Ok, HEARTS was a smashing success & AMERICA was on top of the popular music scene both domestically & internationally. HISTORY had been released & was also a massive success. Sir George Martin re-mixed some of the songs recorded before his time & the rest is HISTORY. The guys did a few promo photo shoots wearing fencing outfits, displaying red hearts on the outside. The baby boomers were buying records & attending live shows by the thousands. AMERICA was prime time & the sweet smell of success was theirs. Sir George once remarked that AMERICA was very underrated by the music critics: "they don't do outrageous things to call attention to themselves; their melodies are well organized, balanced & lyrical content is quite good". AMERICA continued on their usual heavy tour schedule, of course the private jet (see the photo insert in the HARBOR LP) made things a bit more enjoyable. Shows were sell outs & it was not unusual for them to do consecutive nite shows in the same venue in order to accommodate all of their fans. As a note, they even attempted to move HORSE out of the encore & even drop it from the shows - but no way, the fans screamed for it. Today it remains in the encore.

AMERICA's next project would be titled HIDEAWAY, recorded at the famous Caribou Ranch & it is definitely here that George Martin's help in doing arrangements would surface as a very strong plus for AMERICA. HIDEAWAY featured a two segment instrumental titled HIDEAWAY Part I & II by none other than MR. DEWEY BUNNELL. AMERICA opened concerts w/a tape of HIDEAWAY as a prelude to the start of a fabulous evening. It is an outstanding instrumental song that begs of a movie intro & closure, just plain outstanding. DEWEY also did LETTER (originally called THE LETTER) & AMBER CASCADES. LETTER is a tremendous, largely hidden, treasure. Please listen very carefully to it - the more you hear it, the better it gets. No lie. The bass runs are superb & DEWEY'S lyrical content weaves very neatly among a great arrangement. GERRY came thru with a few unbelievable ballads of truth, honesty & personal examination. Give a listen to LOVELY NIGHT, WATERSHIP DOWN, & WHO LOVES YOU. WATERSHIP DOWN conveys a sad story of being down, but not out; with hope & faith as a guiding light to lead to better days. WHO LOVES YOU is an introspective look at the magic of being in true love & all the wonders & questions of the self that one might ask. LOVELY NIGHT sure sounds like GERRY'S answer to the old Drifters hit "Up On the Roof", with emotions & feelings expressed in a much more sophisticated & perhaps abstract way. HIDEAWAY featured AMERICA's last Warner's charted song by DAN PEEK, TODAY'S THE DAY. DAN also did the song JET BOY BLUE with a little help from his wife on lyrics. HIDEAWAY is a treasure of musical creativity & signaled a turning point for AMERICA in musical adventurism, which included some more electric guitar based songs.

Last Revised: 19 September 1997