"Didn't Know It Was Love" by Survivor

Song#:  3669

Date:  10/08/1988

Debut:  95

Peak:  61

Weeks:  10

Genre:  Rock

Pop Bits:  Survivor's sixth album When Seconds Count would make it to #49 thanks to the #9 Pop hit "Is This Love." The album signaled a dip in popularity following the platinum success of '84's Vital Signs so they needed a good rebound single to kick off their next album Too Hot to Sleep. This track was selected for release, but unfortunately it was a bit of a miss. It could only reach #40 at Rock while not even cracking the top half of the Pop chart. With that result, the album became the band's lowest peaking on the chart only making it to a very minor #187.

ReduxReview:  The band's main songwriters Jim Peterik and Frankie Sullivan were very good at coming up with hooky pop/rock tunes, but after chuggin' out songs for the band for years their songs started sounding like they were coming off of an assembly line. It wasn't like the tracks were bad, it was just that they all started to kind of sound the same. Staying the course will only take you so far in pop music, especially in the 80s, and it seems the band reached a dead end with Too Hot to Sleep. This single was just fine. It was a good spot of corporate pop/rock. However, it didn't do anything to advance the band and the tune wasn't up to the same standards as some of their previous hits. Survivor's music had become bland and even long time fans ignored the album. The poor results would end up putting the band on an extended hiatus.

ReduxRating:  4/10

Trivia:  For the Too Hot to Sleep album, the band wanted to return to the heavier rock sound of their first albums. Band member Frankie Sullivan would co-produce the LP with Frank Filipetti who had produced works by James Taylor, Carly Simon, and Foreigner. Although Filipetti would sit in the producer's chair on occasion, he was more in demand as an engineer and mixer. Filipetti also stayed ahead of the curve as a proponent of digital recording. He continued to work for various artists over the years, but in 2002 he got involved more with the recording of original cast albums from Broadway musicals. His work on Elton John and Tim Rice's Aida earned him a Grammy and that led to Filipetti working on other cast albums including ones for The Color Purple, The Book of Mormon, Spamalot, and Wicked, all of which earned him a Grammy.

_________________________________________________________________________________