"Satisfied Man" by Molly Hatchet

Song#:  2088
Date:  10/20/1984
Debut:  90
Peak:  81
Weeks:  5
Genre:  Southern Rock, Hard Rock



Pop Bits:  Molly Hatchet came onto the scene in 1978 with their brand of hard Southern rock headed up by singer Danny Joe Brown. After two successful albums, Brown left the band and singer Jimmy Farrar took over. The band's next two LPs had a more commercial-leaning sound and many fans were not pleased with this direction. For their fifth album, No Guts...No Glory, they brought back Brown to take the lead and went back to the sound that made them famous. Despite some positive feedback, the album couldn't recapture their main audience and it failed to reach gold level sales. In an about-face, the band (still led by Brown) reverted back to a more slick, commercial rock sound for their next LP, The Deed Is Done. The more radio-friendly material, like this first single, suited Rock radio and the tune made it to #13 on the chart. It also crossed over to Pop for a few weeks. In doing so, it became the band's last song to hit the Pop chart. Another track from the album, "Stone in Your Heart," did a little business at Rock and got to #26. Yet despite the airplay, the album sold poorly and halted at a low #120. It would be their last studio album to reach the chart (a 1985 live album would get to #130). The band continued to record albums over the years, but their main business was their successful live shows.

ReduxReview:  This nearly has MTV written all over it. It makes me wonder if they were looking at ZZ Top's success and trying to put their own spin on it. They even include synth part similar to what ZZ Top did - a first for the band. There are just certain parts of it that bring to mind something like "Sharp Dressed Man." I actually kind of like the song, but when you put it next to something like the band's signature tune "Flirtin' with Disaster," it just lacks the hard rockin' boogie style that made them famous. I can see this being very disappointing for fans, but if anyone else beside Molly Hatchet did this song, folks might have been more on board with it.

ReduxRating:  6/10

Trivia:  Double Shot!  1) After Danny Joe Brown first left Molly Hatchet in 1980, he formed his own band. The Danny Joe Brown Band would sign to Epic Records (Molly Hatchet's label) and issued a debut album in 1981. A song from the album, "Edge of Sundown," would do well at Rock getting to #12. However, the album didn't sell and following a tour, Brown returned to Molly Hatchet.  2) This song was written by Tom DeLuca and Tom Jans. Jans was a singer/songwriter whose biggest success was the song "Loving Arms." It was originally recorded by Dobie Grey in 1973. The single went to #61. Kris Kristofferson and Rita Coolidge recorded it as a duet the following year and the single briefly got on the chart at #86. That same year, Elvis Presley recorded the song and included it on one of his albums. After Presley died, his posthumous album Guitar Man included the song. It was issued as a single and it reached #8 on the Country chart in 1981. Jans died earlier in 1984 from a drug overdose prior to this Molly Hatchet single being issued. Jans was friends with singer/songwriter Tom Waits, who decided a song to Jans on his 1992 LP Bone Machine. The tune "Whistle Down the Wind (for Tom Jans)" would be a track on that classic album.

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