On and On by Stephen Bishop

Album: Careless (1977)

Charted: 11

License This Song

Songfacts®:

There's a lot of pathos in this song, as the various characters presented (Lonesome Sue, Jimmy) deal with cheating and heartbreak. The singer finds himself in Jamaica, where he lets it all go.

Bishop didn't write this from personal experience. He told Songfacts: "I write from titles usually. I was walking down to the corner grocery store in Silverlake where I was living at the time and I came up with the idea of 'On and On.' My landlady had a lot of exotic flowers all around the house and I wanted to write something from somewhere else, like Jamaica."
This was Bishop's first hit and his biggest as a performer. As a songwriter, he went to #1 with "Separate Lives."
Here's the personnel on this one:

Bass - Mac Cridlin
Drums - Larry Brown
Electric guitar - Andrew Gold
Electric piano - Barlow Jarvis
Percussion, vibraphone, marimba - Victor Feldman
Steel guitar - Michael Staton
Aswad did a reggae version in 1989, taking the song to #25 in the UK.

Comments: 3

Barry from Sauquoit, NyOn May 1st 1977, "On and On" by Stephen Bishop entered Billboard's Hot Top 100 at position #93; and after a 11 weeks on the chart, on October 2nd it finally peaked at #11 (for 1 week), in all it spent over a half-year on the Top 100 (28 weeks)...
As already stated, this was his biggest hit; he had four other Top 100 hits, "Save It For A Rainy Day" (#22 in 1977), "Everybody Needs Love" (#32 in 1978), "Animal House" (#73 in 1979), and "It Might Be You" (#25 in 1983)...
Mr. Bishop will celebrate his 63rd birthday this coming November 14th, 2014.
Steve from Torrance, CaDrummer Jeff Hamilton has recorded a jazz version of this song with his trio. The album is called Red Sparkle.
Guy from Woodinville, WaI love this song. I'm a sucker for pathos, especially with clever, humorous, insightful lyrics. "So he takes a ladder, steals the stars from the sky, puts on Sinatra, and starts to cry." You can't write any better than that!

see more comments

More Songfacts:

We Are The ChampionsQueen

Freddie Mercury considered "We Are The Champions" his version of "My Way." "We have made it, and it certainly wasn't easy," he said.

Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)Eurythmics

The Eurythmics' "Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)" came top of a 2013 Spotify poll to find out which songs music fans most commonly hear people singing incorrectly. Many believe Annie Lennox is singing: "Sweet dreams are made of cheese, who am I to disagree?"

Brass In PocketPretenders

Chrissie Hynde got the phrase "Brass In Pocket" from a Northern England slang term meaning you had some money, "brass" meaning coins.

Shut Up And DanceWalk the Moon

Walk The Moon vocalist Nicholas Petricca got the idea for "Shut Up and Dance" when he and his girlfriend were taking forever to get drinks at a Los Angeles club bar. Petricca was getting frustrated, so his girlfriend told him to "shut up and dance with me!'"

Blurred LinesRobin Thicke

Robin Thicke had a #1 hit with "Blurred Lines" in 2013, but he wasn't the first in his family with a hit song. His mom, Gloria Loring, was a singer who had a hit in 1986 with "Friends And Lovers," a duet with Carl Anderson.

AbracadabraSteve Miller Band

The Steve Miller song "Abracadabra" was inspired by Diana Ross and The Supremes. Miller first met the girl group when they performed together on NBC's Hullabaloo in 1966, and he wrote the lyrics after spotting Diana Ross skiing years later.