The Story Behind Jimmy Harnen and Synch’s Hit 80s Ballad That Found Its Footing Three Years After It Was Released

There was a brief stretch in the late 80s and early 90s when power ballads were so much the rage that people started combing through the past for them. Songs that were several years old resurfaced with a vengeance.

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For example, fans listening to pop radio in 1989 likely got a heaping helping of the song “Where Are You Now” by Jimmy Harnen with Synch. They might not have realized that the song was already three years old.

A Wilkes-Barre Wonder

It’s hard to say what it was in the late 80s that caused radio stations to start unearthing older ballads for new public consumption. Maybe programmers saw how well hair metal bands were doing with power ballads and figured that more traditional bands could find success in that venue as well, even with years-old songs.

There was Sheriff, who waited six years (during which time they broke up) to hit No. 1 with “When I’m With You”. Benny Mardones had a Top 20 hit twice (in 1980 and 1989) with the slow song “Into The Night”.

If anything, “Where Are You Now” might have represented the unlikeliest of these reclamation projects. After all, Synch didn’t exactly come from one of the music’s metropolises. Instead, they hailed from the area surrounding Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, which is where their music first started getting airplay.

“Where” It’s At

Jimmy Harnen was the drummer for Synch. In addition, he acted as one of the group’s songwriters. He gained the inspiration to follow a path in music when Dakota, another local band from Northeastern Pennsylvania, gained some national airplay in the early 80s. A few years later, some members of Dakota would help produce the song that would gain Harnen fame.

Harnen wrote “Where Are You Now” with Rich Congdon, and it appeared on Synch’s debut album, which came out on an independent label in 1986. The band re-recorded the song as a single once they nabbed a national deal, and it landed at No. 77.

A few years later, “Where Are You Now” started getting airplay once again due to the aforementioned phenomenon of old songs becoming new again. The song was re-released and credited to Jimmy Harnen with Synch. Meanwhile, Harnen signed a solo deal and released his own album (Can’t Fight The Midnight), which also included the song.

Unorthodox though all this might have been, it worked for “Where Are You Now”. The emotional ballad made it all the way to No. 10 in 1989. Maybe it was too much to ask, considering how surprising this outcome was, for Harnen and/or Synch to ever find their way to another hit single. They all fell into the one-hit wonder category.

Behind the Lyrics of “Where Are You Now”

“All alone tonight, I’m calling out your name,” Jimmy Harnen sings at the beginning of “Where Are You Now”. “Somewhere deep inside, this part of you remains.” The song is obviously one of heartbreak, sung by someone who has loved and lost and is now tortured by the unknown surrounding his ex.

His fears get the best of him in the chorus. “Is someone there tonight holding what was mine?” he wonders. Perhaps wishful thinking causes him to hope that she might not be satisfied with her new situation. “Are you really feeling fine?” he asks.

Jimmy Harnen might have only released one big hit single, but he certainly ended up around a lot of them down the road. After his performing career ended, he landed in Nashville, where he became a highly successful musical executive. Which meant he had the perfect answer to the question posed by his most famous song, “Where Are You Now”.

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