Writers: Rush
Producers: Rush and Terry Brown
Recorded: Summer and fall 1979 in Toronto, Ontario
Released: Early 1980
| Players: | Geddy Lee — vocals, bass, synthesizers Alex Lifeson — guitar Neil Peart — drums |
| Album: | Permanent Waves (Mercury) |
“The Spirit Of Radio” is one of a handful of Rush singles to chart in Billboard, peaking at Number 51 on the Hot 100.
The song — along with the rest of the Permanent Waves album — was something of a surprise to Rush fans as it found the band moving towards shorter, more direct songs after many years of straddling the line between progressive rock and heavy metal and releasing lengthy, conceptual pieces such as 2112 and Hemispheres.
Singer-bassist Geddy Lee explained the change this way: “It was time to stop the concept stories. What you have to say ends up being very nebulous, because you're concerned with the big story. You try to make the story right, you try to evoke the right moods, and invariably 16 different people come up to you and tell you 16 different things about what you're trying to say. That's fine, but for us it was time to come out of the fog for awhile and put down something concrete.”
Fans clearly appreciated the change. Permanent Waves was Rush's most successful album to date, hitting Number Four on the Billboard 200 and selling more than a million copies.
The album also hit Number Four in the U.K., where “The Spirit Of Radio” was a Number Three hit.
At some shows, Lee — who is an admitted sports nut — took to singing about “the spirit of baseball” in the song's choruses.
