music.wikisort.org - Composition

"Hold On Loosely" is a song by American rock band 38 Special and the first track from their fourth studio album Wild-Eyed Southern Boys.

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"Hold On Loosely"
Single by 38 Special
from the album Wild-Eyed Southern Boys
Released	February 1981
Recorded	1979–1980
Genre	Hard rock power pop[1] southern rock[1]
Length	4:40 (album version) 3:58 (7" version)
Label	A&M
Songwriter(s)	Don Barnes, Jeff Carlisi, Jim Peterik
Producer(s)	Rodney Mills

Release

Released as the lead single from the album, the song reached No. 3 on the Billboard Rock Tracks chart, and No. 27 on the Billboard Hot 100.[2] It later appeared on their 1987 compilation album Flashback: The Best of 38 Special and their 1999 live album Live at Sturgis. It was the 13th music video to be played on the day that MTV debuted in 1981.[3] Don Barnes sang lead vocals on the song.

Origin

Barnes[4] going through a difficult time in his marriage, lamented that his wife was not being more supportive of his career aspirations. He presented a seed idea for a song to co-writer Jim Peterik, asking what he thought of the title "Hold On Loosely", to which Peterik came back with, "...but don't let go".[5] For the music, Peterik described the song's opening riff as "Like the Cars meets Lynyrd Skynyrd or something".[4] Taking inspiration from "Just What I Needed" by the Cars, Jeff Carlisi wrote the famous riff to the song.

In popular culture

The song was used in the Season 1 episode of The Middle titled "The Break-Up".

It was used in Season 1, episode 6 of Better Call Saul.

It was also used in the movie Without A Paddle.

References

External links

• "38 Special - Hold On Loosely" – via YouTube.

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