In 1981, Blue Öyster Cult released one of their biggest commercial hits. The song, “Burnin’ for You,” became a rock radio staple and gave the New York-based rock band a new life on the charts—and on the newly launched MTV.
And it all started with a lyric left behind by a rock music critic.
Featuring an infectious guitar riff, a soaring solo, and lyrics about desire, “Burnin’ for You” was the first single from the album Fire of Unknown Origin. The song was spawned from a lyric left behind by Richard Meltzer, the pioneering rock critic known for his work in Crawdaddy, Rolling Stone, Creem, The Village Voice, and more.
In an interview with Songfacts, Blue Öyster Cult singer and guitarist Buck Dharma looked back on the songwriting experience.
"'Burnin' for You' is a Richard Meltzer lyric that probably has the most sincere sentiment from my view,” he shared. “I wrote the music to that, because I thought I could do a good job... and I guess I did.”
RELATED: 1981 Rock Duet Became the Biggest Hit Ever for Both Artists
Dharma explained that Meltzer, a friend of the band who co-wrote several of their earlier songs, was known to leave lyrics lying around for the band to find.
“Richard would write on a typewriter and we’d have sheets of lyrics and on the page and it would look just look like poetry with a lot of lower case and free form, free association,” Dharma recalled in an interview published by the Herald Tribune. “I don’t know how long I’d had his lyric, but it was about 1980 and we’d moved to Connecticut.”
In an interview with Pop Entertainment, Dharma noted that “Burnin’ for You” was “almost conscious pop craft” when the band felt pressure to create a hit.
“After ‘[Don’t Fear] The Reaper’ was a hit, the band was under commercial pressure to have more,” he revealed. “The lyric on ['Burnin' for You'] was written by Richard Meltzer. I think that's probably his most sentimental lyric. He's not a very sentimental person, so for him to write an actual thoughtful and sentimental lyric is kind of funny. Although it's still classic Meltzer with the lines like, 'Time to play B-sides.' Which you're not gonna hear in your average tune.”
On October 3, 1981, “Burnin’ for You” became a Top 40 hit on the Billboard Hot 100. The song’s success was fueled by heavy rotation on MTV, the all-music cable channel that had launched in August of that year.
In an interview with Classic Bands, former Blue Öyster Cult bass player Joe Bouchard noted that the band wasn’t normally known for making music videos.
“I mean, we had one video that was popular on MTV, which was 'Burnin' For You,’” he noted. “In the early days, they played it a lot, but we never did a video for ‘(Don't Fear) The Reaper.’ The video world of MTV pretty much ignored Blue Öyster Cult most of the time, so it was just a thing where we were not a video band.”
Still, Dharma recalled having fun during the day-long video shoot.
“It was fun. We did ‘Burnin' for You’ and ‘Joan Crawford’ in the same day,” he said. “That was the first video we ever made, so it was kind of exciting to be out in Hollywood doing that kind of thing. It was totally exhausting; it was about a 20-hour day.”
Related: 1981 Radio Hit, Written by Rock Legends, Was Inspired by an Argument
Hence then, the article about 1981 rock hit with lyrics written by legendary music critic remains a timeless classic 45 years later was published today ( ) and is available on Parade ( Saudi Arabia ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( 1981 Rock Hit, With Lyrics Written by Legendary Music Critic, Remains a Timeless Classic 45 Years Later )
Also on site :
- I’m quitting teaching aged 40 but I’m still set for a £750,000 pension pot
- Corgi Insurance Launches Golden, a Dedicated Sports and Entertainment Insurance Vertical Built for the $600 Billion Sports Industry
- Amazon Has a 'Beautiful' Rustic Mid-Century Nightstand With 'Functional' Storage on Sale for Just $34