The 1980 Listening Post - .38 Special - Rockin' in the Night

.38 Special - Rockin' in the Night

#32

Reviewed by Geo Rule

January 1980

.38 Special

Rockin’ in the Night

Genre: Arena Okra

Allen’s Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Geo’s Rating: 3.5 out of 5

38 Special

Rockin’ into the Night

Genre: Arena Okra

Geo’s Highlights:

Rockin’ into the Night

Money Honey

Take Me Through the Night

Turn it On

It’s a beautiful thing to have family and friends to help you out with your career. In the case of Donnie Van Zant, once big brother Ronnie hit it big as front man for Lynard Skynyrd, he was in a position to help his younger brother’s musical aspirations by convincing the record album to sign baby bro’s band 38 Special. Hey, there was clearly something in the water down there in Jacksonville, home to the Allman Brothers, Skynard, and Molly Hatchet –why not one more southern rocker success?

Sadly, two albums later it was clear the market was largely unimpressed by the new entrants. What to do? The answer is old as time in the record biz. . . “Let’s sell out!”, and so was born a respectable string of ‘80s success for 38 Special, built on performing credible if relatively generic rockers given to them by others. Case in point “Rockin’ into the Night” penned by Rob Peternik of Survivor (from future “Eye of the Tiger” fame). It’s a fine arena rock song, worthy of a Top 40 spot (which it almost achieved, topping out at #43). Yet in 1979/1980, any of ten bands could have ridden that hook into the Top 40, and several of them would have put more of a “make it our own” stamp on it than 38 Special manages here (tho props for some nice harmonies). Yay for talented friends.

Still, work your way further down the track list and the southern rocking good ole boys are still here, just shoved further down in the marketing pecking order. The cover of the Drifters classic “Money Honey” (covered in turn by Elvis and others) takes a much grittier turn than usual and ends up sounding more like Skynyrd doing “Mr. Saturday Night Special” with a splash of “Gimme Three Steps”.  “Take Me Trough the Night” would have fit right in on the Urban Cowboy soundtrack –the kind of slow dance song a country boy could love when his girl is wearing shitkickers and a cowboy hat. “Turn it On” is proof you can make a southern boy sell out, but you can’t keep him down completely on the second side.

So if you have from time to time wondered how your head remembers 38 Special was supposed to be southern rockers, while your ear remembers ‘not so much’ from the actual radio play, this is why, and it starts right here with this album.

https://open.spotify.com/album/6Y5TCAPz4RNwgandUvik2A?si=tc5kua2jRMenbMMCGV2wSw