Rock On (David Essex song)

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"Rock On" is a song that was composed and sung by English singer/songwriter David Essex. In March of 1974, it was a Top 5 song (reaching the #5 position) on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 pop-music chart. It was Essex's only Billboard Top 40 hit. The song also reached the #3 spot on the UK Singles Chart. "Rock On", which also appeared on the eponymous album by Essex in 1973 (see 1973 in music), also appeared in the movie That'll Be the Day, a 1973 release in which Essex had a starring role. The song can still frequently be heard on oldies radio stations.

Essex's song is also the opening song for the 2000-release movie Sunset Strip.

[edit] Song arrangement

The song features a slow-tempo, soulful vocal delivery sung in a minor key, along with a minimalist, heavily-bass-driven instrumental accompaniment to Essex's vocals. The lyrics pay homage to early rock and roll and its surrounding youth subculture, and notably mentions to 1950s iconic rebel James Dean. The vocals are punctuated with distortion and echo effects to add to the soulful, hip, "power delivery" of Essex's lyrics. Still further adding to the song's emotion-laden, slightly-haunting feel is a heartbeat-sounding percussive hook at the beginning of the song, an atonal string glide in the middle of the song, a very brief duet with a very-soulful-sounding, deep-voiced backup singer towards the end of the song, and muffled-sounding, staccato percussive riffs interspersed throughout the song.

[edit] Michael Damian version

"Rock On" was covered by soap opera star and singer Michael Damian in 1988 (see 1988 in music) and featured in the teen film, Dream a Little Dream. Damian's version reached the #1 position on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, thus outperforming Essex's original version.

[edit] Other versions

The English hard-rock band Def Leppard covered the song on their 2006 album, Yeah!, which features cover versions of 1970s rock hits. It was released as the second single from the album.

The American alternative-rock group The Smashing Pumpkins included a live cover version of "Rock On", performed during their Sacred and Profane tour, on their 2001-release album Judas Ø, a bonus disc (containing B-sides and rarities) which accompanied the group's greatest hits album Rotten Apples.

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