A Song From My Favorite Album

Day Nineteen – A Song From My Favorite Album:

There is no doubt in my mind that my favorite album of all times is INXS’ “Kick” … Although, I must admit that there was a period of time that I shunned away from it.

Blame it on youth, but I remember liking INXS for so many years before they had become commercially huge. So when “Kick” was released and gained so much popularity with the masses, I felt as if the rest of those people had no clue as who INXS was before they became Global Rockstars. And that’s when I stuck to listening to their old albums more than I did “Kick.”

However, there is no denying that “Kick” is an incredible album. Even when listening to the entire album today, I’m still amazed at how well-written each and every song was … and how they all stand the test of time as “classic” songs for every generation to enjoy.

Take for example the hordes of new people that were first introduced to INXS back in 2006 when Mark Burnett and the remaining band members produced “Rockstar: INXS.” In fact, I had recently met a younger couple in Vegas who had never heard of INXS until watching that show. Now they claim that INXS had become their favorite band of all times, “ … especially their older stuff off of ‘Kick.’”

So yeah … it’s a classic.

I actually gained more respect for the album after having read the official INXS biography, “Story To Story.” In the book, it talks about how the entire band took a chance in allowing only Michael Hutchence and Andrew Farriss write all the songs; previously, it had always been a group effort. But when the rest of the band heard the songs, they absolutely loved it and added their own flair to the songs.

I’ve probably mentioned it in another post (perhaps this one?), but “Kick” combined every best bit of their previous albums into one singular album. It’s like INXS took the R&B of “Shabooh Shoobah” … the dance-ability of “The Swing” … and the Rock n’ Roll of “Listen Like Thieves” and blended them flawlessly together.

When the album was complete, the band and their manager, Chris Murphy, tried to look at it objectively; but they all came to the same conclusion: They thought it was a masterpiece. But when Chris Murphy took it to the top executives at Atlantic Records, they absolutely hated it. They had thought that there was no way that they could get this music on rock radio station. They had told Chris that “Kick” was more suited for black radio and that they didn’t want to promote the band in that manner.

Furthermore, when Chris arranged for the top radio executives at the time to listen to “Need You Tonight” (unbeknownst to Atlantic Records), he also didn’t get the response he had hoped. Rock radio didn’t understand the song at all. And the R&B people didn’t think they could get it any black radio play. But lucky for the band, the only radio executive that loved it was the head of college radio promotions.

That was the break that Chris Murphy was looking for. At that moment, he decided he would gamble everything on this album. Without informing the band, he took all their assets and even some of his own (he mortgaged his own home!) to promote the album by buying college radio ads, as well as to finance a string of college concerts. Mind you, this was without any formal commitment from Atlantic to produce the album.

I was lucky enough to see them at the University of Michigan for the second college concert they performed during this tour (the absolute first one was at Michigan State University) and I can remember being blown away by the new stuff. So it’s no surprise that Atlantic Records finally caved in and released “Kick” shortly afterwards.

So here’s the first single that was officially released off of “Kick” … one that still gives me the shivers every time I hear Hutch whisper, “Come over here” at the beginning of the song!

~~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~~

What is with this 30-day song challenge?

What was yesterday‘s song?