Against the Wind
by Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band
- 109
- BPM
- G major
- Key
- 9B
- Camelot
- 68
- Danceability
- 29
- Acousticness
By 1980 Bob Seger wanted a number one album. He spent two years making Against the Wind with Eagles producer Bill Szymczyk at Criteria Studios in north Miami, Florida. The studios were better than before, and the sound was deliberately commercial. He said it was the most fulfilled he had felt as a songwriter up to then.
Glenn Frey of the Eagles sang backing vocals on the title track. The two had met in the Detroit club scene in the mid-1960s, and a year earlier Seger had co-written and guested on the Eagles' "Heartache Tonight". The song's title came from his days as a high school cross-country runner, and he called it about trying to move ahead while keeping sanity and integrity. "Janey" in the opening lyric is Janey Dinsdale, his partner from 1972 to 1983.
Capitol released it as the second single in April 1980. Promotion director Steve Meyer chose it. It debuted at number 54 in the week ending May 3, the highest debut of the week, and peaked at number five on June 14. It held that spot three weeks. Garth Brooks and Brooks & Dunn later covered it, and it appeared in Forrest Gump in 1994.
Against the Wind runs at 109 BPM, the tempo of mid-tempo pop, dancehall and indie. In classical terms it sits in moderato territory. A bar of 4/4 lasts 2.2 seconds, and a quarter-note delay is 550 ms. It is in G major, Camelot 9B, which shares its notes with E minor and mixes cleanly with C major and D major.
We use multiple sources as part of our online research for the song story including Wikipedia.