"Tough All Over" by John Cafferty & the Beaver Brown Band

Song#:  2319
Date:  05/11/1985
Debut:  53
Peak:  22
Weeks:  15
Genre:  Rock



Pop Bits:  Cafferty and his band got pushed into the spotlight thanks to their soundtrack contributions to the film Eddie and the Cruisers. With that successful experience behind them, the band then had the opportunity to record their first official album under their own name. They came up with Tough All Over and this title-track became the first single. It was greeted with open arms at Rock with the song becoming their second #1 on that chart. It also did fairly well at Pop just missing out on the Top 20. While the album didn't sell nearly as well as the Eddie soundtrack, it did respectable business and demonstrated that they had more to offer than just being the band was Eddie and the Cruisers.

ReduxReview:  This a good pop/rock tune and it helped establish a career for Cafferty away from Eddie. However, where Cafferty's tunes on Eddie sounded like Springsteen-lite, this one leans towards Jackson Browne territory. Cafferty obviously wears his influences on his sleeve, but he manages to maintain his own identity without sounding like a clone or weak knock-off. Cafferty didn't have spectacular tunes that were gonna wow the critics, but he did have a bit more to offer than the typical "they're a good bar band" critique that they got saddled with on occasion.

ReduxRating:  6/10

Trivia:  The Eddie and the Cruisers soundtrack was on the Scotti Bros. label and it was a no-brainer for them to sign Cafferty to a record deal following the album's success. The band would do two albums for the label along with delivering a soundtrack to the Eddie sequel. After diminishing returns, the label ended up dropping the band. However, they were not done with the band's material. In conjunction with a new reissue of the Eddie soundtrack released in 1993, Scotti Bros. also reissued the two albums the band had done for the label. But instead of issuing them with the original front cover artwork, the label decided to capitalize on the Eddie tie-in and created new covers that stated "From the Voice of Eddie and the Cruisers." The Eddie and the Cruisers part was in a much larger and bolder font than that of the band's actual name. In addition, the covers featured images of Eddie from the film, not the band. It was corporate marketing at its best!

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