Head East

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Head East
Head East

Head East was a hard rock quintet originally from South Central Illinois, then Champaign, Illinois. They released their first album, Flat as a Pancake, in 1974 on their own record label (Pyramid Records) selling all 5,000 records and 500 eight-tracks produced. A&M was impressed enough to sign the band and re-release the album in 1975 which went gold by 1978.

Flat as a Pancake would remain their most popular album spawning two charting singles, the well-known anthem "Never Been Any Reason" and "Love Me tonight", both written by guitarist Mike Somerville.

This lineup of John Schlitt (vocals), Mike Somerville (guitars), Roger Boyd (keyboards), Dan Birney (bass) and Steve Huston (drums) would last through four more studio albums and a double-LP live album when in 1980 Schlitt, Birney and Somerville left the band although Somerville would return for 1994 through 2003.

Roger Boyd took over leadership of the band for one mildly successful album, U.S. 1, and two more studio albums.

[edit] Discography

  • (#126) 1975: Flat as a Pancake
  • (#161) 1976: Get Yourself Up
  • (#136) 1977: Gettin' Lucky
  • (# 78 ) 1978: Head East
  • (# 96 ) 1979: Head East Live!
  • (# 65 ) 1979: A Different Kind of Crazy
  • (#137) 1980: U.S. 1
  • (none) 1982: Onward and Upward
  • (none) 1988: Choice of Weapons
  • (none) 1999: Concert Classics Volume 7
  • (none) 2000: Live On Stage (edited version of Head East Live)

(Peak on Billboard's Pop Album Chart)

[edit] Trivia

  • The diner on the back of Flat as a Pancake is the Rite-Way Diner at 9538 Olive Blvd, Olivette, Missouri. It is still in business although renamed the Olivette Diner.
  • "Never Been Any Reason" is their signature song but it peaked lower (#68) on the Billboard's Hot 100 chart than their other two Top 100 singles, "Love Me Tonight" (#54) and "Since You Been Gone" (#46). Their only other charting single was "Got to be Real" (#103).
  • John Schlitt joined the popular Christian rock band Petra in 1985 and was with the band until they retired in 2005.
  • Their 1978 cover of former Argent singer Russ Ballard's "Since You Been Gone" was a hit, but still not as big as the cover done by Rainbow in 1979 which reached the Top 10. This may be due in part to the fact that A&M Records never released the Head East version on CD.
  • The 1999 live album is from two shows at Denver's Rainbow Theatre. The first five tracks are from a 1980 show featuring the classic lineup and the last 10 tracks are from a 1981 show featuring the latter lineup.
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