Songs with Earlier Histories Than the Hit Version

Help support this site! Consider clicking an ad from time to time. Thanks!

 

Turn the Page

Written and first recorded by Bob Seger (1973).
Also recorded by Bob Seger (1976).
Hit versions by Jon English (AUS #20 1974), Metallica (US #102/US Rock #1/CAN #5/AUS #11/NZ #22/NOR #11/FIN #7 1994).

From the wiki: “‘Turn the Page’ was first written and by Bob Seger in 1972 and released on his Back in ’72 album in 1973. It was not released as a single at that time. But, a live version of the song on the 1976 Live Bullet album was released in Germany and the UK with no apparent chart impact.

“Seger says he wrote the song in a hotel room in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. Drummer David Teegarden recalls:

“We’d been traveling all night from the Detroit area to make this gig, driving in this blinding snowstorm. It was probably 3 in the morning. Mike decided it was time to get gas. He was slowing down to exit the interstate and spied a truck stop. We all had very long hair back then – it was the hippie era – but Skip, Mike and Bob had all stuffed their hair up in their hats. You had to be careful out on the road like that, because you’d get ostracized. When I walked in, there was this gauntlet of truckers making comments – ‘Is that a girl or man?’ I was seething; those guys were laughing their asses off, a big funny joke. That next night, after we played our gig – I think it was Mitchell, S.D. – Seger says, ‘Hey, I’ve been working on this song for a bit, I’ve got this new line for it. He played it on acoustic guitar, and there was that line: ‘Oh, the same old cliches / ‘Is that a woman or a man?” It was ‘Turn the Page.'”

“Australian singer Jon English released a version of the song in 1974 as the lead single from his second studio album, It’s All a Game. The song peaked at #20 on the Kent Music Report.

“But, perhaps the most popular cover version is by Metallica, who released it as the first single from their 1998 Garage Inc. album, reaching #1 on the Billboard Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart for 11 consecutive weeks, the highest number of weeks Metallica has ever spent at the top; the song also reached #2 on the Billboard ‘Bubbling Under’ Hot 100. It charted Top-10 in Canada and Finland.”

Jon English, “Turn the Page” (1974):

Bob Seger, “Turn the Page” live (1976):

Metallica, “Turn the Page” (1994):

Comments are closed.