Asylum 511
Producers: Jackson Browne and Greg Ladanyi
Track listing: Disco Apocalypse / Hold Out / That Girl Could Sing / Boulevard / Of Missing Persons / Call It a Loon / Hold on Hold Out
September 13, 1980
1 week
Jackson Browne first made his name as a songwriter whose work had been covered by a wide range of artists, including Nico, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, and Tom Rush. In 1972, his self-titled debut album stalled at number 53 but spun off the top 10 hit single “Doctor My Eyes.” That same year, the Eagles scored their first hit with “Take It Easy” written by Browne and Glenn Frey. It was with his fourth album, however, that Browne scored his critical and commercial breakthrough, 1976’s The Pretender, which reached number five.
But Browne’s triumph was marred by tragedy. In March 1976, his wife Phyllis committed suicide. Perhaps to help himself cope with the grief, he hit the road in 1977 and recorded Running on Empty. The album, featuring new material recorded in concert, in hotel rooms, and on Browne’s tour bus, was the singer- songwriter’s biggest success to date, climbing all the way to number three.
For the follow-up album, Browne opted to return to the recording studio. Hold Out, Browne’s sixth album, was recorded at the Sound Factory and Record One in Los Angeles and took nearly a year to complete. Greg Ladanyi, who had engineered Running on Empty, was enlisted to co-produce the album with Browne.
Although the album included only seven songs, four of the tracks clocked in at more than five minutes. Much of the album was written in the studio. “A good 60 percent of it was in Jackson’s mind, but a lot of the lyrics were finished as we were recording the songs in the studio,” says Ladanyi. “That’s just the way Jackson works sometimes. Some songs just don’t get finished unless he is working on them in the studio.”
The opening track, “Disco Apocalypse,” was Browne’s response to the dance-music craze. “At that time, disco music was really a big, big deal,” says Ladanyi. “Lyrically, it was a song about what was going on with that scene. That was something that we worked on for a long time, because it was a special song for Jackson.”
Another stand-out track was “That Girl Could Sing,” which would go on to become a top 30 hit in the fall of 1980. “The guitar solo on that kind of sounds like a seal,” says Ladanyi. “That was something David Lindley did with a slide guitar that was really incredible when it happened. On that record there were a lot of things that David Lindley played once that he never played again, but we managed to get them on tape.”
“Boulevard,” the first single from Hold Out, reached number 19. But Hold Out was more than just a collection of singles. “When we were done making Hold Out, Jackson was as confident about that record as he was about any other records he has put out,” Ladanyi says. That confidence was justified. In its ninth week on the chart, Hold Out hit the top spot, knocking no less a chart powerhouse than the Rolling Stones from the pole position.
THE TOP FIVE
Week of September 13, 1980
1. Hold Out, Jackson Browne
2. Emotional Rescue, The Rolling Stones
3. Urban Cowboy, Soundtrack
4. The Game, Queen
5. Diana, Diana Ross