Run Joey Run

"Run Joey Run"
Cover with lyrics
Single by David Geddes
Released July 1975
Recorded 1975
Genre Pop rock
Length 2:55
Songwriter(s) Paul Vance & Jack Perricone (aka Perry Cone)
Producer(s) Paul Vance

"Run Joey Run" is a teenage tragedy song performed by soft rock singer David Geddes. It was a US Top 40 hit which peaked at #4 on Billboard's Hot 100 Chart in the fall of 1975, and hit #1 on the Cashbox Magazine's Top 100.[1] It would be Geddes' biggest hit. He made it into the Top 40 one other time with "The Last Game of the Season (A Blind Man in the Bleachers)."[2]

Story

The song opens with a brief snippet of wordless choral a capella singing, then abruptly cuts to the voice of a female pleading with her father:

Daddy, please don't! It wasn't his fault; he means so much to me.
Daddy, please don't! We're gonna get married; just you wait and see.

Geddes sings from first person narrative in the character of the titular young man. Joey recalls the events leading up to a recent tragedy involving his girlfriend Julie, which he relives in his mind every time he tries to sleep.

Late one night, Julie calls Joey warning him not to come to her house; she and her dad have had a fight about their relationship, and it turned violent. It is not explicitly stated, but her father's desire for Joey to "pay for what we've done" and her promise of marriage clearly implies that the young couple have had sex. Julie warns Joey that her father is armed and urges him to run away to safety. But ignoring his own peril, he rushes to her house instead; crying and covered with multiple bruises, Julie tearfully rushes to Joey's arms.

Julie's father sneaks up behind Joey with his gun, intending to shoot him. Julie sees him first and, just a split second before he pulls the trigger, steps into his line of fire. Mortally wounded, Julie falls and Joey takes her into his arms; she quietly repeats her pleas to her father as her last words but dies as she again says "we're gonna get married." The accompaniment suddenly stops, the choral section is reprised, and the song closes with the refrain "run, Joey, run" repeated several times before the song ends.

Reception

"Run Joey Run" was released in the late summer of 1975, by October the song had peaked at #4 on the Billboard Hot 100. It would be Geddes' only Top 10 hit; his only other hit, "The Last Game of the Season (A Blind Man in the Bleachers)" would peak at #18 on the Billboard [Hot 100] in December 1975[3] and #23 in Cashbox (December 6, 1975).[4]

According to Casey Kasem's "American Top 40", David Geddes had recorded several singles for major record labels; none of them were successful. He decided to leave the music business and return to school. Geddes was attending law school at Wayne State University in Detroit when he was called by producer Paul Vance to record a song that Vance and Jack Perricone had written. Perricone, who had previously arranged a couple of recordings that David Geddes had made with a group called the Rock Garden, remembered Geddes's voice from his earlier records and played the recordings for Vance, who thought that Geddes would be perfect for their new song. Geddes flew to New York City to record the vocals for the song (with Julie's lines sung by Vance's daughter Paula) and then returned to Detroit to begin his third year of law school. Several months later, the song, "Run Joey Run", began to race up the Billboard Hot 100. Geddes dropped out of law school with only one semester to go and re-entered the music business.[5]

Chart performance

Glee cover

"Run Joey Run"
Single by Lea Michele, Mark Salling, Jonathan Groff, Cory Monteith, Heather Morris and Naya Rivera
Released 2010
Format Digital download
Recorded 2010
Genre Pop rock
Length 2:51
Label Columbia
Songwriter(s) Paul Vance
Glee Cast singles chronology
"Physical"
(2010)		 "Run Joey Run"
(2010)		 "Total Eclipse of the Heart"
(2010)

"Physical"
(2010)		 "Run Joey Run"
(2010)		 "Total Eclipse of the Heart"
(2010)

The song was covered in the Glee episode "Bad Reputation".

References

  1. ↑ http://98.130.35.56/archives/70s_files/19751004.html
  2. ↑ http://98.130.35.56/archives/70s_files/19751206.html
  3. ↑ "US Top 40 Singles Week Ending 27th December, 1975". Weekly Top 40. 1975-12-28. Retrieved 2018-07-08.
  4. ↑ http://98.130.35.56/archives/70s_files/19751206.html
  5. ↑ Kasem, Casey (August 30, 1975). American Top 40.
  6. ↑ Flavour of New Zealand, 24 October 1975
  7. ↑ https://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/rpm/028020-119.01-e.php?&file_num=nlc008388.4036a&type=1&interval=50&PHPSESSID=90gec02fc52bie70noqn18euc2
  8. ↑ "Run Joey Run, performed on Glee, was a top 5 single in 1975 | Latest News | Columbus Ledger Enquirer". Ledger-enquirer.com. 2010-05-04. Retrieved 2013-05-23.
  9. ↑ Anderson, Kyle (2010-05-05). "'Glee' Episode Covers Olivia Newton-John, MC Hammer, More - Music, Celebrity, Artist News". MTV.com. Retrieved 2013-05-23.
  10. ↑ http://98.130.35.56/archives/70s_files/19751004.html
  11. ↑ Bac-lac.gc.ca
  12. ↑ Whitburn, Joel (1999). Pop Annual. Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin: Record Research Inc. ISBN 0-89820-142-X.
  13. ↑ http://98.130.35.56/archives/70s_files/1975YESP.html
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