It was 36-years-ago today (November 8th, 1986) that Boston's comeback hit, “Amanda” — the lead single from Third Stage, hit Number One. The song, which was the band's first single since 1978, was written in 1980 and in 1984 a poor-sounding studio demo of the track briefly became the most requested AOR tune on the airwaves before a cease and desist letter had it pulled off the air.
The song, which topped the tracks for two weeks, hit Number One while Third Stage was sitting on top of the Billboard 200 albums chart during its month-long run. Amazingly, despite it being the height of MTV, no video was prepared for “Amanda,” which was written by band leader Tom Scholz.
Third Stage saw the reunion of Boston co-founders Brad Delp and Tom Scholz. Delp left Scholz and Boston following the release of the band's second album, 1978's Don't Look Back, and he spent a few years working with former Boston guitarist Barry Goudreau on a number of projects, including the groups RTZ and Orion The Hunter, before returning to Boston for the sessions for Third Stage.
Boston's late-great lead vocalist Brad Delp recalled that the time off between Boston's second and third albums did not go to waste: “Hey, it's the greatest job in the world. Again, it wasn't anything that was planned, but I really took some selfish advantage of the time off — where we were for a time, prohibited from working — to spend time with my wife and kids. I got two kids at home and that's a luxury that doesn't happen to performers a whole lot. Usually you're out on the road and you don't see much of them.” |