Five Years Later
Live Bullet from the year 1976 had helped launch Bob Seger’s career and now five years later he returns to the format with Nine Tonight.
The album produced a top 5 hit “Tryin To Live My Life Without You” in August 1981. Four months later ” Feel Like A Number” was released reaching only the top 40 but did even better on Classic Rock Radio. “Nine Tonight” had a total of 16 tracks, half of them previously released from his albums “Night Moves”, “Stranger In Town” and “Against The Wind.”
Shame On The Moon
In 1982 Seger released The Distance which had a great combination of rockers and ballads. The biggest hit single on the album “Shame On The Moon” reached no. 1 on the Adult Contemporary charts and No. 2 on the Hot 100 charts wasn’t written by Seger . It was written by singer songwriter Rodney Crowell who was also ex-husband of Roseanne Cash. Backing vocals once again from Glenn Frey. The follow up single, “Even Now” just missed the Top 10 and “Roll Me Away” peaked at no. 27.
Featured In A Movie
In August of 1983 “Old Time Rock And Roll” was re-released (originally released in 1979) and got re-engerized by being featured in the 1983 Tom Cruise Movie “Risky Business”, when Cruise’s character dances in his underwear.
Speaking of Movies, In 1984 Seger wrote and recorded the power ballad “Understanding” for the film soundtrack “Teachers”.
Like A Rock
It took Seger several years before the next studio album Like A Rock emerged in the spring of 1986. The up tempo “American Storm” became another Top 20 single aided by a music video featuring actress Lesley Ann Warren.The single “Like A Rock”was released in May of 1986 reaching no. 12 on Billboards Hot 100.Followed by “It’s You” and “Miami” with backing vocals from Don Henley and Timothy B. Schmit.
Chevrolet Commercial
John Mellencamp even though he likes Seger’s work, was mildly critical of him allowing Chevrolet to use “Like A Rock” in a television commercial. Seger says the way he looks at it is the way Mellencamp does Farm Aid. John is from a farm community and farm state and Bob is from an automotive state. Chevrolet and their ad agency showed Seger how well the commercial had tested with audiences. At the time GM had lost around 1.1 billion in revenue in one quarter. Seger turned down the offer for about a year and GM told him it was the highest tested commercial they had ever done. The deciding factor was when he was sitting in a bar and a man from the auto industry walks up and says “Why don’t you do any commercials for the auto company and help us out”. The man was nice about it and walked away. Bob thought for a moment and said “why not I’m not above this”. Seger wanted to help his state’s economy. The commercial proved so powerful that the campaign, which was planned to last three to six months, ran for 13 years. Since then he has been offered 10 times as much money that he got from Chevrolet to do beer commercials but turned it down. Meanwhile in 2006 John Mellencamp who criticized Seger for years for allowing GM to use his music,now was doing it too. Mellencamp became the pitchman for Chevy Silverado replacing Seger’s “Like A Rock” with his song “Our Country”. Mellencamp always had a firm belief an artist’s music shouldn’t be in commercials. He says “that is until the record companies sold us out”. He said in an interview “I want my records to be heard that’s why I write them. MTV doesn’t even play videos anymore.How do you get out there and stay relevant?” I guess it safe to say that John Mellencamp changed his mind about music and commercials.
First Number 1 Song
In 1987,Seger recorded the song “Shakedown” for the soundtrack to Beverly Hills Cop II starring Eddie Murphy. The song had originally been intended for his friend Glenn Frey, but when Frey lost his voice prior to the recording session, he asked Seger to take his place. It was Seger’s first and only No. 1 hit on the pop singles chart.
Bob Seger And The 90’s
The 90’s music scene was about glam metal, grunge and alternative rock. In 1991, The Fire Inside was Bob’s first new album in four years and his new music got very little airplay on radio or elsewhere.”The Real Love” was the only single released from the album reaching to number 24 in August 1991. The same was true of his fifteenth album, It’s A Mystery (Rare!) in 1995 although the album went gold selling (500,000) copies. However in 1994,Seger released Greatest Hits, the compilation album and it was his biggest ever- record in terms of sales, selling 10 million copies in the United States as of 2010.
In 1998 Seger teamed up with country singer Martina Mcbride and released “Chances Are” from the Hope Floats movie soundtrack.
Time Off
Seger took a break from the music business for several years to spend time with his wife and two young children. While Seger slipped into normal life, his stature started to rise around the turn of the millennium when Detroit once again rose to prominence as a rock & roll city thanks to The White Stripes and in Seger’s case Kid Rock who was often seen in Seger shirts.
Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame
On March 14,2004 Bob Seger was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame by Kid Rock. Kid said “Until tonight the most underrated singer songwriter and live performer of our time is Bob Seger. Bob Seger and The Silver Bullet Band were inducted into the Michigan Rock and Roll Legends Hall of fame in 2005.
Popularity Still There
Seger released his first album in eleven years Face The Promise in 2006. His supporting tour was eagerly anticipated. Showing that his popularity had not diminished ,his first show in Grand Rapids sold out 10,834 tickets in under five minutes.
In 2009 Early Seger Vol. 1 was released.The album included songs from three previous albums, Smokin’ O.P’S, Back In ’72 and Seven. Two years later a two-CD compilation album was released, Ultimate Hits: Rock And Roll Never Forgets.
Bob Seger has been called “humble” and a “regular guy”. Here’s why: One of Bob Seger’s biggest fans Evie Branan from Flint Michigan suffered a stroke in May of 2004 that left her in a semi-coma. Seven years later in May of 2011, she tumbled out of bed, bumped her head and woke up, and her very first words were “I want to go to a Bob Seger concert”. Her aides at the nursing home made sure her wish came true. They rented a limo, got front row seats and arrangements were made for Branan to meet Bob and the band backstage.
Another Tour
On June 14, 2012 Seger added another accolade to his long list. He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall Of Fame.
On October 2014 Seger released his latest album Ride Out followed by a highly successful tour.
Two years later Seger performed the song “Heartache Tonight” as the Kennedy Center honored The Eagles. Seger co-wrote the song with Glenn Frey, Don Henley and J.D. Souther
Final Tour
Starting on August 24,2017 ,Seger embarked on a 32 city tour and announced his new album coming out in a few weeks, I Knew You When. The tour was cut short because of an urgent issue with his vertebrae. On September 18, 2018 Seger announced his final tour named The Travelin Man. It included postponed dates from the 2017 tour.
Personnel changes happened a few times with the Silver Bullet Band but when it comes to backup singers Laura Creamer and Shaun Murphy are among the best. Laura Creamer is a lovely singer songwriter who has toured with The Black Crowes, Eric Clapton, Kid Rock and of course Bob Seger. She was also the singer guest artist on Jim Brickman’s single “By Heart”. Shaun Murphy is a beautiful lady with a powerful voice that’s been with Seger since the mid 70’s. Plus she plays a mean tambourine. When not touring with Seger,Murphy has a successful career of her own as a Blues singer songwriter. Check her out : shaunmurphyband.com
Bob Seger’s music has been called Rock with an edge, Heartland Rock, Music from his Soul. Bob Seger has sold over 50 Million records and hopefully more new music in the future.
.