“Limelight” by Rush

"Limelight" led Rush's Moving Pictures into the world as its first single in February 1981, and it's Neil Peart turning the lyric sheet into a confession: a drummer squirming under the glare that the band's success had brought down on him. He borrows the opening of the "All the world's a stage" speech from Shakespeare's As You Like It, a phrase Rush had already raided for a 1976 live album, and slips in a nod to "The Camera Eye", the track that comes next on the record.

Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson wrote the music. Lee sings, plays bass and colours the edges with Minimoog, and Lifeson's solo, all bent, keening notes, was later ranked 26th on Guitar World's list of the greatest. Terry Brown produced with the band, and in 2010 the song went into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame.

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