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Radar Love

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"Radar Love"
Single by Golden Earring
from the album Moontan
B-side (UK and US)
Released4 August 1973 (Europe)
  • 16 November 1973 (UK)
  • 15 April 1974 (US) [1]
Recorded1973
StudioTrident, London
Genre
Length
  • 6:26 (album version)
  • 5:07 (single version)
  • 3:44 (single edit)
Label
Songwriter(s)
Producer(s)Golden Earring
Audio sample

"Radar Love" is a song by the Dutch rock band Golden Earring. The single version of "Radar Love" reached #10 on the Cash Box Top 100 and #13 in Billboard in the United States. It also hit the Top 10 in many countries, including the United Kingdom, Canada,[4] Australia, Germany, and Spain.

Lyrics

The song is written from the point of view of a truck driver who says he has some sort of psychic connection with his girlfriend — "radar love". He senses that she urgently wants him to be with her, and it makes him reckless. His recklessness causes him to have a fatal accident, but even in the afterlife the song's narrator and his lover still have radar love.[5]

Composition

Like other famous songs of the era ("Highway Star", "Stairway to Heaven", "Bohemian Rhapsody"), "Radar Love" is composed as a suite with several distinctive and quite different sections (although the tonality remains pretty much the same).

The intro starts with a guitar riff in four movements. The first movement is up from C# minor with three power chords slightly reminiscent of Deep Purple's "Smoke on the Water". The second movement heads down, the third is up again, higher than the previous, and the fourth leads all down to E major. According to bass player Rinus Gerritsen the intro was inspired by Carlos Santana.[6]

After the intro a driving snare drum sets the pace in 4/4 time, at around 100 BPM. The snare drum is soon joined by a signature bassline in F# minor. This is repeated eight times in two alternating lines.

Starting at 0:47, the first verse is sung to the ongoing bassline in F# minor:

"I've been driving all night, my hands wet on the wheel..."

The verse consists of four lines and each of them is answered by a simple guitar hook.

After the fourth line the song moves to a sort of bridge leading up to the chorus.

"When she is lonely and the longing gets too much, she sends a cable coming in from above..."

In this section, accompanied by vocal harmonies, the chords shift from E major via several changes to B major and finally C# minor at the start of the refrain:

"We've got a thing that's called radar love..."

During the chorus, starting in C# minor at 1:20, the band is joined by a brass section and the drum beat is doubled to give the impression that the tempo has speeded up.[7]

After the chorus the song returns to the previous bassline in F# minor. In verse two the singing gets funkier and so does the responding guitar which is now played with double notes.

"The radio is playing some forgotten song, Brenda Lee's "Coming On Strong"..."

At the end of the second chorus at 2:30 the album version continues with a different bassline and guitar improvisations until 3:49. In the single version this part has been left out and the song turns immediately to a trademark drum solo at 2:30 (or 3:49 respectively). Ten seconds into the solo the drummer is joined by guitar, bass and trumpets playing a riff derived from the intro which builds up repeating over several variations, until collapsing in an E major chord at 3:06 (4:25).

At this point the song shortly slows down, but soon the bassline restarts and the drummer returns to his driving beat.

Yet, verse three at 3:36 (4:55) is a slightly different affair, as illustrated also by the lyrics:

"No more speed, I'm almost there, gotta keep cool now, gotta take care..."

This time the voice, more hesitant than driving, is answered by bluesy guitar licks played by two guitars opposing on the stereo channels.

Energy returns with Brenda Lee coming on strong once more, and finally at 4:13 (5:32) the bridge and the chorus build up for a last ride with sounding horns.

At 4:44 (6:03) starts the outro with a variation of the bassline in F# minor and all instruments gradually joining in the same chord.

Impact

According to Rustyn Rose at Metalholic, the song "is a rock masterpiece, from its hooky chugging bassline, to its simple but unmistakable riffs, to its catchy anthemesque chorus. Even the jam which rides the song out is note for note classic".[8]

The song has been chosen by many magazines and websites as a Top 10 driving song. Often it ranked in the top three. In polls it was chosen as the best radio song by readers of the newspaper Washington Post in November 2001. It resulted the #1 driving song in Australia (Australian Musician Magazine, November 2005), beating two AC/DC-songs, and in Canada (BBC Canada, March 2006).[9] In 2011 it received a vast number of votes as the "Ultimate Driving Song" in a poll at PlanetRock and "finished well ahead of its nearest rival, Deep Purple's Highway Star".[10]

The bassline, guitar improv and drum solo riff was used in the late 1970s and early 1980s as part of the opening credits and theme to the long running Australian current affairs programme Four Corners produced by ABC before it segues into the official theme, Robert Maxwell's "Lost Patrol".

Chart history

Cover versions

According to https://radar-love.net/, the song has been covered more than 500 times, among others by Tribe 8, Ministry, Omen, U2,[26] R.E.M., Ian Stuart Donaldson, Sun City Girls, White Lion, Blue Man Group, Def Leppard,[citation needed] James Last, NWOBHM band Aragorn, Nine Pound Hammer, Oh Well, Joe Santana, the Space Lady[27] and the Pressure Boys. White Lion's version charted at #59 on the Billboard Hot 100.[28]

Goth-pop band Ghost Dance recorded a cover of the song on the B-side of their "Heart Full of Soul" single, itself a cover of the Yardbirds track.

A pre-Mercyful Fate band featuring King Diamond on vocals recorded a cover of the song. It is featured on King Diamond & Black Rose 20 Years Ago.

WaveGroup Sound covered the White Lion version of the song on Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s.

The song is featured in the 2017 movie Baby Driver.

References

  1. ^ "Golden Earring singles".
  2. ^ Harry L. Watson; Jocelyn Neal (1 December 2011). Southern Cultures: 2011 Music Issue: Winter 2011 Issue. UNC Press Books. p. 69. ISBN 978-0-8078-6842-3. Retrieved 28 September 2015.
  3. ^ Guarisco, Donald A.. The Best Glam Rock Album in the World Ever at AllMusic. Retrieved 28 September 2015.
  4. ^ "RPM Top 100 Singles - August 3, 1974" (PDF).
  5. ^ Beviglia, Jim (14 April 2020). "Behind The Song: "Radar Love" by Golden Earring". American Songwriter. Retrieved 8 October 2021.
  6. ^ Golden Earring – Radar Love: The story behind the song.
  7. ^ Songfacts: Radar Love by Golden Earring
  8. ^ Rose, Rustyn (19 June 2011). "GOLDEN EARRING 'Radar Love' ~ Anatomy Of A Song". Metalholic. Quasi Mojo Partners. Archived from the original on 31 March 2015. Retrieved 8 October 2021.
  9. ^ Radar-love.net, Did you know that?
  10. ^ Ultimate Driving Song: The Top 50
  11. ^ Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970-1992. St Ives, N.S.W.: Australian Chart Book. ISBN 0-646-11917-6.
  12. ^ "Item Display - RPM - Library and Archives Canada". Collectionscanada.gc.ca. 1974-08-17. Retrieved 2021-02-17.
  13. ^ "The Irish Charts – Search Results – Radar Love". Irish Singles Chart. Retrieved February 17, 2021.
  14. ^ "Nederlandse Top 40 – week 37, 1973" (in Dutch). Dutch Top 40. Retrieved 11 March 2021.
  15. ^ "Golden Earring – Radar Love" (in Dutch). Single Top 100.
  16. ^ "Official Charts Company". Officialcharts.com. Retrieved 2021-02-15.
  17. ^ Joel Whitburn's Top Pop Singles 1955–1990 - ISBN 0-89820-089-X
  18. ^ Cash Box Top 100 Singles, August 10, 1974
  19. ^ "Official Charts Company". Officialcharts.com. 1977-08-10. Retrieved 2021-02-15.
  20. ^ Joel Whitburn's Top Pop Singles 1955–1990 - ISBN 0-89820-089-X
  21. ^ "Official Charts Company". Officialcharts.com. 1990-03-03. Retrieved 2021-02-15.
  22. ^ Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970-1992. St Ives, N.S.W.: Australian Chart Book. ISBN 0-646-11917-6.
  23. ^ Canada, Library and Archives (January 16, 2018). "Image : RPM Weekly".
  24. ^ Musicoutfitters.com
  25. ^ Cash Box Year-End Charts: Top 100 Pop Singles, December 28, 1974
  26. ^ Matthias Muehlbradt, Andre Axver. "U2 Radar Love – U2 on tour". U2gigs.com.
  27. ^ 1hoseeman (2013-03-19), The Space Lady: Radar Love, retrieved 2018-05-10{{citation}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  28. ^ "Allmusic (White Lion charts & awards)".
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