The Saxon song that should've made them HUGE... but was ROBBED of a chance

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There is one song on the Wheels of Steel album that could have made Saxon even bigger than they ever were. 747 (Strangers in the Night) was one of Saxon's biggest early hits. Inspired by a real-life blackout, the song had everything: a powerful story, a killer chorus, and a serious momentum, which was sadly cut short by national television.

The idea for 747 (Strangers in the Night) came from a BBC documentary Biff Byford was watching in 1979. And more specifically, the one about the 1965 Northeast blackout in the United States and Canada, with one particular detail standing out for Biff and laying the foundation for this track: planes forced to circulate in the dark for hours because runway lights had failed. And that haunting image became the core of this song. Biff later on paired that vision with the lyric he had stuck in his head, "Riding on a 747", which apparently he heard in some other song right before watching that documentary, and shaped it into a story of isolation and urgency in the sky... but there is much more to it...

So today, let's take a look at the history of one of the biggest Saxon hits, and then discuss how 747 (Strangers in the Night) got robbed of an even bigger legacy. Here you go.

00:00 - Intro
00:54 - Frankie says Hello
02:43 - Instant success of 747 (Strangers In the Night)
04:52 - Top of the... Flops
07:05 - It still made it!


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Background music: "Uberpunch" Alexander Nakarada (serpentsoundstudios.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

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