REO Speedwagon – ‘Time For Me To Fly’
- Writer: Kevin Cronin
- Producers: Kevin Cronin, Gary Richrath and Paul Grupp
- Recorded: Early 1978
- Released: Spring 1978
- Players:
Kevin Cronin — vocals, guitar
Gary Richrath — guitar
Neal Doughty — keyboards
Bruce Hall — bass, vocals
Alan Gratzer — drums - Album: You Can Tune a Piano, But You Can’t Tuna Fish (Epic, 1978)
- Also on:
A Decade of Rock and Roll (Epic, 1980)
The Hits (Epic, 1988) - Peaking at Number 56 on the Billboard Hot 100, “Time For Me to Fly” was REO Speedwagon’s biggest single to date, outperforming its immediate predecessor, “Roll With the Changes,” and a live version of “Ridin’ the Storm Out” that was released in 1977.
- “Time For Me To Fly” had a second chart life, too. Re-released from the 1980 hits collection A Decade Of Rock And Roll, it peaked at Number 77.
- A power ballad about ending a love affair to achieve personal freedom, “Time For Me to Fly” foreshadowed the turn the band would take during the early ’80s with hits such as “Keep on Loving You,” “Take It On the Run,” and “In Your Letter.”
- The amusingly titled You Can Tune a Piano… was the first REO Speedwagon album to hit the Top 30, peaking at Number 29 on the Billboard Top 200 and spending nearly a year on the charts.
- The album also sold more than two million copies.
FAST FORWARD:
- “Roll With the Changes” and “Time For Me to Fly” were REO Speedwagon’s greatest commercial triumphs until the 1980 album Hi Infidelity topped the charts and sold more than nine million copies.
REO has continued to record and tour, with a lineup now led by frontman Kevin Cronin and also including founding member Neil Doughty and longtime bassist Bruce Hall.