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Thursday, July 20, 2017

"I Do' Wanna Know" by REO Speedwagon

Song#:  2106
Date:  10/27/1984
Debut:  62
Peak:  29
Weeks:  13
Genre:  Rock



Pop Bits:  REO's album Good Trouble sold well going double platinum, but it seemed a bit disappointing coming off their big multi-platinum smash Hi Infidelity. Yet an album like that is hard to live up to so staying in the platinum arena was still a solid showing. Hoping to keep in platinum territory, the band returned to the studio and recorded their next LP, Wheels Are Turnin'. This track was selected to be the first single and it did fine at Rock getting to #5. However, the more rock-oriented track didn't quite fit in at Pop and the song stalled just inside the Top 30. Due to the results, sales of the album were quite slow out of the gate. It seemed like their platinum streak may have come to an end, but luckily their next single would turn things around.

ReduxReview:  This one I just didn't understand. They tried a retro-rock single before with "In Your Letter" and it didn't do that well, so why would they send this one out? For Pop, it was doomed from the start. It's fine if they wanted to send out a more rock-oriented single and not push out a ballad right away, but they needed something better than this. Perhaps they thought the elaborate associated video would help carry the single. Whatever the motivation, the song pretty much tanked and is nearly forgotten these days. They got very lucky that the next single actually worked. It could have easily been shuffled aside after this one didn't hit. I imagine their label was freaking out at the time. As for this song, it's just okay. I'm not a fan of the band when they do this sort of retro-rock, but back in the day it was part of their bread-n-buttah.

ReduxRating:  5/10

Trivia:  The band did a humorous video for this song that featured members portraying several characters including ones in drag. The lead role was performed by the video's director Kevin Dole. Dole was becoming proficient in making commercials and was actually married to an old girlfriend of REO's singer Kevin Cronin. Looking for something different, Cronin was introduced to Dole and everything seemed to come together. The video featured a lot of stop-action photography with the actual cast, which was difficult and time consuming to do back then. It seemed like a sure hit for the MTV crowd, but with the song not catching on, the video had a hard time breaking through. Dole would also direct the video for the LP's third single "One Lonely Night."

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