monoblogue music: “The Songs” by Jim Peterik

All right, this is one that is very intriguing. Take a musician who may not be a household name himself, but realize that you KNOW most of the songs on the album because they were done by artists you’ve heard – particularly Survivor and .38 Special. Jim Peterik was a founding member of the Ides of March as well as Survivor, but has also worked with a number of other artists as a songwriter, including the aforementioned .38 Special.

Yet what you get on this album isn’t just a paint-by-numbers retrospective of a long career that began way back in 1964 with a group called The Shon-Dels that evolved into the Ides of March. Instead, Peterik headed down to Nashville and put a brand new spin on this classic rock. Imagine the Ides’ 1970 hit Vehicle performed as a slow jam, with primarily a keyboard accompaniment, or Eye of the Tiger done in a bluegrass/country style and tempo. Other Survivor songs like Is This Love, The Search Is Over, or I Can’t Hold Back also get an acoustic country treatment – but High On You is treated with a Caribbean flavor while L.A. Goodbye (another Ides of March hit) becomes a piano-based ballad that’s a highlight of the compilation.

But while Peterik has performed the most with the Ides of March (along with a couple other lesser-known groups, Pride of Lions and Lifeforce), he wrote many of the songs for .38 Special. This is what he did with Caught Up In You:

I daresay you won’t hear that on the classic rock station. Meanwhile, Hold On Loosely is recast as a slow acoustic ballad.

There are also songs that Peterik wrote for others on this as well. I never had really heard That’s Why God Made The Radio, but it was a song written years before its 2012 release on the Beach Boys’ album of the same name. (Peterik had worked with Brian Wilson in his solo career, too.) This version could have stood up in the 1960s with its vibe. And the last classic song was the one I liked most: redoing the Sammy Hagar song Heavy Metal (from the soundtrack of the 1981 movie of the same name – one of my all-time favorites) as more of a heavy blues song. I was wondering what he would do with it, and the treatment paid off.

Tucked in toward the end of the album are two recent original compositions: the gospel-influenced Miracle At Ground Zero, and the introspective The Same Muse, where he sings about music being “the only love I know.” I suppose if one of your claims to fame is being a co-author of “Songwriting for Dummies,” you would have a knack for putting together good tunes.

So to wrap things up, I guess the way I can best describe “The Songs” is to let you know that you might know the songs, but chances are you’ll also enjoy the music. After all, Jim Peterik started playing and singing professionally the year I was born, and since then it doesn’t look like he’s missed a beat.