Today’s classic song of the day is a perfect piece of power pop from Eric Carmen and the Raspberries. The song is “Overnight Sensation (Hit Record)” and, when it was released in September of 1974, it was a true hit record, going to #18 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #24 on the Cash Box Top 100.
Did the Raspberries invent power pop? Probably not (Badfinger and Big Star were there first), but they helped define the genre. “Overnight Sensation (Hit Record)” is as great a power pop song as you’re going to find. It has everything—the catchy melody, the thick background vocals, the jangly guitars, the big drums, you name it. It’s a great tune, written and sung by Eric Carmen, with great production by the legendary Jimmy Ienner. No less an eminence than Bruce Springsteen had this to say about the track:
“’Overnight Sensation (Hit Record)’ should go down as one of the great mini-rock-opera masterpieces of all time.”
Listen to the Boss. The Boss knows.
Eric Carmen said “Overnight Sensation” came to him visually, like a movie playing in his head. Here’s what he recalls about the song:
“‘Overnight Sensation’ was like the first video that I ever saw in my head. It was written very theatrically. The first scene was, you can picture Abbey Road Studios, this great, huge dark room with a real high camera and this one spotlight on the singer and it was like this guy singing in his living room, thinking about the music business. ‘I know it sounds funny but I’m not in it for the money…’ So he gets through the first verse and the first group of background vocals come in and the room lights up and gets a little bit bigger, and by the time you get to the first full-blown chorus it’s like, ‘Baboom!’ Visually, I was trying to get on a record what I was seeing in my head.”
The recording also has a magnificent drum break after the false ending (and great drumming throughout) by Michael McBride. That joyously bombastic break greatly influenced Max Weinberg’s drumming with Bruce Springsteen and inspired Max to include this track on his Let There Be Drums! compilation for Rhino Records.
This is one of those tracks you can listen to all day and into the night. I know that it sounded terrific on the car radio in my faded yellow Opal Kadett back in high school.
And here’s your daily bonus video of the day, the Raspberries lip synching “Overnight Sensation (Hit Record)” on a German television show back in the ’70s. I wanna hit record, yeah!
