Producing the hits with Starship

The song started with silence, then eased into four simple words.

“We built this city.”

There was almost an echo to it.

“We built this city, on rock and roll.”

Thus began one of the biggest ear worms of the ‘80s, a song that just permeated the airwaves in the Fall of 1985.

Yet, “We Built this City” was just one song of a string of hits Starship had over a three-year period that were on the radio and in the movies.

Moreover, the band was on its third incarnation, going back to the psychedelic ‘60s and the music of that time.

Yesterday, I read Starship is turning 50, and that takes us back a long ways.

I got to the party late, but still heard a lot of music from the band that was Jefferson Airplane then Jefferson Starship then just Starship.

“We Built This City”
It was the start of Grade 11, so the fall of 1985, and I had really been into music about a year. I kept hearing this song on the radio, on the bus radio on the way to school, after school, and on weekends.

It was the aforementioned “We Built This City”. It just seemed like a matter of time that it would go to the top of the charts, because it was one of the most played songs at the time. It was from the album “Knee Deep in the Hoopla” and, although there was no title track, that phrase was in “We Built This City”.

Another interesting part of the song was that it had a radio announcer in it, and local radio stations substituted in their own radio call signs.

“We Built This City” would indeed peak at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, and “Knee Deep in the Hoopla” would go all the way to number seven on the Billboard 200 album chart.

Hearing that song, for whatever reason, always takes me back to Accounting 30 class, where we had class time to work on a major project. It was there, while we worked, that we talked about music and “We Built This City”.

“Sara”
The second single from “Knee Deep in the Hoopla” was this amazing ballad called “Sara”. It too went all the way to number one on the Billboard Hot 100.

The first time I ever heard it was on a sneak peak feature on the radio playing on the school bus. I heard “Sara” as one of four follow-up singles to popular songs. The others were “Kyrie” by Mr. Mister following up “Broken Wings”; “King for a Day” by the Thompson Twins following up “Lay Your Hands”; and “Somebody, Somewhere” by Platinum Blonde following up “Crying Over You” (or was it “Situation Critical”).

The music video for “Sara” also stood out, because it starred Rebecca De Mornay opposite band member Mickey Thomas, as two people breaking up.

“Knee Deep in the Hoopla” produced two other singles, “Tomorrow Doesn’t Matter Tonight" which peaked at number 26, and “Before I Go”, which reached number 68.

I have ever heard of either of these songs.

Movie music
Starship was back in 1987 with the song “Nothing’s Gonna Stop us Now”, which went all the way to number one on the Billboard Hot 100 as well. It was also featured in the movie “Mannequin” starring a young Kim Cattrall and Andrew McCarthy, where a mannequin comes to life.

I recall this song because it was playing a lot on the radio right after I finished Grade 12. I remember aimlessly driving the streets of Coaldale one afternoon visiting all the places I would be leaving behind. They really didn’t have much meaning anyway, because all the people who made them memorable were also gone or leaving.

I distinctly remember hearing “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us All” amidst that.

The rest of the decade
Starship would have one more top 10 hit, “It’s Not Over (‘Til it’s Over)”, peaking at number nine, and another memorable song I recall called “Set the Night to Music”, which did not chart.

There would be another top 20 hit, their last to date, called “It’s Not Enough”, which peaked at number 12 in 1989.

The early years
It was only as I got more into music that I learned a little more about the history of the band and lead singer Grace Slick. Initially called Jefferson Airplane, they had hit songs such as “Somebody to Love”, which peaked at number five on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1967; and “White Rabbit”, which peaked at number eight, also in 1967.

The band morphed into Jefferson Starship, who had top singles such as “With Your Love”, which peaked at number 10; and “Count On Me” and “Runaway”, which both peaked at number nine.

Band members would leave, and a legal dispute over use of the name ultimately led to the creation of Starship.

Through it all was Grace Slick.

Parting thoughts
A few years ago, I read Grace Slick’s autobiography and it was quite interesting. She did not have that usual rags to riches story. Instead, she came from an affluent family.

The book detailed her time with Jefferson Airplane and Jefferson Starship. What I most looked forward to was her talking about Starship, which yielded her biggest commercial success with an unprecedented, for her, three number one singles.

Yet, she doesn’t talk much about it. I was left wondering if she bowed to criticism. Starship had been accused of becoming too overtly commercial.

It’s too bad, because for a three-year period there, Starship was producing songs that became threads in the fabric of pop music in the ‘80s.