"Lunatic Fringe"
Single by Red Rider
from the album As Far as Siam
Released1981
GenreHard rock
Length4:23
LabelCapitol
Songwriter(s)Tom Cochrane
Producer(s)Richard Landis
Music video
"Lunatic Fringe" on YouTube

"Lunatic Fringe" is a song by the Canadian rock band Red Rider from their 1981 album, As Far as Siam.

The song reached No. 11 on the rock radio airplay chart in Billboard in September 1981,[1] and was awarded a SOCAN Classic award in 2009 by the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada for reaching the 100,000-airplay mark on (Canadian) domestic radio.[2]

Background

Guitarist Tom Cochrane wrote the song after becoming concerned about a resurgence of anti-Semitism in the 1970s, and was also inspired after reading a book about Raoul Wallenberg, who rescued Jews from The Holocaust during World War II.[3] Some sources have incorrectly cited the murder of John Lennon as the song's primary inspiration; Cochrane had already written the song before Lennon was killed, but recorded the song's first demo the evening of the murder. He has stated that his feelings about the event, and how it echoed the theme of his song, galvanized him to release the song as a single despite advice from the record label that the song was not commercial enough.[4]

Charts

Chart (1981/82) Position
U.S. Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks[5] 11
Australia (Kent Music Report)[6] 52

Legacy

In 1997, Tom Cochrane re-recorded the track for his album, Songs of a Circling Spirit, which charted on the RPM Top 100 Singles chart for four weeks, peaking at No. 70.[7][8]

The song's widespread influence inspired Cincinnati's rock radio station WEBN to pay homage to it with the station's early slogan "WEBN, The Lunatic Fringe" introduced in 1984. Then in 1988, this slogan was updated to "The Lunatic Fringe Of American FM", which is still in use as of March 2023. The song was used in the opening scene of Miami Vice Episode 1.15, "Smuggler's Blues" which aired on February 1, 1985; the 1985 movie Vision Quest about a high school wrestler starring Matthew Modine; in the Season 3, Episode 1 closing credits for the HBO series Eastbound & Down;[9] and in the Season 2, episode 6 closing credits for the Netflix series Mindhunter. The song also served as inspiration for the wrestler Kurt Angle's entrance theme in TNA with vocals provided by rapper Tha Trademarc.

In 2009, the song was ranked No. 82 on VH1's 100 greatest one-hit wonders of the 1980s.[10]

References

  1. ↑ Rock Albums & Top Tracks, Billboard, Vol. 93, No. 36, September 12, 1981.
  2. ↑ 20th Annual SOCAN Awards Archived 2012-02-22 at the Wayback Machine, Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada, 2009.
  3. ↑ Bell, Mike: Cochrane finds new meaning, Canadian Online Explorer, December 6, 2002.
  4. ↑ "Rush, Stompin' Tom Connors, Tom Cochrane among SOCAN Award winners" Archived 2009-11-25 at the Wayback Machine. Canadian Press, November 23, 2009.
  5. ↑ "Red Rider". Billboard. Retrieved 27 May 2022.
  6. ↑ Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992 (illustrated ed.). St Ives, N.S.W.: Australian Chart Book. p. 248. ISBN 0-646-11917-6.
  7. ↑ "Top Singles - Volume 65, No. 25, August 25, 1997". RPM. 1997-08-25. Retrieved 2009-12-03.
  8. ↑ "Top Singles - Volume 66, No. 1, September 08 1997". RPM. 1997-09-08. Retrieved 2009-12-03.
  9. ↑ "Music from Eastbound and Down S3E01". Tunefind.com. Retrieved 28 December 2021.
  10. ↑ Leah Greenblatt. "VH1's 100 Greatest One Hit Wonders of the '80s: Do You Agree?". Ew.com. Retrieved 28 December 2021.
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