Song 8: If It's Love - Train

Released as a single from the album Save Me San Francisco in June, 2010 (the album was released in October, 2009)

Video: http://www.vh1.com/video/train/515379/if-its-love.jhtml

Lyrics: http://www.metrolyrics.com/if-its-love-lyrics-train.html



"This song was actually written on the same day as “Hey Soul Sister” in New York City. I wrote this song first in the day, and I was thinking about all these people who have been supportive of the band Train for so many years. I had also made a solo record, and (fans) were really supportive to me and I was just like, “I wanna write a love song finally after all these years, but I wanna write it to our fans and just say thank you."

That's a quote from lead singer Pat Monahan on the Wikipedia page for the song If It's Love. The second released single from what has become Train's most popular album since 2001's Drops of Jupiter, has soared to the #1 spot on the Adult Hot 40 charts, just like Hey, Soul Sister, Drops of Jupiter, and Calling All Angels had done. With their fourth single reaching that #1 status, Train has pulled into a tie with Matchbox Twenty & Daughtry for second place (trailing only Nickelback) for the most #1's on that chart in its history. Also of note, this song's success made Save Me San Francisco Train's first album with two Billboard Top 40 hits since their Grammy Award winning days (and five-members-in-the-band days) of the Drops of Jupiter album era. It has been a success that has returned Train to major popularity, gained them Certified Gold status for a studio album for the first time since 2003, and quieted the critics who had felt that Train's glory years were in their past when they had declining sales on three consecutive album releases - and I admit I was one of those that had that thought. On top of all that, Save Me San Francisco may still have more hit songs left on it: Their recent release of the song Marry Me on Oct 25th (just five days ago as I type this post) has already reached #19 on the Adult Contemporary charts.

If It's Love has some fun references that led to very little digging to discover the background for them (Wikipedia gets a bad rap sometimes, but it's invaluable for starting any online research process for general knowledge!). Here's some references from the song and what they're all about:

• There's a reference to the 80's "Big Hair Era" band, Winger (formed from former members of Alice Cooper's band, and known best for the song Seventeen) - Winger still tours and recently produced - in 2009 - their 5th studio album.
• The "Rain in Spain" comes from the song in the musical My Fair Lady
• The "Henry Lee" was a folk song and dance that got some renewed popularity when Nick Cave did a rendition of the song in 1995 with PJ Harvey (a live version is at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3AvdEO7ZAto, though I'll prewarn you...if Cave doesn't sing better than that on good night, it'll explain why I haven't heard much about him!). For more background on the song, see: http://www.lizlyle.lofgrens.org/RmOlSngs/RTOS-HenryLee.html
• My favorite is the reference to poisonous perfume! Monahan has a quote listed on that Wikipedia article I mentioned earlier that says it all: "Have you ever been in an elevator with a lady who just got done perfuming? If you have, you won't wonder why I wrote it."

It looks like the break that the band took from each other following the For Me It's You album did wonders to restore their outlook on the band and the music they wanted to make. It also appears - based on some quotes out there on the web - that the remaining three members needed some time away to refocus and eventually regroup after they had lost two band mates in a matter of a couple of years. Last year I was comparing Train to Genesis because of the similarities (a popular band seeing the members get reduced to three, and members going their own directions at times, but coming together again). As it turned out, Genesis wound up having some of their biggest hits and greatest popularity after that change, and - with what's happened with their most recent album so far - the same thing might be true for Train as well.