38 Special / Released 1977
Artist Of The Week:
38 Special
Interesting Facts:
- The band was formed by neighborhood friends Don Barnes and Donnie Van Zant in 1974 in Jacksonville, Florida.
- Donnie Van Zant is the brother of Skynyrd’s leader, Ronnie Van Zant.
- “Caught Up in You” and “If I’d Been the One” both hit No. 1 on Billboard magazine’s Album Rock Tracks chart.
- He is the middle of three brothers. Ronnie, the original lead singer of Lynyrd Skynyrd, is the oldest. Johnny is the youngest, and current lead singer of Lynyrd Skynyrd.
- Donnie and Johnny occasionally played together as Van Zant.
- In 2013, after nearly a year of missing performances, Donnie Van Zant officially confirmed he has left 38 Special and was retiring from music.
- Group members Jeff Carlisi and Don Barnes wrote “Caught Up In You” with Jim Peterik, who was a member of the band Survivor.
- Jim Peterik dealt with a lot of resentment from his own band, Survivor, due to him writing most of 38 Special songs.
- Both bands were competing for a place of the charts.
- Peterik had to hide his involvement with own band, Survivor.
- One time 38 Special came to town to write with Peterik, and they had to go to his mother’s house to keep Survivor from knowing.
- 38 Special’s first hit was “Hold On Loosely,” which Peterik wrote for Survivor, and when the song didn’t make Survivor’s album, it went to 38 Special.
- Jim Peterik talked influences from “Hold On Loosely” saying, “The bridge was straight out of the Doobie Brothers songbook.”
- “Hold On Loosely”was the 13th music video to be played on MTV
