Song Number 44

Introduced by Jim Ockington

The Riverside Class of 1980 Top 50 Countdown continues with Song #44, and this one takes us back to the summer of 1979, just before we returned to Riverside for our senior year.

It begins with those unmistakable stacked harmonies before the band jumps in, turning a song about losing, getting back up and trying again into one of those records that seemed made for late-70s radio. It had the kind of sound that could follow you from a basement party to a Friday night hangout, or come pouring out of the car radio while you were squeezing every last bit out of summer before school started again.

By then, we had no idea how quickly senior year would go, but songs like this were already becoming part of the soundtrack.

So, what song did our classmates put at number 44?

Watch the next entry in our Top 50 Countdown below.

Welcome to the November 2026 edition of the Riverside Class of 1980 Top 50 Countdown of songs from our years in High School. Song number 44.

This one doesn’t even bother with instruments at first. It starts with nothing but voices, stacked together in those ridiculously tight harmonies that seemed to be everywhere on late-70s radio.

Then the guitars and drums jump in and suddenly you’ve got one of those records that could make losing sound almost like something worth singing about.

And the timing couldn’t have been better for us. It hit the radio during the summer of 1979, just as we were getting ready to walk back into Riverside as seniors.

Maybe you were cruising through Painesville Township with WMMS or WGCL on the radio, heading toward Grand River, Concord or Leroy, thinking senior year was finally going to be our year.

Of course, by then most of us had already learned that things didn’t always go according to plan. You could lose the game, lose the girl, bomb the test, make a complete fool of yourself on Friday night and still show up Monday morning ready to try again.

Wrapped in soaring harmonies, a driving beat and just enough guitar bite to keep it out of the easy-listening bin, this one somehow made getting knocked down sound pretty darn good.

Now here to introduce the song from the place you’ll find him most - in a Dojang near his home in the Villages, Florida is Jim Ockington. By the way, with as many trophies and accolades he’s gotten, his life can never be connected to the title of this song.