How America Had To Battle To Get Input on Their Last US Top 40 Hit

How did a band known for their soft-rocking early 70s ways do major pop chart damage in the MTV-fueled 80s? Well, they received some help from a songwriter who understood the era and could put them in that context. Unfortunately for America, the band in question, they eventually found that situation to be a kind of Faustian bargain. Nonetheless, they were able to eke one more hit out of the collaboration, their last Top 40 song in the US.

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From Trio to Duo

American emerged in the early 70s as a trio of singer-songwriters. They could combine their voices into pristine harmonies when need be. But each of the three men, Gerry Beckley, Dewey Bunnell, and Dan Peek, could step out to the forefront and deliver a song, both as writers and vocalists.

In 1972, their very first single, “A Horse With No Name”, established them as a go-to group for those enamored with the singer-songwriter movement. Five more Top 10 hits emerged over the next three years. America even earned the distinction of having several albums produced by George Martin, the famed producer of The Beatles.

Their momentum stalled in the second half of the decade when Peek decided to leave the band. Reduced to a duo, Beckley and Peek released several albums and singles that failed to make a mark as the band’s earlier music had done. But America received a lifeline in the form of Russ Ballard.

Ballard’s Boost

By the early 80s, the British Ballard had established himself as one of the top for-hire songwriters in the rock genre. Artists like Three Dog Night, Rainbow, and Santana had scored big with Ballard songs. He was contracted to help out America, both as writer and producer.

Mission accomplished. In 1982, Ballard wrote and produced the track “You Can Do Magic”, a sensation of a single from the album View From The Ground that rocketed America all the way back to the top of the pop charts. Considering the fallow period that they’d endured before that, it made sense that Ballard would stay on board for their next record.

That’s where problems started to ensue. Bunnell and Beckley entered the sessions for Your Move to find out that Ballard had pretty much laid down the majority of the tracks without any input from the duo. All that was required of them was to sing them. On at least one song, however, the duo was able to make a key contribution.

A “Border” Battle

One of the songs that Ballard had laid out for America was a song called “The Border”. However, Bunnell and Beckley thought that some of the terminology that Ballard was using in the lyrics betrayed his Britishness. Bunnell objected and asked if he could take a crack at writing the words to the track.

Bunnell came up with lyrics that used the metaphor of a fugitive on the run to imply romantic desperation. It’s probably not surprising that America included a “doo-doo-doo” refrain, which connected it back to “You Can Do Magic”. “The Border” made it to No. 33 in 1983.

When America came back in 1984 with the album Perspective, they still utilized help from outside songwriters, but Russ Ballard wasn’t one of them. No hit singles came forth, however, meaning that “The Border” still stands as the duo’s last hurrah in that department.

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