"If Love Should Go" by Streets

Song#:  1711
Date:  12/03/1983
Debut:  96
Peak:  87
Weeks:  5
Genre:  Rock



Pop Bits:  In 1981, the lead singer of Kansas, Steve Walsh, left the band after creative differences began to divide its members. Walsh had already released a solo album in 1980 titled Schemer-Dreamer that featured a few of his Kansas bretheren, but now he was completely on his own.  Walsh had become friends with drummer Tim Gehrt, who had played drums on Schemer-Dreamer and the pair decided to start a new band. Adding two other musicians, Streets was born. They got signed to Atlantic and recorded their debut album 1st. This song was selected as the LP's lead single and it did very well at Rock getting to #7. However, the success on that format didn't translate to Pop radio and the single only circled the bottom of the chart for a few weeks. It would be the band's only charting single. Atlantic thought the results were positive enough to call for a follow-up, so the band released their second album, Crimes in Mind, in 1985. The LP tanked and the band was dropped from the label. They broke up soon afterward. Walsh would join up with a reformed Kansas in 1985 and remain with the band until his retirement in 2014.

ReduxReview:  This is a good effort from Walsh and is better than most songs issued by Kansas in the last few years. It's still a bit faceless and the band doesn't necessarily establish a real personality or sound here, but the song is written and performed quite well. It's a quality tune that should have hit the Top 40 at minimum.

ReduxRating:  7/10

Trivia:  Guitarist Mike Slamer joined up with Streets after the break up of his previous band City Boy. That UK rock band had been around since the mid-70s and recorded seven albums between 1976 and 1981.
The band was moderately successful both in the UK and US. Their biggest hit would come in 1978 when their song "5.7.0.5." would reach #8 in the UK and #27 in the US. Slamer would later contribute guitar solos on the first two albums from the hard rock band Warrent, including their 1990 double-platinum #7 LP Cherry Pie.
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