Posted on 03/18/2020 4:01:12 PM PDT by nickcarraway
How long does it take to get a No.1 hit? In the case of the ‘70s group Ace, fronted by singer Paul Carrack, the answer is 45 years.
The British band’s 1975 single “How Long” originally reached No.3 when it was released, but this week it made it to No.1 on Billboard's Rock Digital Song Sales chart, selling 4,000 downloads, reaching 831,000 streams and increasing sales by more than 2000 percent.
The reason behind the song's sudden return to popularity is its use in a new ad for Amazon Prime titled “Binge Cheat,” which features the song’s opening line, “How long has this been going on?”
Ace released three albums before breaking up. Carrack went on to work with Roxy Music, Squeeze, Roger Waters, Ringo Starr and, notably, the Genesis offshoot Mike + the Mechanics – he was their lead singer on the hits “The Living Years” and “Over My Shoulder.”
Carrack was also frequently seen onstage with Eric Clapton.
He recalled writing “How Long," which lifted Ace out of the London pub-rock circuit. “We did write our own stuff, which most of the bands weren't doing,” he said in an interview with ClassicBands.com. “They were just playing covers, but it was the opposite of progressive rock. … Just guys getting together, forming little bands and playing small venues for fun and beer money, basically, and that's what pub-rock was all about.”
Carrack said he wrote "How Long" when he lived "in a small flat with my girlfriend, who's still my wife now. … I got the basic chord structure. I borrowed a Rebox tape recorder, but you actually bounce one track, left onto the right and you do a dub and back again to the left. So you could overdub a couple or three things. To me this was just magic.
“I must've come up with the chorus and put the harmonies on. Then my wife and I went to her mum’s … where we got one square meal of the week! This I do remember – I wrote the lyric on the bus going to my future mother-in-law's. I wrote it on the back of that bus ticket. That's my excuse for there only being one verse.”
You can watch Ace perform "How Long" below.
I read the writer wrote this song wrote it not about a girlfriend, but about a bassist that was cheating with another band.
“How Long” does this Wu Flu lockdown last?
“I wrote it on the back of that bus ticket. That’s my excuse for there only being one verse.”
I love that cheeky humor! That is a good one.
Song has a very cool vibe.
I just love that song. I would have bet (and lost) that it was Hall & Oats. Great song.
Proving most music since 1975 has been basically crap.
Truth.
LOL Even back in '75, I said to myself 'that's a nice *start* to a song. Where's the rest of it?' In a way, it reminds me of another 1975 hit, "Third Rate Romance" by the Amazing Rhythm Aces. That song had two verses but it *begs* for a third one. He gets her to the door of the motel and then...that's it? There wasn't even a longer album version where they had a third verse. The listener is just left at the door.
Paul Carrack has an amazing track record. Ace, Squeeze, Mike & the Mechanics and his solo career among others.
Well done. Thought it was by a black group.
That whole first side of the record was pretty damn good.
Great song.
My first thought was Boz Skaggs. I’m glad to be hearing it again!
One side note on “Third Rate Romance”: their “low rent rondezvous” was at the “Family Inn”. It was such a cheesy name, I thought the songwriter had made it up so he wouldn’t get sued by Holiday Inn, Comfort Inn, Ramada Inn, etc. Many years later, I was driving through the South one time and I came across a motel (it appeared to be a chain) called Family Inn. I had to pull off the highway because I was laughing so hard.
Awesome song.
Awesome song.
Indeed so. If you really want to kill your hearing, go to someplace like Kohls and listen to no singing talent, no melody, and...well, no nuttin!
Guitar solo was good.
Oh, no—are nostalgia Boomers going into fetal position while listening to Oldie favorites?
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