"I Live By the Groove" by Paul Carrack

Song#:  4089

Date:  10/28/1989

Debut:  70

Peak:  31

Weeks:  13

Genre:  Pop, Rock

Pop Bits:  Carrack's solo career reached a peak with his '87 album One Good Reason. It got to #67 thanks to the #9 Pop/#5 Rock hit "Don't Shed a Tear." After that success, Carrack would return to do some lead vocal work with Mike + the Mechanics, which led to the #1 hit "The Living Years." After things with that project wrapped up, Carrack returned to the studio to record his next solo album. Groove Approved would be mainly produced by Carrack with T-Bone Wolk and this first single would be issued out. It would do modestly well cracking the Pop Top 40 while getting to #22 AC. Unfortunately, no other singles from the album charted and that left it stopping at #120.

ReduxReview:  This was a fun tune that was sort of in the same vein as hits by Huey Lewis & the News. However, since Lewis' popularity was starting to wane, it may not have been the right time to release this tune. It still managed to nearly make the Pop Top 30, which was a bit surprising. Carrack had a golden opportunity after the success of "Don't Shed a Tear" and "The Living Years" to really kick his solo career into high gear, but he just didn't have the material to do that. Plus it seems that his label at the time might have been going through changes as well and that is never a good thing. Despite not being able to have a string of solo hits, Carrack has certainly had a long and successful career on his own and with others.

ReduxRating:  5/10

Trivia:  Carrack wouldn't record another solo effort until 1996. Blue Views wouldn't chart, but two of its tracks made the AC chart including the #3 "For Once in Our Lives." Further album/single releases from Carrack would fail to reach the US charts. However, in his UK homeland, most of his albums would make the chart. His 2016 album Soul Shadows would become the highest peaking of his career reaching #25. Along the way, Carrack would rejoin his former band Squeeze for an album and work alongside many top artists. In '94, Carrack would form a band with former Eagles members Timothy B. Schmit and Don Felder. Ultimately, the project never got off the ground with Schmit and Felder opting to join the reformed Eagles for a tour. A resulting live album Hell Freezes Over would come from that tour. Included on the album would be four new studio tracks including "Love Will Keep Us Alive,' which was a song that Carrack had co-written and intended for the band with Schmit and Felder. After that project fell through, Schmit and Felder took the song over to the Eagles. While the track would not be issued out as an official single, it would get a lot of airplay and would end up spending three weeks at #1 on the AC chart.

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