My 100 Favorite Charted Pop Songs: Time for Me to Fly

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Oh, this sounds good with Ernest Tubb. No, the two lists usually don’t sound like they belong together…and they don’t. Nowhere, that is, except in my crazy musical world. Here’s today’s song from the Hot 100. Time for Me to Fly - REO Speedwagon Here’s another example of a song that has a legacy far beyond what it did on the charts. This didn’t even make the top 50, and it’s one of REO Speedwagon’s signature songs. By the time REO Speedwagon was getting mega hits with very, very lame copies of this song I was sick of them. They couldn’t fight that feeling, but I sure could. REO, to me, is one of a million bands that turned into mush in the 80s after a great run in the 70s. We can blame Chicago’s problems on Terry Kath’s death but man, REO did it to themselves. Maybe I’m jaded because I saw them on tour in 1978, as part of my second-ever rock concert. Or maybe the “power ballad,” so perfected in this song, was boring and nauseating by the mid-80s. Whatever the case, I’ll take this marvelous tune any day over their 80s output. Time for Me to Fly Written by Kevin Cronin Recorded by REO Speedwagon From You Can Tune a Piano But You Can’t Tuna Fish, 1978 Peak chart position: #56 Today’s country song: “Waltz Across Texas” Enough of the jealousy and the intoleration: