The last 7″ Single I found this Summer was for a Southern Rock Band that did really well in the early 80’s. A lot of smash hits including this one from their 1983 album ‘Tour de Force’. I said last week that this week’s single was special. And that is because the band was .38 Special and the song was “If I’d Been the One”. The album went to #22 thanks in part to this Top 40 song which went to #19 and #1 on the Mainstream Rock Chart. The version I have is a standard U.S. version and the B-Side was also from the album, so sadly, no non-album track which I love to get as the B-Side, but at least we got another great track from the album.

“If I’d Been the One” was credited to Don Barnes, Larry Steele, Jeff Carlisi and Donnie Van Zant. The song is about Donnie and his relationship with his older brother Ronnie Van Zandt who was killed in the notorious plane crash that killed several members and crew of the band Lynyrd Skynyrd. Donnie asks the question, what if he was the one on that plane? Donnie was definitely hurting and seem to be suffering from survivor’s guilt even though he wasn’t on the plane. It was a chance for him to express his love for his brother and his battle with all the emotions he felt about his death. It is really a sad song.

A-SIDE:

“If I’d Been the One” was sung by Don Barnes and he does a great job in expressing the emotions felt in the lyrics. It is a sad song, like I said, and musically, though uptempo at times matches the emotions as well. The chorus on this is huge, picks up power and is very catchy. Musically overall, the song feels simple, no overblown guitar parts, a nice riff and a great rhythm section with perfect placed drum fills. A song with lyrics as powerful as these, doesn’t need much else. A strange song choice to open an album though as it isn’t very bombastic or exciting. Still, a great song regardless of placement on the album.

B-SIDE:

The B-Side is the song “Twentieth Century Fox” which opens up Side 2 of the album as well. And this might have been a better choice for opening the album as it is explosive. Donnie Van Zant sings this one and it was written by the same four guys that wrote the A-Side. I do like how the do a Don song on one side and Donnie on the other. Lyrically, there is some nice word place. Vocally, Donnie has a little more grit that Dan and this song has a little more edge to it as well. A radio-friendly track and could’ve been a hit, but wasn’t a single. More rocking then the A-Side so a nice variety of songs for the single.

I didn’t grab a ton of singles over the Summer but I did get some good ones. So this was a Summer of quality over quantity. Next week, we are going to go through a Brand New Single Release and it is related to Kiss…it is Kiss Adjacent. We will see you then.