“Take It On The Run” by REO Speedwagon

Gary Richrath wrote "Take It On the Run" for REO Speedwagon's ninth album, Hi Infidelity (1980), and it drew the tough job of following the number-one hit "Keep On Loving You" as the next single. It came in under the title "Don't Let Me Down"; Kevin Cronin says he knew at once it could be great, and he and Richrath worked it up together, renaming it along the way.

The song is a jealous man talking himself in circles: he suspects his partner of cheating, refuses to believe it, and has already decided they're gone if it turns out true. Cronin sings it and strums the acoustic, Richrath's guitar cuts in hard, Neal Doughty's synthesizer pads the corners, and Bruce Hall and Alan Gratzer keep it rolling. Kevin Beamish produced with Cronin and Richrath, Gratzer co-producing, for Epic, and the single went gold in 1989.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.