A small Chris' analysis of her 88-95 work...and that nobody asked to...

[FuzzyPlum]

Originally Posted by bwboy

Curious as to why you feel Save Me wasn’t a good choice for a first single. And what you think might have been a better choice.

By process of elimination, I think a shortened In the Back of My Mind might have been a good choice for a lead single. None of Stevie’s songs would have been hit singles, nor Rick’s, so that left Christine and Billy. Skies imo was too light and poppy for a lead single, and Behind the Mask was too dark. Do You Know is a personal favorite, but too intimate. I love When It Comes to Love and Hard Feelings, but I don’t think they would have been hits.

Save Me and ITBOMM seem like they are very radio friendly and have gravitas to get the attention the first single needs. Save Me is quite a rocker compared to Christine’s other songs. I also love Isn’t It Midnight. Im sure the band and the record label wanted a single that featured Christine or Stevie first, and hoped subsequent singles could come from Billy, but it didn’t work out that way

I just think Save Me was a bit too MOR/meh for the mainstream charts. Its okay, but kind of bland. I think they released it as it was the most in keeping with their 80's hits. Its the song that mostly follows the Hold Me/Little Lies/Everywhere formula....just not as good. By that time though chart music had really moved on. Save Me was a bit behind the times.
Yes, I think a single version of Behind The Mask or Do You Know would have had a better chance of impacting on the charts. Think of the success of Extreme: More Than Words. I'm not for one minute saying Do You Know is as good a song as that, but I think it had a similar sort of vibe.

I actually remember reading Save Me was out in the charts...but I hadnt heard it yet. I remember Baywatch came out at around that time and it had a song called Save Me as the theme song. I had kinda hoped that was it.
....but no...that was by Peter Cetera.