"Hands Tied" by Scandal featuring Patty Smyth

Song#:  2094
Date:  10/20/1984
Debut:  69
Peak:  41
Weeks:  13
Genre:  Rock



Pop Bits:  Scandal grabbed their first (and only) Top 10 hit with the title track from their full-length debut album Warrior. The track was a hit a Rock as well reaching #1 on that chart. For a follow-up, this song was chosen. Co-written by the album's producer, Mike Chapman, and Holly Knight (who co-wrote "The Warrior"), the single started off well, but then abruptly stopped at the dreaded #41 position on the Pop chart. It also just barely got locked out of the Rock Top 20 at #21. Despite the lackluster results, the album kept selling and it would eventually go platinum.

ReduxReview:  "The Warrior" was such a fun and distinct song that it was going to be a bit difficult for the band to follow it up. They needed another catchy tune if they were going to get a second Top 10. Unfortunately, this one wasn't it. The song is not bad, but it certainly doesn't rank among the best efforts of its writers (Knight and Chapman). It just didn't have a chorus solid enough to really make an impact on radio. It's a nice album track, but not a very good single candidate.

ReduxRating:  5/10

Trivia:  When the superstar rock band Journey was prepping their album Frontiers, they recorded a song called "Only the Young." The tune was a contender for the album, but in the end it was set aside in favor of other tracks. Somehow, the extra track was proposed to Scandal for their use and apparently the band bought the song. They recorded the tune and included it on the Warrior album. It was possible that the song could have been issued as a single, but then Journey ended up releasing their version as a single early in '85 when it appeared on the soundtrack album to the movie Vision Quest. Journey's version would reach #9 on the Pop chart. Now, I've seen in a couple of places that Scandal was not happy with Journey releasing the song. Feeling that an agreement was breached, Scandal called out Journey and threatened legal action. It seems the dispute was quickly settled with Scandal reaping some of the rewards from the Journey hit. Whether or not this actually happened is unclear, but it does seem odd that Journey would give another artist one of their songs and then turn around and use it themselves before the other artist had a chance to do something with the song.

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