Saturday, August 12, 2017

"Tender Years" by John Cafferty & the Beaver Brown Band

Song#:  2129
Date:  11/17/1984
Debut:  72
Peak:  31
Weeks:  14
Genre:  Rock, Soundtrack



Pop Bits:  As the film Eddie & the Cruisers was enjoying its second life via HBO reruns, the soundtrack tagged along and became a delayed Top 10 hit thanks to the #7 "On the Dark Side." For a follow-up single, this track was selected. Like "Dark Side," it too had been issued early on as a single when the movie first hit theaters. It didn't do so well only peaking at a low #78. But thanks to the revitalized movie and soundtrack, the song got a second chance and this time it stopped just outside of the Pop Top 30. The track also got to #10 at Rock and #30 at AC. It helped to make the album a triple-platinum seller.

ReduxReview:  I really don't have much to say here that I didn't already cover in my initial review of the song. It's still pretty amazing that two of Cafferty's songs got revived from the obscurity bin and became hits. It's not unheard of for an overlooked track to get a second life, but to get two of them is quite a feat. Actually, if you count Cafferty's very first single in 1980, the independently released "Wild Summer Nights," then this would be the third time around for "Tender Years" as it appeared as the b-side to that single. Both songs ended up on the Eddie soundtrack.

ReduxRating:  6/10

Trivia:  Nearly a decade before Eddie came along, director Martin Davidson did another film about a group of guys. He co-directed and co-wrote a 1974 film about four leather-clad teenagers known as The Lords of Flatbush. That film co-starred a young Sylvester Stallone two years before his breakout role in Rocky. The movie also featured Henry Winkler in a role that was not unlike his Happy Days character, The Fonz. Although the movie came first, being filmed in 1973, it wasn't released until May the following year. By that time, Happy Days was experiencing its first hit season and The Fonz's popularity was taking off.

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