Sammy Hagar Reveals How Eddie Cash Impressed His Greatest Solo Hit

It will not be Sammy Hagar’s largest tune by way of cultural impression, however “Your Love Is Driving Me Loopy,” which the Crimson Rocker launched in December 1982, is the top-charting tune of his solo profession.

The lead single from his seventh album, Three Lock Field, reached No. 13 on the Billboard 100, Hagar’s solely High 20 single as a solo artist. Reaching this success was precisely what the tune was supposed to do.

“I used to be requested by the pinnacle of promotions at Geffen Information to write down a High 40 hit like successful tune Eddie Cash had out at the moment (‘Suppose I am in Love’). He stated if I did, he would take it High 10,” Hagar tells UCR. “The inspiration was the Eddie Cash tune. It was up-tempo very catchy pop. Additionally ‘Jessie’s Woman’ by Rick Springfield, which I used to be very conscious of due to [the Hagar-written] ‘I’ve Finished Every part For You’ being on that very same file. The tune wasn’t successful for me, nevertheless it was an enormous hit for Rick so I assumed I’d take one other swing at it.”

Hagar remembers “Your Love Is Driving Me Loopy” was “really easy to write down as soon as I had that refrain. I actually like that main seventh chord on the concord and the music it made for a really distinctive catchy hook.”

And whereas it was Hagar’s first and solely High 20 solo hit, it got here at a time when his profile was greater than ever because of his 1982 album, Standing Hampton, a platinum outing that put Hagar on rock radio with songs comparable to “I will Fall in Love Once more” and “There’s Solely One Approach to Rock.” Hagar says he was “extra excited by writing extra of these form of AOR as a substitute of High 40 songs and nonetheless am at present.” However he was prepared for the problem of vaulting to the subsequent industrial stage. “For me [‘Your Love … ‘] felt like successful instantly and everybody at Geffen data felt the identical,” he remembers. “With Keith Olsen producing, who at the moment produced Fleetwood Mac, Pat Benatar and Rick Springfield, who all had a boatload of High 40 hits, we knew we had successful.”

Hearken to Sammy Hagar’s ‘Your Love Is Driving Me Loopy’

The only’s success took Hagar into beforehand uncharted territory that was a bit afield from the rock market. “Having a tune on High 40 radio brings a complete completely different form of publicity and fan base,” Hagar explains. “My entire profession, beginning with Montrose, was at all times AOR-oriented, not High 40. I relied on touring and traditional fist-in-the-air, singalong laborious rock anthems that at all times work in live performance, which was crucial factor to me at the moment. However as soon as I had an actual High 40 hit … I noticed the live performance attendance improve, the file gross sales improve, and that felt fairly rattling good. Nevertheless it actually did not change my fashion of writing. I nonetheless write album-oriented rock songs at present.”

Many years later, Hagar notes, “Your Love Is Driving Me Loopy” “remains to be one of many favorites stay for the followers. It at all times will get the loudest singalong of the evening, and folks need to get out of their seat and begin dancing, which actually is cool. And I really like performing this tune. It holds up very well at present. Superb!”

The hit single helped drive Three Lock Field – which featured visitor collaborations with Journey’s Jonathan Cain, Loverboy’s Mike Reno and Mr. Mister’s Richard Web page – to No. 17 on the Billboard 200 and gold certification. It was Hagar’s top-charting solo album till the No. 14-topping I By no means Mentioned Goodbye 5 years later, which arrived after his first album with Van Halen.