Dave's Song of the Day
Close My Eyes Forever – Lita Ford (duet with Ozzy Osbourne)
Friday song of the day: Today’s song was written spontaneously in a drunken studio session with the husband of Lita Ford’s manager.
Yesterday’s song was by The Runaways, whose lead guitarist was Lita Ford. After the band broke up, Ford pursued a solo career. She put out two heavy metal influenced albums on Mercury Records in 1983 and 1984 that were only mildly successful. Then she signed with RCA records and took more of a pop-metal sound at the suggestion of her new manager, Sharon Osbourne. In 1988 she released her first album for RCA, Lita.
Lita’s first single was Kiss Me Deadly, which was a hit at #12 on the Billboard Hot 100. The album’s third single was a song that was written “by accident” in the studio. As Lita describes it, “Close My Eyes Forever was a mistake. It was just me and Ozzy and Sharon hanging about in the recording studio. They showed up one day and had a housewarming present for me: a life-size duplicate of Koko the gorilla from the San Diego Zoo. It was freaking huge – I had to strap it in the front seat of my jeep to get it home. Ozzy stayed, Sharon got bored and left, and me and Ozzy had a couple of drinks and we were jamming. We started singing, messing about and we wrote Close My Eyes Forever. Next thing I knew the sun was coming up. I looked at him and went, ‘Uh-oh, we’re in trouble.’ Sharon had been waiting all night. We were a long way from where Ozzy had to go. He said, ‘Can you drive me home?’ I said, ‘No, I can’t.’ We were stoned out of our minds. He got into a cab and I strapped Koko into my jeep and drove home – just barely made it. And then we had this hit song.”
Ozzy thought that with the song written, his part was done. He was wrong, though, and later he returned to record a duet with Lita, which was included on her album. Osbourne later said, “I get on a plane, I go back to England, and then I get another phone call. It’s my wife and she said, ‘Can you come back out? She wants to do it with you.’ I go, ‘Do what?’ And she goes, ‘That f—in’ song!’ I go ‘OK,’ and I record the song, go back to England again, and a couple weeks later they want to do a video. I’m going, ‘This is getting f—in’ ridiculous now!’ So I must have done like five million masters, but it turned out OK and I was pretty happy with the end result and she was.”
The version of Close My Eyes Forever that was released as a single was remixed from the album version, but the remix consisted mostly of cleaning up the sound quality. The remix was released as a single in February 1989 and the duet went to #8 on the Hot 100 chart.
Album version, 1988
View: https://youtu.be/ITojaB8xdnk
Video 1989
View: https://youtu.be/foGkU6x3eSE
Single, 1989
View: https://youtu.be/bhTD0o7_Av4
Tomorrow: I want to reach out and touch the sky
Close My Eyes Forever – Lita Ford (duet with Ozzy Osbourne)
Friday song of the day: Today’s song was written spontaneously in a drunken studio session with the husband of Lita Ford’s manager.
Yesterday’s song was by The Runaways, whose lead guitarist was Lita Ford. After the band broke up, Ford pursued a solo career. She put out two heavy metal influenced albums on Mercury Records in 1983 and 1984 that were only mildly successful. Then she signed with RCA records and took more of a pop-metal sound at the suggestion of her new manager, Sharon Osbourne. In 1988 she released her first album for RCA, Lita.
Lita’s first single was Kiss Me Deadly, which was a hit at #12 on the Billboard Hot 100. The album’s third single was a song that was written “by accident” in the studio. As Lita describes it, “Close My Eyes Forever was a mistake. It was just me and Ozzy and Sharon hanging about in the recording studio. They showed up one day and had a housewarming present for me: a life-size duplicate of Koko the gorilla from the San Diego Zoo. It was freaking huge – I had to strap it in the front seat of my jeep to get it home. Ozzy stayed, Sharon got bored and left, and me and Ozzy had a couple of drinks and we were jamming. We started singing, messing about and we wrote Close My Eyes Forever. Next thing I knew the sun was coming up. I looked at him and went, ‘Uh-oh, we’re in trouble.’ Sharon had been waiting all night. We were a long way from where Ozzy had to go. He said, ‘Can you drive me home?’ I said, ‘No, I can’t.’ We were stoned out of our minds. He got into a cab and I strapped Koko into my jeep and drove home – just barely made it. And then we had this hit song.”
Ozzy thought that with the song written, his part was done. He was wrong, though, and later he returned to record a duet with Lita, which was included on her album. Osbourne later said, “I get on a plane, I go back to England, and then I get another phone call. It’s my wife and she said, ‘Can you come back out? She wants to do it with you.’ I go, ‘Do what?’ And she goes, ‘That f—in’ song!’ I go ‘OK,’ and I record the song, go back to England again, and a couple weeks later they want to do a video. I’m going, ‘This is getting f—in’ ridiculous now!’ So I must have done like five million masters, but it turned out OK and I was pretty happy with the end result and she was.”
The version of Close My Eyes Forever that was released as a single was remixed from the album version, but the remix consisted mostly of cleaning up the sound quality. The remix was released as a single in February 1989 and the duet went to #8 on the Hot 100 chart.
Album version, 1988
View: https://youtu.be/ITojaB8xdnk
Video 1989
View: https://youtu.be/foGkU6x3eSE
Single, 1989
View: https://youtu.be/bhTD0o7_Av4
Tomorrow: I want to reach out and touch the sky
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