"I Am By Your Side" by Corey Hart

Song#:  2870
Date:  09/20/1986
Debut:  66
Peak:  18
Weeks:  13
Genre:  Pop, Soft Rock



Pop Bits:  Hart's second album, Boy in the Box, would be his best effort in the US reaching #20 and going gold. The LP featured two big ballad singles including the #3 "Never Surrender." When it came time to issue out a lead single from his third album, Fields of Fire, Hart stayed in ballad mode with this track. Hart was shooting for a third Top 10 hit, but the song stalled just inside the Top 20. In his home country of Canada, it would become his fifth Top 10 hit reaching #6. The album would go double-platinum in Canada (200k copies by their standards) and would be his third gold seller in the US (500k copies).

ReduxReview:  Hart had certainly changed since his new wave-influenced synthpop hit "Sunglasses at Night" (1984, #7 Pop). The new album was more mature in tone and attempted to leave behind the pouty bad boy image that initially got him noticed. His knack for writing pop power ballads continued and this first single didn't stray too far away from what he had established with a couple singles from Boy in the Box. It was a good choice, but then it started to get him tagged as a modern pop crooner and he'd have difficulty breaking out of that later on. This was a solid effort for Hart and one that he kind of reined in instead of going for a balls-to-the-wall big ending. It wasn't quite as memorable as his previous ballad singles, but it was a nice track.

ReduxRating:  6/10

Trivia:  Up to this point, Hart had been nominated for ten Juno Awards (Canada's Grammys) winning two. The new Fields of Fire album would add four more nominations to his total. The nods would keep coming in over the years and by 1999 Hart had received his twenty-first Juno nomination. While he would only win the two competitive Juno's, in 2019 he would receive a third when inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame. The honor puts him in the same company as illustrious winners and superstars like Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, Anne Murray, Bryan Adams, Shania Twain, k.d. lang, Alanis Morrisette, and Sarah McLachlan.

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