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Saturday, August 3, 2019

"Girl Can't Help It" by Journey

Song#:  2849
Date:  08/30/1986
Debut:  79
Peak:  17
Weeks:  14
Genre:  Rock



Pop Bits:  Journey's second single from their album Raised on Radio, "Suzanne," would do fairly well getting to #17 Pop and #11 Rock. For a follow-up, this mid-tempo track was select for release. It would do slightly better at Rock than "Suzanne" getting into the Top 10 at #9. At Pop, the song would hit the exact same #17 mark as "Suzanne" and stayed on the chart for one additional week. The single would help sell a few more albums and eventually it would go double platinum. It was Journey's sixth studio album in a row to go into multi-platinum territory.

ReduxReview:  This album opener certainly announced that Journey was easing into a more pop-oriented rock sound with this album. It's not like they haven't flirted with a soft rock-ish style before, such as "Who's Crying Now," but that song still had a solid rock undercurrent flowing through it whereas this song had a glossy pop sheen coating the rock. Still, it worked well and it's actually a solid song. It was a much better choice of a single than "Suzanne" and perhaps if it had been released instead as the second single it might have done better.

ReduxRating:  7/10

Trivia:  In 1948, a Portuguese family named Pereira opened up a radio station, KNGS, in Hanford, California. The AM station featured Portuguese language programs in their broadcasts, but that stopped when they sold the station in the 70s and the format was changed to country music. Another sale of the station would take place later in the 80s and the call letters updated to KCLQ. In 1990, the Pereira's took over the station once again, changed the call letters to KIGS, and resumed their Portuguese language programming. So how does this relate to Journey? It was lead singer Steve Perry's parents who were the Pereira family that owned the station. The cover art for Journey's Raised on Radio album is a depiction of the KNGS station. The artwork was done by Michael Cotten and Prairie Prince. In addition to being a graphic artist, Prince was also a drummer who co-founded Journey back in the day, although he left the band before they got a recording contract. He missed out on making hits with Journey, but he would go on to join another band that made it big, The Tubes. Cotten was also a member of that band and the pair often did graphic art project together. So what happened to the radio station? It is still in operation as KIGS and after a sale in 2014, the station became an outlet for Radio Punjab, a Punjabi language music/talk format.
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