The Wild Heart and The Distance - 1983 Jimmy Iovine

[ricohv]

Originally Posted by Macfan4life

I read something about that too. That would have been so good. The Distance is a great album and Bob fought the record company a lot. He wanted to do a double album but the record company would not let him. He had so much creative material. The article I read just fascinated me because to have Stevie, Tom, and Bruce in a room with Bob and Jimmy and asking them what they thought of the album and what the first single should be. To think all of them were at their peak success during that time. I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall The album brings back memories of my first year in Jr high 1982 and early 1983. Mirage was fading on the charts then The Distance was released shortly followed by the Wild Heart. Songs like Shame on the Moon really bring back the memories. It peaked at #2 and is probably the best song to never make it to number 1. It was a mainstay on rock stations and even Adult contemporary stations. Bob did not want to write mainstream tracks for the album. He wanted slower songs that were not as easy to do as the mainstream tempo ones. It some ways it was like his "Tusk."


"It was a big battle between that ["Shame on the Moon"], "Even Now," "Thunderbirds" -- and actually they really wanted "Coming Home" for the Christmas Season. Steve Meyer, the Capitol singles guy, thought "Home" was a number one record, but that was if the album had come out in November. [It came out in December.] I wanted "Thunderbirds," Iovine wanted "Even Now." Springsteen, Stevie Nicks and Tom Petty all wanted "Even Now" when Iovine played it for them, screaming that it was a number one single...Capitol didn't want to go that hard for a first single, we didn't want to go that soft with "Coming Home," so we compromised on "Shame on the Moon," which I felt might be a single somewhere down the line, but I didn't want it to be the first one." Timothy White, April 1983, Musician. "The Roads Not Taken."

Thanks for all that interesting info MacFan4Life-great post!
Ricoh