I’m not sure where it started, but one of the themes that people were invited to blog about last week was Run. I saw various contributions for this from blogs I follow, but in particular I picked it up from this post by the estimable John Holton, who offered us a playlist of songs with run in their title, and I added a few in the comments. I said to him that it would make a good theme for one of this series, and thought I would use some of my suggestions as the basis for it. But it rang the vaguest of bells, so I checked back and found that I had done this one eighteen months ago.

There’s nothing wrong with playing a good theme again, is there, so here is a rerun for you. I could easily have given you an entirely new selection, but one of the previous set simply cries out to be included again, so that is today’s starting point. There is a story attached to this one, which you may remember if you were following my blog last year:

That is just so very good! Run And Hide and Dax were new ones for everyone when I played this before. This is what I said then: “This is the opening track on a 2011 album by Dax, entitled Beating Hearts And False Alarms. I came across the album in the days when I made much use of a site called Noisetrade, on which artists could offer for free tasters of their music. These could be singles, EPs or, as in this case, full albums, and were sorted by the site as being ‘for fans of…’. I don’t recall who they thought Dax was like, but I downloaded the album and have never regretted it – it is very good, and this track has been a favourite of mine since then. Dax – whose full name is Dax Penick – is a difficult guy to pin down. In my Apple Music library I also have an album by him from 2003 and an EP from 2010, but these were downloaded from Noisetrade and don’t appear to be available now. He has, however, been releasing new music since 2017 under the name Of Jagged Risings and this song is included on an EP from 2020 called Crooks.”

That would have been that but for the most amazing thing. A couple of months later Dax himself found that post and offered a wonderful comment. I couldn’t leave it at that, could I, so I wrote a piece about it, which I called A Star Is Born (Or Perhaps Not) – the reference is to me, not Dax! Both the first song I played and the others I included in that second post were well received so I hope you don’t mind me reprising them. Dax again got in touch after the second piece and added a further detailed update on what was going on with his music, and how the industry hadn’t been kind to him – follow the link to the post if you’d like to see what he said. He sounds a great guy and I really hope he gets the success I feel he deserves. And if you see this, Dax, I hope things are going well for you.

The rest of today’s tunes should take us back onto much more familiar ground, I think. Starting with this one:

Take It On The Run was first released on REO Speedwagon’s ninth album, Hi Infidelity, in November 1980. The band had been together for thirteen years at that point, and this was the record that gave them their big breakthrough. It went to #1 in the US, where it sold more than 10m copies and was the best selling album of 1981. It also reached #6 in the UK – I had a copy, and it is a very good record. Four of its tracks were released as singles. The first, Keep On Loving You, was also a US #1 and made #7 in the UK. This was the second, released in March 1981, getting to #4 in the US and #19 in the UK. On balance, I much prefer this one of the two!

I’m staying Stateside for this next one (and the one after, come to that). Again, this is one I think you’ll know:

Take The Money And Run was released in April 1976 as the lead single from the Steve Miller Band’s ninth album, Fly Like An Eagle, which came out the following month. The band had enjoyed huge success with their previous album, The Joker, which reached #2 in the US and gave them a #1 single with the title track in both the UK and the US. This album also gave them a US #1 single, with Rock’n Me, and a #2 with the title track, though this one fared a little less well, making #11 in the US and #57 in the UK. Again, this was an album I bought, and played it a lot: there are some great tracks on it aside from the singles. It reached #3 in the US Albums chart, and #11 here in the UK.

I’m leaping more than twenty years later with my next tune for today. This is one which will probably not come as a surprise to anyone who has been following my blog for a while, as I am on record as being a big fan of the band, and it’s a fun video, too:

Ready To Run was released as a single in June 1999, reaching #39 in the US and #53 in the UK, though it did get to #2 on the US Country chart. It was the lead track from what officially counts as The Chicks’ fifth album, though the first three were released on a minor label and made no chart impact anywhere, so I tend to think of it as their second! The album was Fly, and it was released in August of that year, making #1 in both the Main and Country charts in the US, and getting to #38 in the UK. Eight of its thirteen tracks were released as singles, all bar one of which made the US charts, and it has sold more than 8m copies in the US, with a further 300k in Canada and 100k in the UK. I wonder how many of those US copies were burned in the pathetic outcry that followed Natalie Maines’ comment about being ashamed to be from the same state as the then US President, George W Bush, who has since become the second most stupid President in recent US history – his crown was stolen between 2017 and 2021.

Today’s closing song is by the only British band in the collection, and it comes from a big selling album that saw me through much of my time at uni:

The Band on the Run album was released by Paul McCartney and Wings in early December 1973, and I bought it as a treat to myself out of my earnings as a temporary Christmas postman that year. It then became a major part of my listening in the final five terms of my uni days, and it is a great album. It didn’t fare too well in the charts initially, but really took off after the success of Jet, the first single taken from it, and went on to reach #1 in the US, the UK, Australia and Canada. It has sold more than 6m copies worldwide, around half of those in the US. Jet was released as a single in January 1974, peaking at #7 in both the US and the UK. Band On The Run then became a single in April 1974, and got to #3 in the UK and #1 in the US. I still think of this as Macca’s best post-Beatles offering, and it is scary to think that the album turns fifty in three months’ time!

That’s it for my second go at the runs. I hope there was something here for you to enjoy, and that I’ll see you again soon. And if any of you, like me, have Apple devices, be prepared for some very slow updates to iOS/iPadOS/TVOS 17 – time for a brew or two, I think, especially with TVOS! Stay well 😊