Friday Nite Retro

Welcome to this week's edition of Friday Nite Retro! Tonight I'm featuring an old favorite of mine, John Hiatt. If you're unaware of the man, I can almost guarantee you've heard some of the songs he's penned that were recorded by other artists.

John's an Indiana native, born in Indy on August 20th, 1952. When he was just nine years old, his 21 year old brother Michael committed suicide. A mere two years later, his father Robert died after a long sickness. To escape from the stress of his early life, Hiatt watched Formula One racing and listened to Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan, and various blues artists. He learned how to play the guitar when he was eleven, He started his musical career in Indy as a teenager,and played in a variety of local clubs,most notably the Hummingbird. He was a member of several local bands, including The Four-Fifths and John Lynch & the Hangmen.

Hiatt moved to Nashville when he was sixteen and got a job as a songwriter for the Tree-Music Publishing Company for twenty-five dollars a week. Unable to read or write scores,he had to record all 250 songs that he wrote for the company. Meanwhile, he also began playing with the band White Duck, as one of three singer-songwriters within the group. He performed live with White Duck, as well as soloing in a variety of clubs around Nashville.

In 1973, he received his first record deal (with Epic), and released his first single, "We Make Spirit," later that year. That same year, Hiatt wrote the song "Sure As I'm Sitting Here," which was recorded by Three Dog Night and went to number 16 on the Billboard chart in 1974.

In 1974, Hiatt released Hangin' Around the Observatory, which was a critical success and a commercial failure. A year later, Overcoats was released, and when it failed to sell, Epic released him from his contract. For the next four years, Hiatt was without a recording contract. During this time, his style evolved from country-rock to New Wave influenced rock in the style of Elvis Costello, Nick Lowe and Graham Parker.

Hiatt was picked up by the MCA label in 1979. He released two new-wavish albums for the label in 1979 and 1980, neither of which met with commercial success. Switching to Geffen in 1982, he cut three stylistically diverse albums for the label from 1982-85. During this period, Rosanne Cash covered several of his compostions, taking "It Hasn't Happened Yet" to the top 20 on the country charts. In 1987, Cash would take his song "The Way We Make A Broken Heart" all the way to #1 on the US country charts.

The Way We Make a Broken Heart


Shortly after its release, Bob Dylan covered Hiatt's song "The Usual," which had appeared on the soundtrack to the movie Hearts of Fire.

The Usual


Hiatt finally came into success in 1987, when he released his first big hit, Bring the Family. For the album, he had a backing band consisting of Ry Cooder, Nick Lowe, and Jim Keltner. One of the cuts from the album, "Have a Little Faith in Me," would be covered by a number of artists, including Joe Cocker, Jewel, and Mandy Moore.

Have a Little Faith in Me


More notably, Bonnie Raitt would bring his song "Thing Called Love" to #11 on the U.S. charts with her 1989 release Nick of Time.

Thing Called Love


Following Bring the Family, Hiatt had varied success on his following albums, though he did have a string of nine straight studio albums hit the Billboard 200.

In 1989, he returned to the studio to record Slow Turning, which would be his first album to hit the upper half of the Billboard 200. It also featured his only top ten chart single, the title track, which hit #8 on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart.

Slow Turning


Also in 1989, Jeff Healey covered his song "Angel Eyes", and took it to the top 5 of the Billboard Hot 100.

Angel Eyes


In 1993, Hiatt recorded Perfectly Good Guitar with members of alternative rock groups School of Fish and Wire Train. He recorded the album with producer Matt Wallace who had worked most prominently with Faith No More, a band that his 15-year-old son had recommended for him. It was his highest peaking album at #47, but again was still not the true commercial breakthrough that his label expected.

Perfectly Good Guitar


Hiatt's next few albums never gained any momentum on the charts, and he saw little change in his fanbase in the late 1990s, indicating a dedicated (but not growing) following.

Cry Love

And that's a wrap on this edition of FNR. I hope you enjoyed the bluesy sound of John Hiatt, and as always, thanks for dropping by tonight!