I Saw The Light

1972

Todd Rundgren

'I Saw The Light' is one of Todd Rundgren's best known, best loved hits, is till listened to and cherished by millions...and he was never really satisfied with it. He knocked this musical tale of the musings of a young man in the midst of his first affair out in about 15 minutes, and felt it was nothing but a sting of cliches...as he put it, anything written in fifteen minutes has gotta be nothing but a string of cliches', and nothing was much more disappointing to him than being able to enjoy listening to his own music.

He may have been disappointed with it, but several million of his fans loved it enough to send it to #16 on the Billboard 100 ten weeks after it's April 8^th 1972 debut on The Hot 100, to keep it there for three weeks, and to keep it on the charts for 14 weeks. And as disappointed as he may have been with it, he was sure enough it'd be a hit that he took a cue from Motown and made it the first track on his 1972 double album 'Something, Anything' ...and it in fact did end up being one of the album's two big hits...but not the biggest one by about 11 chart positions, More on that in a bit.

Another interesting little bit about the song (And the majority of the album) was the fact that he wrote, arranged, and produced it, then played all of the instruments. At the time this album was recorded he had become unimpressed with the quality of the session musicians he'd drawn, and as the old saying goes, if you want something done right, do it yourself.

The song was all over the radio during the Spring of '72 (But again, not as much so as the next song I'm going to cover.) and when I heard 'Turn that DOWN!! You're supposed to be doing homework!!' it was often Todd Rundgren crooning 'In Yo-our E-ee-eyes! In Yo-our E-ee-eyes!' on 'Big Lee'...WLEE that busted me. The song's remembered by many as one of the best Pop songs of the early seventies as well as one of Todd Rundgren's best vocal efforts. Not too shabby for a tune that he was not impressed with when he finished it!

Still shows up on the Oldies stations, though not as often as I'd like. Then again all of Todd Rundgren's music can still be found on Oldies station play lists, and we're all the better off for it. It's always nice when you hear that piano-heavy intro and get to listen to The Hit That Todd Was Not Impressed With...but that we were. I hope it stays around forever...Seventies Music will never die!

So enjoy! 'I saw the light' by Todd Rundgren. And ya know ya sang along with it!