Let's talk about sax, baby!
When sax came into its own in pop music
I’ve had fascination with sax for as long as I can remember — and as a child of the ’70s and ’80s, I had a box seat to the action as sax climaxed all over the charts.
Saxophone was always there. You could say that I’m a product of sax. I often know when it’s coming and done well sax can be spine-tingling. But to understand the peak, you have to appreciate the groundwork laid in the previous decade.
(Now before I begin listing songs, rather than adding individual links, I’ve made a saxy Spotify playlist, that mirrors this article, which you can listen to at your leisure)
In the 1970s, the big horn really started to make its presence felt.
Lou Reed’s Walk On The Wild Side (1972) finishes with the ultimate walk-off sax solo closer, while Bob Segar’s Turn The Page (1972) is book-ended by a stirring saxophone riff that could easily be played as a troubled femme fatale walks into a smoky private detective’s office in a black and white movie.
The solo in David Bowie’s cover of Sorrow (1973) pops up just after a minute in while Young Americans (1975) opens with sax, confirming Bowie’s love of the instrument. Turns out there was a great need for saxophone on the Dark Side of the Moon (1973), and on Pink Floyd’s Money, Dick Parry’s sax almost speaks with an impatient abruptness. And on the epic and brooding Us And Them, Floyd wheel out a piano solo, followed by spoken interlude by their roadie, then another Parry sax solo. Clearly the band loved his work, and Parry was back two years later for a starring role on Shine On You Crazy Diamond.
Bruce Springsteen had an ace up his sleeve, with the great Clarence Clemons in his E-Street Band. Clemons helped Springsteen break through with Born To Run (1975). Strangely, when Springsteen got more commercial with his 1984 album Born In the USA, he pared back the sax when everyone else was blowing all over the place. But you can still hear Clemons’ genius on I’m Goin’ Down and at the end of Dancing in the Dark.
Back to 1976, and Bryan Ferry’s Let’s Stick Together is positively driven by saxophone, while Joan Armatrading’s wondrous delicate-to-powerful ballad Love And Affection had just a sprinkling.
In 1977, Billy Joel’s Just The Way You Are was a gentle stroll of a song with just a tickle of the sax until the 3-minute mark when it stands loud and proud.
Then in 1978, boom! Or should that be parp?! The entire chorus of Baker Street is a sax solo played by session musician Raphael Ravenscroft who was reputedly paid just 27 pounds for his work. And if you pay attention to Supertramp, they slip in some quality sax all through the ’70s (Give A Little Bit, The Logical Song, It’s Raining Again).
The 1980s saxual revolution
Then the saxophone surged to another level in the ’80s.
British ska band Madness straddled the turn of the decade with sax-heavy hits. One Step Beyond in 1979 set the tone, It Must Be Love (1981) has a lovely sax solo, and Madness followed up a year later with House Of Fun and Our House (the performance of which on top of Buckingham Palace stole the show at the Queen’s diamond jubilee concert in 2012).
Sax was big Down Under too. Men At Work’s Who Can It Be Now is stone-cold sax masterpiece, with Aussie saxophonist Greg Ham opening the song and echoing the chorus, before his raw and brilliant solo (apparently an improvised one-take wonder).
Also in 1981, The Rolling Stones released the album Tattoo You. Start Me Up was the big single, somehow sneaking past every censor with the lyric “you make a dead man come”. The album’s other hit pops up at the end of album — Waiting On A Friend. It’s quite simply a masterpiece, partly because the band invited legendary jazz saxophonist Sonny Rollins to play on it.
I remember listening to it that summer and probably not appreciating how cool it was, because I was a kid who just wanted to swim, play tennis and cricket, and buy Popsicles. But Waiting On A Friend is a vibe, and definitely made car trips on vinyl seats with no aircon bearable.
Rollins brings the song home for a minute of improvised genius. Apparently drummer Charlie Watts (a major jazz fan) was so in awe of him, he thought it was futile even asking Rollins to get involved. Just as well someone did.
What followed was an explosion, with sax bangers everywhere.
Duran Duran went all in with Rio in 1982, with Andy Hamilton providing an iconic sax-on-raft moment, then the new-wave pioneers followed up with Union of the Snake a year later.
Also in ’82, Hall & Oates got in on the act with Maneater with its echoey solo. The duo folllowed up with She’s Gone, punctuated with a solo that flits from languid to intricate.
In 1983, David Bowie decided there was no Modern Love without sax (tenor and baritone) while in the runaway hit Let’s Dance, the saxophone late in the piece is chaotic, discordant and nigh on perfect. And at a more sedate pace, Spandau Ballet dimmed the lights and lowered the hands for the slow-dance banger, True. This is still 1983 and I believe we are entering peak sax territory.
The horny years
In 1984 came the horniest of horns from George Micheal’s Careless Whisper. It comes in hot from the top and dominates the first 27 seconds of the song, positively oozing seduction. It might be the most iconic slow sax of all time and it didn’t come easy. Englishman Steve Gregory nailed it but was reportedly the 11th saxophonist to record the song. George wasn’t happy with the others’ interpretation of his riff, and he rejected the original version of the song recorded at the famous Muscle Shoals studio in Alabama.
Meanwhile, that same year, fellow Brit Sade was tapping into the same vein as George. Her smash hit Smooth Operator similarly opens the batting with sax, putting runs on the board early.
By now we’re deep in Peak Sax. Glenn Frey’s 1984 hit The Heat Is On, from the Beverley Hills Cop soundtrack, is saxy from the outset. The former Eagle certainly loved his sax as we were about to find out.
In one of my favourite songs of the era, Free Nelson Mandela by The Specials, sax and trumpet shared the spotlight… but the sax solo is legit, and the song made a difference.
Also in ’84, Original Sin by INXS blazes a trail for the Australian band, and in that song the saxophone runs the final leg of the relay and really brings it home strong. And British Trinidadian Billy Ocean started his string of sax-solo-songs with Caribbean Queen, followed a year later with the No 1 hit When The Going Gets Tough, the Tough Get Going — the theme song from the movie The Jewel Of The Nile.
In 1985 there was no letting up. Glenn Frey’s You Belong To The City was 80 percent sax (!). That same year, James Brown delivered Living In America (still a great dance track) which has high-level horns from go to whoa, with the saxophone entering the fray late.
Sax and the G spot
Although this article is about the saxual influence in songs, Kenny G put the saxophone front and centre, and in the middle of the road, with his 1986 instrumental album Duotones. The breakout single Songbird was 100% pure cheese and seriously popular. And while Kenny’s soprano saxophone is often mistaken for a clarinet, he put that straight sax on the map.
Also in 1986, Thorn In My Side by Eurythmics delivered something else for sax-heads and in 1987, while Icehouse gave Electric Blue a horny solo. And Time Of Your Life from the Dirty Dancing soundtrack kept the big horn front and centre.
In 1987, INXS was back with Never Tear Us Apart, and in the music video, sax player Kirk Pengilly performs his solo on camera… only he’s in a cemetery - perhaps a metaphor, foreshadowing the decline of of the bold and brassy instrument.
With backlash against the safe and soft sound of Kenny G gaining momentum, it felt like the saxophone might on the decline… but in 1988 there was a resistance. Along came Billy Ocean’s Get Outta My Dreams, Get Into My Car, Waiting For A Star To Fall by Boy Meets Girl, Roll With It by Steve Winwood and the Beach Boys came back with Kokomo. Truth be told, the sun was setting…
In 1989, Tina Turner put saxy fullstop on the decade with Simply The Best. And even though it’s a great solo, it does feel as though the saxophone is wrestling to get out of the figurative closet, insisting on being heard.
After that, the saxophone took a back seat. Some fought bravely to keep it relevant, like Kenny G and Lisa Simpson, but it was fading from view. We may never see a sax era like it again.
So, shout out to the sax players, the sax lovers and to the OG, Belgian musician Adolphe Sax, who invented the saxophone in the 1840s. After numerous legal battles over his patent, he died in poverty, and in Paris, aged 79.
And please bear in mind, these were just songs that surged up the charts in the ’70s and ’80s. I don’t doubt there are other sax masterpieces that are unsung heroes. I’d like to hear your recommendations.
ICYMI: This is the Spotify playlist that runs alongside the article. I’ve left some songs off the playlist for reasons of length and cheese.
Clarence Clemons, the biggest saxman. His stuff on The River album is brilliant. Roxy’s Andy Mackay gave that band a touch of velvet. Listen to Running Wild, off Flesh and Blood, late at night…..
100% here for this. Sax, Mack trucks, quicksand, steam rollers, all on high-rotate in 70s/80s pop culture. Each featured in at least one episode of BJ and the Bear.