3 Minutes, 49 Seconds

Where we left off: REO Speedwagon fired their lead singer...again! Mike Murphy, who'd piloted three records with the band, was gone, and so began the search for yet another new frontman. * Here's where things get strange. To replace Murphy, the REO guys (Neal Doughty, Alan Gratzer, Gary Richrath, and Gregg Philbin) auditioned Peoria, Illinois native Gary X. Volz, who was late of a group called the e Band. REO liked what they heard and offered Volz the gig. But the singer worried that the heavy touring rock 'n' roll lifestyle would clash with his values, and declined. (Volz would go on to great success with Christian rock band Petra in the 1980s). The guys had noted that Volz sounded somewhat like their second singer, Kevin Cronin. And in the years since his departure, Cronin had kept in touch with one of the band's managers, sending along demo of new songs, perhaps in hopes the band would record them or perhaps in hopes of landing management himself. For hi...

Where we left off: REO Speedwagon's second album with lead singer Michael Murphy (and fourth overall), Lost in a Dream , found them in a collaborative spirit. Though it didn't contain any hits, it was their highest charting record to date. * This Time We Mean It was a brave title for a record. REO drummer Alan Gratzer says it was a born of frustration, a plea for people to pay attention and start buying their records. But it's very easy to misinterpret as they band saying they were just kind of goofing around up to this point, which we know wasn't the case. At any rate, the band's fifth album was released just 9 months after their previous record, a clear attempt to build some commercial momentum. . Not surprising since the two groups played shows together and shared a manager in Irving Azoff, REO here seem to be reaching to become the midwest's answer to the Eagles. They brought on Eagles producers Allan Blazek and Bill Szymczyk to record the album. T...

Where We Left Off: REO rejiggered Ridin' the Storm Out on the fly after losing singer Kevin Cronin during the making of the album. Michael Murphy replaced him. * Lost in a Dream has the distinction of being the first REO Speedwagon album to feature the same singer as the previous album. Once again helmed by producer Bill Halverson, the album came out just 10 months after its predecessor. Murphy was fully integrated into REO now, writing or co-writing half the songs on the record. Gary Richrath wrote four more, and keyboardist Neal Doughty offered his first solo composition, the rollicking "Sky Blues." Murphy's songs integrate well with Richrath's, in some case working in the same boogie woogie blues milieu ("Do Your Best" and "You Can Fly") but in other places pushing the band toward a more groovy pop direction ("Give Me a Ride (Roller Coaster)" sounds like it could have scored a montage in a Scooby Doo episode, and that...

Where we left off: REO Speedwagon made their second album, R.E.O./T.W.O. with new lead singer Kevin Cronin. The album failed to crack the Billboard Top 200. * Despite their lack of commercial success, REO were building a reputation as an ace live band, and were able to draw big crowds in their native midwest. They also became known as a reliable opening act for bands that were selling a lot more records than them. Perhaps that's why Epic continued to stick with REO, and allowed them to make a third record, and they even got a "hot" producer. By 1973, Bill Halverson had made his name engineering albums for the Beach Boys, Cream, Crosby, Stills, and Nash, and Bill Withers. They also got some big name support, getting Joe Walsh to play slide guitar on three songs. But all was not well. Cronin quit the band just as the album was nearly completed. In fact, it was so close to done that the cover photo shoot had already been completed. Cronin now blames a fals...

Where we left off: REO Speedwagon's first album was not a hit, and they were down one lead singer after Terry Luttrell's departure from the band. * In search of a new lead singer, REO guitarist Gary Richrath answered an ad for a "Musician Referral Service." Accounts differ on whether he saw the ad in a newspaper or a guitar shop, but either way it was really just a ruse concocted by a 20-year-old singer / songwriter named Kevin Cronin. Cronin was a native of the Chicago suburb Oak Lawn who was looking for a band to join and devised the referral service as a way to appear more accomplished than he actually was. When he got the call from the REO guys, he said he'd give them his best singer. "Who's that," they asked? "Well, it's me," Cronin replied. That REO was taken in by this bit of subterfuge shows just how DIY they were in those early days, despite being signed to a major label and having a manager (fellow University of Illinoi...

REO Speedwagon got its start in the late 1960s on the campus of the University of Illinois in Champaign/Urbana. The band grew out of a friendship between a students Neal Doughty (piano/keyboard) and Alan Gratzer (drums). Joining up with a couple of other musicians, they took the name R.E.O. Speedwagon. It wasn't long before they started getting gigs at parties and bars, doing covers of the hits of the day. The band cycled through several players in its first three years, with Gratzer and Doughty as the only constants. One-by-one they added the members that would form the first "official" lineup: singer Terry Luttrell in early 1968, bassist Gregg Philbin later that summer, and guitarist Gary Richrath at the end of 1970. Richrath was a native of Peoria, 90 miles northwest of Champaign, and had essentially stalked the band until they let him join. It was a good move, as he not only an accomplished guitarist, but also a songwriter. With Richrath the band ascended to the n...

In the history of 3 Minutes, 49 Seconds , I have four times taken on the task of writing about every single album by a particular artist. I started where my music fandom started, with The Beatles. Next came XTC, then The Monkees, and finally "Weird Al" Yankovic. This summer I'm embarking on another every-album project, albeit one of a different nature. Over the next 17 weeks I'm going to write about each of REO Speedwagon's 15 studio recordings, their 1977 live album, and the 1988 compilation,  The Hits . Two of these will serve as "Rock Solid" and "Rock Bottom" entries. There's a major difference between REO and those other four bands; the Beatles, XTC, The Monkees, "Weird Al" have each at some point in my life been my favorite musical artist. I was very familiar with their songs and histories when I started to write about them, This is certainly not so for REO Speedwagon. Before starting this project, I only owned one ...