Sky High

1975

Jigsaw

Back during the late summer and early fall of 1975 a frenetic, high energy instrumental intro that brought a musical whirlwind to mind started blasting from stereos throughout the land. It was peppy, energetic, and you couldn't not head bop to it and, yes, sing along with it when you heard it. It was also one of those not uncommon tunes whose upbeat beat, rhythm and sound was in pretty stark contrast to the song's context

Sky High was about a dude who has just discovered that his beloved was lying to him, and who's telling the gal just what lying did to their relationship. Hey, all of us have been there. Most of us just didn't turn it into a monster hit that managed to sell 13 million records worldwide.

What a lot of people didn't know about Sky High is that it was very much a surprise hit for the group, and was the main title sequence for a James Bondesque action movie that also combined Bruce-Lee-style Martial Arts. The Movie...The Man From Hong Kong...made a profit, but it's title song was a far far bigger hit than the movie.

Sky High debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 at #88 on August 30^th, 1975, but didn't crack the Top 20 until two months and small change later, at #19 on Nov 1^st, 1975. It cracked the Top 10 at #9 three weeks later and peaked at #3 on December 6^th. It'd hang on to #3 for two weeks before heading back down, and stay on the charts seventeen days into 1976, for a chart run of 21 weeks. It'd also score well on the Adult Contemporary chart (What was called 'Easy Listening' back then), snagging the #2 spot on that chart.

This was another song that was just plain long fun to listen to, and you heard that musical whirlwind twirl from speakers regularly during the Fall of '75...with it peaking three days after Thanksgiving that year, I can just about bet I heard it at least three times during the hour and a half trip to Boykins, Va for Thanksgiving dinner. (The ride I had by then had an AM-FM radio, so I was probably listening to it on WRVQ...Q-94).

Sky High's still just as much fun to listen to now as it was 39 years ago, and happily it'll still pop up on Oldies stations once in awhile, sending the intro's musical cyclone spinning out of stereos that cost almost as much as a car did back when it debuted. And we still can't sit still when we listen to it!

So Enjoy...Jigsaw's musical whirlwind...Sky High!