2 weeks Ago By Matthew Trzcinski
Classic rock band Poco’s “Heart of the Night” pulled off a tricky genre fusion. It feels like it had an influence on Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars’ “Die with a Smile.” One of the songs is so much better than the other.
Poco’s ‘Heart of the Night’ combines rock and disco like Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars would During the 1970s, two genres dominated the charts: soft rock and disco. It was inevitable that some artists would try to bridge that gap. In some cases, soft rock artists like The Eagles , Barbra Streisand, Paul McCartney & Wings, and Elton John started making disco music.
Other acts tried to make songs that combined elements of soft rock and disco. Poco’s “Heart of the Night” did a good job of combining a soft rock core with some of the slick production of disco. It might be the best of Poco’s hits.
When Gaga decided to embrace soft rock for her Bruno Mars duet “Die with a Smile,” she also worked some disco into the mix. That’s not too surprising since dance music is her bread and butter. Listen to “Heart of the Night” and “Die with a Smile,” and you’ll hear two songs born out of the same musical sensibilities, even if they have distinct melodies and production.
Poco understood soft rock better than Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars The main difference between “Heart of the Night” and “Die with a Smile” might be that the former is good while the latter is yawn-inducing. “Heart of the Night” knows that there is a line between being slow and being dull. “Die with a Smile,” on the other hand, lacks a pulse.
Considering Gaga and Mars are two of the most dynamic pop stars of modern times. For that reason, a collaboration between them should have been a duet for the ages. Instead, they both released the worst single of their careers.
Beyond that, why did the two singers decide to embrace soft rock, anyway? Gaga did some rock songs on the albums Joanne and A Star Is Born , but the most famous ones were harder than “Die with a Smile.” Mars doesn’t really make rock of any variety. Maybe the two just should have covered “Heart of the Night” and called it a day.
The story behind ‘Heart of the Night’ During a 2017 interview with Rock Cellar , Poco’s Rusty Young discussed the story behind “Heart of the Night.” “Tim [B. Schmit] had just left the band to join The Eagles, and George [Grantham] left to play drums in The Byrds.
It was just me and Paul [Cotton]. And the label was going to drop us. We had written ‘Heart of the Night’ and ‘Crazy Love,’ and we’d been in the studio rehearsing and thinking about putting together a new band and trying to find musicians for a new rhythm section.
When the label decided to drop us, we had management come down, we said, ‘We have some new songs we think are really good.’ And we played them ‘Heart of the Night,’ ‘Crazy Love,’ and ‘Spellbound.’ And they said, ‘Listen, let’s get the label down here.
’ “So the ABC people came down to the rehearsal hall. We played them ‘Crazy Love,’ ‘Heart of the Night,’ and ‘Spellbound’ and they said, ‘Go make a record.’ That was the turning point.
‘Crazy Love’ turned out to be our first and only No. 1 and that was the first album that actually went platinum.” “Heart of the Night” is a great song and you can hear echoes of it in “Die with a Smile.
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