It’s always important as an artist to grow with your audience. By releasing material that stays germane to their listeners’ experiences, musicians can stay relevant even after their first flush of success.
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Eddie Money clearly understood this. Even as he maintained a public persona as an eternal rabble-rouser, Money sustained himself as a hitmaker thanks to his ability to churn out songs like “I Wanna Go Back”, a sweet, sad piece of nostalgia that touched a nerve with his maturing fans.
Money Talks
Eddie Money had already overcome long odds to score with his early records. Money seemed like a shoo-in to join the police force, just like other members of his family. But a ban on long hair put a kibosh on his plans not too long after he had scored a job in the department.
Money then battled for years to earn a record contract. Luckily, he won an important fan in legendary music impresario Bill Graham. Still, he was already pushing 30 when he finally released his debut album in 1977.
His brand of polished, R&B-indebted rock found a home among the prevalent disco and soft-rock sounds of the late 70s. Money then hit a bit of a swale in the middle of his career. His 1983 album Where’s The Party? was devoid of hit singles. He’d take a three-year layoff before returning with his next album.
“Back” on Top
Like many rock artists in the second half of the 80s, Money started farming out more of the songwriting duties to outside writers on his 1986 album Can’t Hold Back. The lead single, “Take Me Home Tonight”, was a kind of mashup of a new song and the Ronettes’ “Be My Baby”. Ronnie Spector even sang on the track, and it became Money’s biggest ever pop hit.
Considering the nostalgic feel of that track, it made sense that Money would choose a follow-up with that same kind of vibe. “I Wanna Go Back” was written and first recorded by a short-lived 80s band named Billy Satellite. Money took it in more of a soulful direction, replete with prominent saxophone played by Danny Hall.
Money managed to bring the narrator’s wistful memories to life with his performance. “I Wanna Go Back” landed at No. 14 on the pop charts upon its release in 1986. It also helped Can’t Hold Back become a platinum hit for this resilient rocker.
Behind the Lyrics of “I Wanna Go Back”
“I Wanna Go Back”, written by Danny Chauncey, Money Byrom, and Ira Walker, elucidates the eternal conundrum of memory. On the one hand, it’s fun to look back at the good times. But that inevitably leads to sadness when you can’t return. Or, as Money succinctly puts it, “I wanna go back/And do it all over/But I can’t go back, I know.”
The narrator explains how a song he hears on the radio takes him back to his high school dance days. He inevitably compares the infinite potential of those times with the present. “Back then, I thought that I’d never have to stand alone,” he laments. “It used to be that a lonely heart was never shown.”
Eddie Money ended up enjoying one of the most effective late 80s runs of any artist. How ironic that “I Wanna Go Back”, a song about living in the past, helped him nab all that modern success.
Photo by Mediapunch/Shutterstock
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