Take It on the Run
by REO Speedwagon
- 77
- BPM
- G major
- Key
- 9B
- Camelot
- 38
- Danceability
- 10
- Acousticness
After "Keep On Loving You" went to number one, Epic Records doubted that "Take It on the Run" was good enough to follow it as a single. Epic wanted to release a different song. The band insisted. The song became the follow-up single from Hi Infidelity, the band's ninth studio album. The single went gold on April 17, 1989.
Gary Richrath is the official sole writer, though the liner notes credit Kevin Cronin for lyrical assistance. Cronin said the original title was "Don't Let Me Down." He and Richrath developed the song together and changed the title, and Cronin insisted on the new one. He also added a line to the refrain that, he said, either makes sense or it doesn't, but sang well and rhymed. The lyrics are sung by a man who suspects his partner of being unfaithful.
On August 1, 1981, the song's video was the ninth played on MTV's first day. Technical difficulties made the picture go black 12 seconds in. The video never finished. The 2017 Pitbull song "Messin' Around," featuring Enrique Iglesias, interpolates it.
Take It on the Run runs at 77 BPM, the tempo of soul, trip-hop and half-time hip-hop. In classical terms it sits in andante territory. A bar of 4/4 lasts 3.12 seconds, and a quarter-note delay is 779 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.