“A Million Miles Away” by The Plimsouls

"A Million Miles Away" gave the Plimsouls their big radio moment, and it took the long way around to get there. The power pop band had walked away from Planet Records in 1981, fed up with how little push their debut album got, and the year after that they put this song out themselves, as an independent single on their own Shaky City label. Geffen signed them next, and the song came along to Everywhere at Once, the band's second album and their 1983 major-label debut.

The music is Peter Case's, with words by Joey Alkes and Chris Fradkin. On the album it sits inside Jeff Eyrich's production, which AllMusic later judged a touch heavy-handed, letting some of the air out of the band's playing, though still far less clinical than most big-label rock records of its day. None of that kept the song off the airwaves: it became the album's radio hit and climbed to No. 11 on Billboard's Top Rock Tracks.

It also turned out to be a parting shot for a long while. Everywhere at Once was the last Plimsouls album until Kool Trash came out in 1998.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz.