Make It Out Alive

Album: Shout It Out (2010)
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Songfacts®:

  • This is a track from American pop group Hanson's eighth studio album, Shout it Out. The sibling trio told Billboard magazine that they "just wanted to have some fun" on the record. "We wanted to make an upbeat record," oldest brother Isaac Hanson said. "I think we were just ready to move forward with a really upbeat kind of attitude - this is probably the most upbeat record we've done, period. I think we're saying that you can have a heart and compassion for others and do good things in your life, and at the same time dance in the street."
    Youngest Hanson Zac added that "it's a record where we said, 'Yeah, let's just play really loud cowbell and horns... As long as that's what makes you feel motivated and excited and gives you a sense of joy when you hear this music, that's what we need to do.'"
  • This is one of seven tracks on the album that feature horn charts by Jerry Hey (Michael Jackson, Earth, Wind & Fire), while one of Motown's Funk Brothers, bassist Bob Babbitt, also guests on Shout it Out. "Y'know, we grew up listening to a lot of that early R&B stuff, especially '60s and '70s R&B," Isaac Hanson noted to Billboard magazine. "Otis (Redding) and countless others, and Motown... you forget how much horns played a part in a lot of really iconic kind of American R&B sound. And that also translated into more pop and singer-songwriter stuff we used to listen to, like Billy Joel's An Innocent Man, which is one of his biggest records, there's horns all over the placed on that record. That was the stuff we grew up listening to and really worked its way onto this record."

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