s Girl,” would take 5 years before they saw the light of day following Wait For Night. On “Jessica,” as well as the whole album, Rick plays most of the instruments (piano, guitar, and bass), but he also employs Nigel Olsson on drums, and bassist, Dee Murray, on some songs.

This former Elton John Band rhythm section was summarily jettisoned from John’s employ about a year before (and after the recording of EJ’s Captain Fantastic album). FR&B exclusive contributor, Stephen Michael Schwartz, hired Nigel and Dee as the rhythm duo for the sessions for his second RCA Records album in 1975. That story, as well as exclusive in-studio photos of the pair, can be seen here:

Musical Storm: The Stephen Michael Schwartz 2nd RCA Album Sessions-EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW PT. 5

Plus, more “Jessica”s congregate, joining Rick’s, in this GROW BIGGER EARS:

👂GROW BIGGER EARS #16👱‍♀️The "Jessica" Playlist with Rick Springfield, Elliot Minor, Seals & Crofts, Chuck Leavell

3. Sweet, “Love is Like Oxygen,” 1978

Sweet circa 1978: Gone are the stack-heeled, knee-high boots and bedazzled jumpsuits of the glammed-up early-’70s. Instead, a shot at being taken a bit more seriously. (l-r): Brian Connolly, Steve Priest, Andy Scott, Mick Tucker

Produced by the band, Sweet was Brian Connolly, vocals; Mick Tucker, drums; Steve Priest, bass, and Andy Scott, guitar:

Remastered hit version☝. Extended (2 minutes longer) album version👇.

Polydor Records/UK promo video of the band lip-synching to song:

AllMusic’s Dave Thompson puts it into laser-perspective: “By 1978, Sweet was all but forgotten. Punk had swept almost every last vestige of the old glam rock hierarchy into obscurity, and some two years had passed since the band even looked like bothering the British chart.

“Their American acclaim was growing fast, however, and that year’s Level Headed album (Capitol Records/U.S., Polydor/UK) emerged a magnificent slice of mature reflection, heavy and heady in equal doses. Even within such exalted company, “Love Is Like Oxygen” glittered, a harmonic rocker highlighted by an insistent guitar riff and a winter-clear piano motif.

“Sundry sour critics have since pointed out that its lyric was little more than a softer rock rewrite of Hall & Oates’ “Grounds for Separation” [solo-write by Daryl, 1975, from self-titled silver-jacketed album], but that mattered naught. Edited down to become the band’s first single of the year, it shot into the Top Ten on both sides of the Atlantic.”

4. Jigsaw, “Sky High,” 1975

Jigsaw, circa 1975 (l-r): Singer/drummer, Des Dyer, guitarist, Tony Campbell, bassist, Barrie Bernard, and Clive Scott, keys and vocals. Dyer and Scott wrote “Sky High.”

If you only know the tight, radio-ready, 3-minute hit version, enjoy the extra minute of orchestration (i.e. swirling strings, clarion horns, and movie-theme drama) of the long version:

Grab your leisure suits and Cessna-wing collars! For such a heavily-produced single, a lip-synched video in a TV studio is the only way to go here (marvel at the guitar and bass choreography during the chorus!):

The Audiodb site: “Jigsaw was an English pop music group, fronted by the singer-songwriter duo of keyboardist, Clive Scott and drummer/singer, Des Dyer [they wrote “Sky High”; Richard Hewson arranged, with Chas Peate producing].

Jigsaw formed as a six-piece in UK’s Coventry and Rugby in 1966. “Sky High” was their biggest hit, and became so unexpectedly, according to Songfacts: “It was the theme song to the motion picture The Man From Hong Kong (also known as The Dragon Flies), a martial arts espionage film that combined elements from James Bond and Bruce Lee movies.

“The film was only a middling success, but the song caught on with audiences in Japan and Europe, and then became a hit in the U.S., as well. The song spent 3 years on the Japanese chart, and sold over 13 million copies worldwide.” Jigsaw had one more minor U.S. hit with Scott’n’Dyer’s ‘Love Fire’ (again arranged by Hewson) #30 in 1976), and split up in 1983.

“Sky High”’s inherent popularity in Japan has even inspired this stirring 2016 rendition by the Wind Orchestra of Hamana Senior High School in Shizuoka, Japan:

One More Scott & Dyer Song to Seal the Deal?

Finally, for extra credit (and a song that could’ve easily made today’s list, and may show up on a future Yacht Pop Anchors Playlist), this song: If your jury is still out on the mid-’70s pure pop songwriting acumen of “Sky High” composers, Des Dyer and Clive Scott, gently place your stylus on this 1974 gem (just a year before Jigsaw’s chart ride).

If all you know about Bo Donaldson & The Heywoods is their silly, sophomoric “Billy Don’t Be a Hero” that went to the top of the U.S. charts in 1974, their follow-up, three months later….well, let’s just say Scott and Dyer came to the rescue (at least stylistically….it came nowhere near #1)!

Produced by Steve Barri, the rhythm section was arranged by veteran session guitarist, Ben Benay, and the strings and horns were arranged by longtime composer/arranger, Jimmie Haskell aka “the big guns”: Both Benay and Haskell have worked Steely Dan sessions (among many, many others).

Sung by Mike Gibbons, their version of “Who Do You Think You Are” (on ABC Records) became a hit in both the U.S. and Canada: It peaked at #15 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #13 in Cash Box. It was a bigger hit in Canada, where it got to #11. It was also an Adult Contemporary hit in both countries.

And, like “Sky High,” it’s the melodic verses that exist to get us to the glorious chorus bombast…the expert merging of the soaring strings, the exultant horn section, and the multiple harmonies of the background singers…..the perfect combo of finely-tuned pop songcraft by Scott and Dyer with experts in arranging and producing. It’s just that easy!