Original subtitles

-Those songs are so fucking good.

-I can sing all of the songs. -I'm a sucker for pretty shit.

-* Don't you remember you told me you loved me, baby *

-There's nothing better. -* And so you try *

-* Rainy days and Mondays always get me down *

-* Waited so long * -* The honesty's too much *

-* Do you like piña colada? * Yeah.

I hate myself just now for singing it.

[ Laughs ] Absolutely, know it.

I'm sappy, man. What -- What can I say?

I want to be aggressive, and I want to be hard, but I'm not.

-In the 1970s, America was mellowing out like never before,

and soft rock was its soundtrack.

-* Love will find a way, ohh *

-But laid back couldn't last forever.

[ Radio tuning ]

[ Hard rock plays ]

-Suddenly hippies were out. Anger was in.

-With Van Halen erupting

and Michael Jackson making the world safe for drum machines,

soft rock went flaccid.

-* I'm a little bit rock 'n' roll *

-Soft rock, that lame-ass, suburban, white-boy junk

played by bands like Men Without Testicles.

[ Laughter ]

-Soon it was little more than a joke.

-* 'Cause sometimes when we touch *

-Do you like the Elton John song "Rocket Man"?

-I don't like soft-ass shit.

-But a generation of rappers had grown up with those soft sounds

and introduced them to new audiences.

-* If you like piña coladas... *

-* I like piña coladas, gettin' caught in the rain *

-* I'm all out of love *

-Soft rock is everywhere.

-* I hope you don't mind *

-* ...never break the chain *

-It's a story like no other in music history.

**

-* Sometimes when we touch *

**

**

-No, no, we won't go! -No, no, we won't go!

-Where did soft rock come from?

It began with the turmoil of the 1960's --

war...

protests...

and Richard goddamn Nixon.

By the 1970s, the kids were definitely not all right.

The social revolution they had been promised

felt about as real as a Beatles reunion.

-[ Screaming ]

-By the early '70s, the musical question

of an exhausted generation had morphed from...

-* Are you experienced? *

-...to... -* Have you never been mellow? *

* Have you never tried? *

-As time went on, those '60s bands and artists

began to look inward to a different kind of music.

It was sort of natural for them to move from rock

to something a little softer.

-America was in need of relief.

and soft rock was there like a sonic colonic.

-* Hang on, help is on its way *

-I mean, the '70s were just one of the best times

for fashion, music, culture.

-Allow it to move in a circle with your shoulders.

-It was kind of a laid-back,

"We're just gonna take everything down a notch."

It was almost like everybody was slightly stoned

and probably were.

-It was a very beautiful time.

And that music pretty much went along with that.

-* You... *

-The 1970s brought a wave of laid-back artists...

-* Sitting downtown in a railway station *

-...that hinted at a softer revolution.

-* ...convinced myself that it just wasn't real *

-They came from different genres...

-* That's not the way it feels *

-* Oh, baby, baby, it's a wild world *

-They came from folk...

-* Take me home... *

-...and country. -* ...country road *

-...R&B and pop.

-* ...never fall in love again *

-Other forerunners of soft rock included singer-songwriters

like Joni Mitchell and Carole King.

-* ...move under my feet *

* I feel the sky tumbling down *

-Those songs are the songs that shaped the writers

of soft rock and most '70s pop music.

-* KNX-FM *

-In Los Angeles, at an obscure FM radio station,

an unknown deejay tuned into the new vibe

and hatched a plan that would change music history.

-I was in on the birth of soft rock as a radio format.

We never used that phrase on the air

because the word "soft" can mean "deficient,"

and I didn't want that.

- Continuing on KNX-FM with a cut

from Cat Stevens' new album, "Numbers,"

this is the "Land O' Free Love & Goodbye."

-We came up with the concept of "pretty rock,"

which really consisted of five different formats --

pop, rock, folk, smooth jazz, and R&B.

-This is FM 93, the mellow sound of KNX-FM.

-We thought of it as a rock station for people

who didn't like rock music.

-* Rockin' mellow * -Rockin' L.A. the mellow way,

FM 93, KNX-FM.

-* KNX-FM *

-Mellow Rock.

"Mellow" was a buzzword in the '70s.

It was kind of hip.

-Usually, being mellow meant being wimpy.

No, KNX was hip.

It was a button on everyone's radio dial.

-By '74, we were in the top ten, and the other CBS FM stations

began to pick up the format.

-Despite Marshall's objections,

the term "soft rock" had entered the pop lexicon.

-It was radio that introduced me to all of these beautiful songs.

I didn't know what to call it. It wasn't scary.

It wasn't violent.

The uniqueness to how good these songs made you feel.

-* Saturday in the park *

* I think it was the 4th... *

-"Saturday in the Park" --

that song resonates with my existence

in Hollis, Queens, New York,

the same way it resonates with the person

who lives on Park Avenue, walking through Central Park.

The lyrics and the writing were so poetic.

-* Blue jean baby *

-Growing up around the Elton John songs,

he had this beautiful English accent, this beautiful voice.

This piano playing.

It just killed me.

A song like "Daniel," for instance --

the first time I heard that song,

I couldn't go to sleep because Elton John was in town

and he was playing at the PNE Coliseum.

And I tried to get in with a photographer

in the backstage area --

"Just tell them I'm your girlfriend," you know?

And he played "Daniel" for the first time he'd ever played it.

-* Daniel, you're a star *

-And it was like, "This is the moment I came for."

Like, there's certain songs in your life that are perfect.

And that is one of them.

-* You see, I've been through the desert *

* On a horse with no name * -I love "Horse With No Name."

That got me through college.

I could not get laid without that song playing.

That has a real gritty tune.

-I always gravitated to the ones

that were, like, kind of almost singer-songwriter-y.

-* Baby, I'm-a want you * -* Baby, I'm-a want you *

-* Baby, I'm-a need you *

-And we used to roller skate to it

and just dream about what it would be like

to go out with somebody as cute as David Gates.

I mean, for me, that was the soundtrack

to a formidable time in my life.

-* And, yes, we've just begun * -I loved the Carpenters.

They were not shying away from being expressive,

being human, being emotional.

-* What I've got, they used to call...*

-Most people just don't understand

how ahead of their time the Carpenters really were.

Their music wasn't supposedly cool at the time.

But not only did it do exceptionally well,

but it would be known and loved forever.

[ Applause ]

-Today, the Carpenters are universally respected.

-There are some people who think I look like a hippie,

that I look wild, or, you know, we sing rock 'n' roll music

just because we have guitar amplifiers.

-But in their prime,

they were dragged as lightweights and worse...

-One of America's finest young groups...

-...Nixon flunkies.

-...the Carpenters, ladies and gentlemen.

[ Applause ] -There's other people that think

that we're so square that they don't believe how we can exist.

* That's the Carpenters' all-purpose *

* Standup, one-liner *

-* Singalong monologue *

-Carpenters, "Close to You." [ Applause ]

-That didn't stop brother and sister Richard and Karen

from creating some of the most influential sounds

of the 1970s. -The stats are crazy.

At over 100 million units, the Carpenters sell more records

than Hendrix, CCR, Sex Pistols, and Leonard Skynyrd combined.

-I love... * Don't you remember you told me you loved me, baby *

I thought that was phenomenal.

I've always thought that was phenomenal.

I was a big fan of -- of the Carpenters.

It was, like, in my soul.

-* Ahhh *

-Her singing style was just impeccable.

It was perfect. She had that really low voice.

And yet here is this chick behind the drums, singing.

* Are you ready for a brand-new beat? *

-Karen Carpenter was a really great drummer.

[ Drum solo ]

[ Applause ]

-He had always wanted to be exactly where he is.

He had ideas, but I didn't know I could do anything

until 16.

I got into band to get out of gym.

I went over. I picked up a pair of sticks.

It was the most natural-feeling thing I've ever done.

-We've never seen anybody like that even since

that could do what she did.

-I thought her voice was just brilliant --

one of a kind.

She didn't sound like everybody else.

She sounded only like herself.

-You talk about the synergy of fate.

Look at the Carpenters -- to have that voice

with that brother songwriter.

-Richard Carpenter would always take a song,

and he'd get on the piano and rearrange it and make it work.

-* I'll say goodbye to love *

-1972 was the turning point.

"Goodbye to Love" was the first pop hit

to mash up an easy-listening arrangement

with a guitar straight out of Sabbath.

[ Guitar solo ]

Well, almost.

But if Dylan could go electric, why not the Carpenters?

-That record did turn a few heads amongst Carpenters fans,

because, of course, it had a guitar solo in it.

And we got a few letters saying, "You sold out."

-I remember the first time I ever heard that,

and I was kind of taken by that.

I thought, "This is cool, that they took a guitar

and put it into a ballad type of a song like that."

-This was totally crazy.

Nobody had ever done that before.

These big power ballads, beautiful ballads,

with raging guitar solos,

and I take a tiny bit of credit for it,

for being there and playing it, but it wasn't my idea.

It was Richard's, and he was always the guy

with the great ideas.

[ Guitar solo continues ]

-The sound was coming together,

but the story of soft rock had only just begun.

[ Finale plays ]

[ Cheers and applause ]

-Americans entered the '70s

needing to heal from the chaos of the '60s.

A tsunami of softness was unleashed.

-* Love will find a way *

-As the "me" decade emerged,

getting in touch with ourselves became a national pastime.

-Mmm, it's a great feeling.

-Really getting in touch with ourselves.

-In the '70s attitudes about sexuality were changing rapidly.

Self-help books like "The Joy of Sex"

were opening up people's minds to what could happen

in the bedroom and beyond.

-Gender roles were expanding, too.

-Another thing that's happening in the '70s

is the sort of renegotiation of what it means

to be macho and masculine.

-Previously, women's bodies had been used to sell songs,

but in the soft rock era, men exposed it all, too.

-We had this plan that, if we got naked on the cover,

we'd sell more records.

Shooting those album covers back then in the late '70s,

It looks like something out of "Boogie Nights."

[ Laughs ] You know?

Hey, we weren't afraid to do it. We took the plunge, so to speak.

-What seemed to happen more in the '70s

was this sort of vulnerability in songwriting...

-* Dance with me *

* I want to be your partner, can't you see? *

-...which might have previously been deemed as --

as soppy or too revealing.

-* 'Cause I never want to make... *

-These men, these artists -- they're not afraid

to sing about their feelings.

-Back in the '70s, the image of the long-haired,

sensitive, soft-rock dude -- he was cool for a while.

These love songs, these ballads, were all about that.

-* I'd like to make it with you *

-They were guys telling women, "We understand you.

"You can trust us. Now, please, let's go to bed."

-* Angie *

-In 1973, the Rolling Stones hit number one with "Angie."

-You got the full power of Mick Jagger's voice,

addressing the woman's vulnerability

and her pathologies.

Here you have a group that has made a living

basically writing songs like "Under My Thumb,"

where they're dominating women.

And then he's pivoting to "Angie,"

where he wants to help her?

Whole different layer and depth in a song like "Angie."

-That same year, Paul McCartney seduced the world

with his most tender love song yet.

-* My love does it good *

-With "My Love," Paul McCartney --

it's very personal and confessional.

He's almost singing with a slightly different placement

in his throat, it sounds like to me,

and it's very gentle.

-Who's gonna tell Jagger and McCartney they're wrong?

The soft invasion was underway.

-* Midnight at the Oasis *

-* Sara smile *

-* Summer breeze *

* Makes me feel fine *

-* Oh, Beth, what can I do? *

-Even the hardest rockers got in on the action.

None more than Alice Cooper,

who ditched straitjackets and snakes

for strings and suburban sentiment.

-* But that's enough for a workin' man *

* And just like the first time... *

I can't be Alice all the time,

because he's a little bit too dangerous.

[ Laughs ]

-So here's the problem.

Everybody loves soft rock, but no one knows exactly what it is.

-Soft rock is not really a very tangible genre.

-Not to oversimplify, but I would say

that it's anything that's not hard rock.

-It sounds like rock, but it tastes like pop.

-Soft rock is the scorned cousin of the rock world.

-Does anyone go, "Wow, that rock's so soft"?

-It was hard to write the songs. It was hard to record the songs.

Everything about soft rock was hard.

-Burt, what do you say to Martini & Rossi?

-* Martini & Rossi on the rocks *

-That's right, Burt -- just like it's not a martini

without the vermouth,

it's not soft rock without the rock.

But there's a difference.

Heroes of hard rock are guitar players.

[ Guitar solo ]

[ Keyboard solo ] But the kings of soft rock

are keyboardists.

-* And you can tell everybody *

-* This is your song *

-Most piano players write melodic songs,

and they're softer songs.

You're not gonna write AC/DC songs on the piano.

-Instead, you're gonna write this.

[ Keyboard solo ]

-* We get it almost every night *

-* It's why I'm easy, baby *

-* I'm not in love *

* So don't forget *

-Nothing sounded more soft rock than the Rhodes piano.

If you wanted to be on the radio in the '70s,

you pretty much had to plug one in.

-This is your favorite part.

[ Piano playing ]

**

The thing about this instrument --

the Rhodes and the Fender Rhodes --

is it's a very specific sound...

and it is a very soft sound

and very, very mellow sound.

Lots of those records back then were made

with this this exact keyboard.

-Somebody came up with a way to -- to make a piano

sound softer, rounder, more bell-like.

It's like if you created a hybrid

between an acoustic piano and Vibes,

that's what a Fender Rhodes really is.

-* Babe, I'm leavin' *

* I must be on my way *

-* Ooh, babe, you got what it takes *

* So I made you my wife * -It's just something so sexy.

It's sexier than an acoustic piano.

-* Don't go changin' *

-Another important point?

"Soft" doesn't have to mean "slow."

-Something you can kind of just kind of slowly bob your head to.

-There's a gentle sway, a kind of a calm down,

but it still can be really sexy or moody.

-The "Doobie Bounce," or what they call

this kind of groove in the pocket

that's influenced a little bit by R&B.

-* Bum-bum, ba-da-da-dum, ba-dum, ba-da-da *

That is the genesis of the Doobie Bounce.

-* He came from somewhere back in her long ago *

-It wasn't just, like, a super straight set

of kicks and snares like you would get...

* Doo-doo-doo, chh, doo-doo-doo, chh *

...like in any old rock song.

There's something, like, really fluid,

especially with how the hi-hats are kind of rolling.

-You hear that -- that back-and-forth,

up-and-down piano riff in so many songs.

-* It's gonna take a lotta love *

-When you talk about soft rock versus hard rock,

certainly rock 'n' roll is -- is fairly basic, straight ahead.

[ Guitar playing rock 'n' roll ]

Soft rock is slightly different because it --

it's not so much the energy.

[ Guitar playing soft rock ]

**

It's how you couch the melody and how you couch the music.

It's sometimes what you don't play

that's as important as what you do play,

in a lot of ways, to -- to better support the vocalist.

-Ah, the vocals.

If soft rock is famous for anything,

it's some of the most powerful harmonies in pop history.

-* That's how much *

* That's how much *

-I'm a big Ambrosia fan,

and I think David Pack is one of the best singers, like, ever.

He's got a crazy voice. David still sings like that now.

-* And so you try *

* Try to stay in the middle *

* And then you cry *

I wanted to create a vocal identity for Ambrosia

and to be a band that had, like,

a call-and-response type harmony.

-* How much I feel *

-* Feel for you, baby *

-* How much I need * -I thought that would

set us apart from other acts of that era.

And so "You're the Only Woman"

had that call and response, you know?

* You're the only woman *

* You're the only woman *

-* You're the only woman *

-* You're the only woman *

-You know, and "Biggest Part of Me."

* Sunrise * -* There's a new sun a'risin' *

-* There's a new sun a'risin' in your... *

To me, those were my vision

for trying to -- to recast Ambrosia

as a vocal band that had its own identity.

-And the style of harmonies, it's not like Beach Boys,

Four Freshmen style harmony.

They're bringing certain notes into these harmonies

that just create a different kind of feeling.

-We always had the harmonies, and the harmonies were good.

-* This time I'm in it... *

-When all of us sang, our harmonies were sweet.

-* Whatcha gonna do what she says goodbye? *

* Whatcha gonna do when she is gone? *

-There's a stacked harmony section that, really, just,

you could kind of close your eyes and eat it up.

-All of the choruses are stacked to Mount Everest, right?

-* After the love has gone *

-* After the love has gone *

-* What used to be right is wrong *

-I'm taking your voice

and putting it on as many tracks as I can so that it's bigger

and it has more bite and more oomph.

It sounds really good when it's the same person

doing it over and over.

-Three passes layered on the cake.

-Putting three vocals down, then making them go higher...

-* Happy anniversary, baby *

-Like "Row, Row Your Boat." * Row, row, row your boat *

And then somebody else is... * Row, row your boat *

That's when the voices are going layered.

-* And what would you say if I called on you now? *

-And then all of a sudden,

a hundred voices come in for the chorus.

-* I'm all out of love *

-That's the idea, is the chorus has to come

and just blow you away.

-Okay, so we've got keyboards, a backbeat, killer harmonies,

but there's just one thing missing.

-"Do You Believe In Love?" -"I Want To Know What Love Is."

-"Love Is The Answer."

-"I Hope We Get To Love In Time."

-"How Deep Is Your Love?"

-I love "After the Love Is Gone." Really love it.

-"Torn Between Two Lovers" by Mary MacGregor

is one of the worst songs of all time.

-"All Out of Love." "Sweet Dreams."

"Making Love Out of Nothing at All." "Lost in Love."

"Even the Nights Are Better." "Every Woman in the World."

"Two Less Lonely People." -"Here I Am."

"Here I Am." "The One That You Love."

-Oh, duh! -Behave.

[ Both laugh ]

-Many elements define the soft-rock sound,

but the most important is emotion.

Soft rockers let you know how they're feeling

and how much they really want to see you tonight.

-* And I'd really love to see you tonight *

-Really great soft rock

has to be a perfect marriage of music and melody

with that lyrical content.

Those lyrics of heartache or heartbreak give me the chills.

They give me goosebumps.

-* You came and you gave without taking *

* But I sent you away, oh *

-From a neurological standpoint, when we listen to sad music,

it actually can release a hormone called prolactin,

which calms the body.

We're experiencing this sadness without actually being sad.

We all want that catharsis.

* But I'm bluer than blue *

* Sadder than sad *

-* Ooh, no, baby, please, don't go *

-* And she's gone * -* Oh, I *

-* Oh, I * -* Oh, I *

* Oh, I, I better learn how to face it *

-* I was wrong, and I just can't live without you *

-I did a tour in England, and I got home, and, like,

nobody was there.

My wife -- she wasn't there.

I was mowing the lawn in my house when I started singing...

* Baby, come back *

-* Baby, come back *

* Any kind of fool could see *

-She never did, and I never saw her again.

-* That's how much I feel *

-* Feel for you, baby *

-I had my heart broken in high school

just into a million pieces.

I wrote a song about it, of course.

First love, you know, it's like a dagger in your heart

that never goes away.

Let me tell you, it's still a hard song to sing.

-That song is really autobiographical, and --

-Yeah, one of those songs that you really want to record,

you know, but you're almost afraid to

'cause you're afraid it's gonna lose its sense of intimacy.

-I was 19, in love with an older woman, who was 22,

and I'd had no romantic experience before that.

-* You ask me if I love you *

* And I choke on my reply *

She would always say, "Do you love me, Dan? Do you love me?"

And I knew if I said "yes," she'd say I was too needy,

and if I said "no," she'd say I was too cold.

So that's why I started with,

"You ask me if I love you, and I choke on my reply."

Growing up in a neighborhood I grew up in,

and I didn't know anybody that was having anything

even remotely connected to sex,

so I hadn't been experienced in that kind of a situation.

When I started to touch this woman,

everything broke down, and I couldn't talk.

-* And sometimes when we touch *

* The honesty's too much *

-I was almost, like, hypnotized.

It was just too much,

and I just couldn't put together a sentence.

She was going out with a football player

and was bragging about how big his muscles were.

-* I want to hold you till I die *

-And I decided that the only way I could possibly get her

to like me more is to write a song that was so powerful

about how I felt about her that maybe she would then think

I was possibly worthy,

and so that's when I wrote "Sometimes When We Touch."

And so I phone her up,

and I play the song to her over the phone.

-* Sometimes when we touch *

-I thought, for sure, I was gonna nail her.

Four minutes later, there's this beleaguered sign the other end,

and she says, "Danny, did anybody ever tell you

that, for a 19-year-old, you're just way too intense?

You're way too intense for me.

I'm moving in with the football player."

[ Applause ]

But when it did become a hit, she miraculously reappeared.

It was decided maybe she wanted a relationship.

At which point, of course, well, you know, she broke my heart,

so I wasn't gonna go back there again.

-But soft rock's most tragic love story

was the one that fueled the couple

that gave us its happiest hit.

-Thank you.

[ Applause ]

* Love *

* Love will keep us together *

-I don't want to sound like I'm dissing the music, right?

but that felt like TV music to me.

-* Some sweet-talking girl comes along *

-Wait, Captain and Tennille --

they made "Love Will Keep Us Together," right?

Okay, I stand corrected. I love that song.

-* 'Cause I really love you *

-"Love Will Keep Us Together" was one of the biggest hits

of the soft rock era. -* I will, I will *

-Captain was a really accomplished musician,

who had played with the Beach Boys.

-Mike Love of the Beach Boys named him Captain

because he was the captain of the keyboards.

-Daryl Dragon was a craftsman.

Not only was he a brilliant keyboard player,

he was a brilliant musician, and he was a brilliant producer.

-And Toni Tennille is like this quintessential cabaret singer.

Together, they combined the atmospheric quality

of film soundtracks with that intimacy of the lounge singer.

* Whatever *

[ Finale plays ]

[ Applause ]

-And the winner is Captain & Tennille.

[ Cheers and applause ]

-After winning a Grammy for "Love Will Keep Us Together,"

co-written by Neil Sedaka, Captain & Tennille signed on

for their own network variety show.

-And now, the Captain & Tennille.

-See them on TV, and you see a little married couple

just so happy in their groove.

And he's on the piano, and she's doing her thing.

-We just got married. -[ Laughs ]

-They presented a marriage

as two people who loved each other,

and we never really doubted it.

See, you've got to understand, Daryl has got to have...

-Don't do it. -...his own bathroom

with white tile and running water.

He doesn't like bugs. -Daryl, you don't sound

too exciting to be married to. You know what I mean?

[ Laughter ]

-Did he ever say "I love you" to you?

-No.

No. Never.

-We hope you enjoyed the show this week.

I know we did. -We did?

-Yes, Daryl, we did.

-It was hard.

The first few years, I kept hoping,

hoping that there would be a breakthrough or something.

-Are you naturally quiet?

-What?

-That's the most I've ever heard him talk.

-I always thought Daryl was a genius.

He was an odd duck, boy, but he was a genius.

Maybe it was some form of autism.

I don't know. I never understood it.

I couldn't make him fall in love with me.

I hoped he would.

But as the years went by,

I realized that he was not capable of that,

and then I was kind of stuck.

-Valentine's Day is coming up.

-I just went along with it.

-What's the most exotic Valentine's gift

you've ever gotten?

-I don't know. What'd you ever give me?

-It wasn't until much, much later we discovered

that, in fact, it was kind of a loveless marriage.

And it's weird knowing that and going back

and looking at their variety show

because Tennille is just out there

and she is giving it her all.

And Daryl Dragon is just sitting there in his captain's hat,

giving nothing.

-I know he admired me tremendously.

He admired my talent, my voice, my gift for writing.

He was just closed up, and he couldn't open up

to any kind of emotion.

I was kind of a hot dish in those days.

But throughout that entire relationship with Daryl,

I never, ever cheated on him.

I never had an affair.

He was the only man that interested me.

And even though I couldn't have him the way I wanted him,

when I would have dreams, erotic dreams,

he was the guy in the dreams.

He was it.

-* I never wanted to love a man *

* The way that I want to love you *

Our second hit was "The Way I Want to Touch You,"

which I wrote.

I wanted to express how I felt about Daryl.

-* You are sunshine, you are shadow *

* You are morning, you are night *

-"You are sunshine. You are shadow.

You are morning, You are night."

He was everything to me.

This was early on, you know, when I still thought

I could get through to him.

But I never was able to.

And I kept thinking, "Why are you doing this?

Why are you still with him?"

I kept worrying about all of our fans.

[ Cheers and applause ]

So that's why I stuck with him.

-Riding the good vibes of the 1976

bicentennial celebrations...

-Let us learn together and laugh together.

-...America elected its warmest and fuzziest U.S. President,

Jimmy Carter.

-Jimmy Carter was the sensitive dude

in his cardigan sweaters, always trying to get along.

You know, you could say that Jimmy Carter

was the first soft-rock president.

-For almost a decade, soft rock dominated pop music worldwide.

-These numbers are crazy.

Back in those days, commercial success was a real thing.

-We found out "If You Leave Me Now"

was number one in the world.

I don't even know how many countries there were

at the time -- 270 or something.

It was number one in every one of them at the same time.

-* You are the woman that I've always dreamed of *

-Firefall's debut album went gold faster

than any album in the history of Atlantic Records,

besting even Ray Charles,

Aretha Franklin, and Led Zeppelin.

-Soft rock's secret weapon? Inclusivity.

No genre in pop history absorbed as many musical influences.

-The record companies -- they would look at us and they'd go,

"Well, what are you guys? Are you country? You pop?

You rock? You classical? You folk? What are you? Jazz?"

We'd go, "Yeah, pretty much."

-Soft rock pulled the most diverse audience of all,

because we weren't afraid of playing Barry Manilow,

which was right down the middle...

-* You know I can't... *

-...and then "Summer Madness" by Kool & the Gang,

which was an instrumental.

-We're listening to Jazz, and we were playing Motown,

as we started to develop our own sound,

which became the mixture of all that.

-Soft rock wasn't afraid to include these swings

and variations in music styles.

-* Like a rhinestone cowboy *

-Musicians from Nashville..

-* ...to hurt the man who loves you *

-...to Hawaii raced to get in on the action,

as stars of every genre got in touch with their feelings.

-I think jazz was definitely prevalent

during the soft-rock period.

-It was the last period, I think, where

these jazz artists would actually break into the top 40.

-George Benson was one of the great guitar players

of all time, and the fact that he was as good as he was

and then could write a song that would make pop radio --

I mean, that's a pretty big gift.

-* We're in this love together *

-* Sweet baby *

-Those great songs have jazz inflections.

They found a way to marry this sort of highbrow music

with commerciality.

-The influences of what I was writing

were smooth-jazz artists like Bob James.

It's not rock, but as a songwriter and an artist,

I'm mixing it all together the Way it shows up in my head.

-Ella Fitzgerald is listening to Chuck Mangione.

-Chuck Mangione...

-"Feel So Good" by Chuck Mangione

was one of the first songs we ever played on KOST.

It had the right beat, the right instrumentation.

It was like an anthem for us.

-There was a lot of cross-pollination happening.

Latin musicians were huge in the studio scenes.

Percussionists like Airto Moreira

and Paulinho da Costa brought a whole new world of rhythm.

-Those rhythmic elements opened up the possibilities

of rhythm to go beyond a drum set.

Conga, bongos, clave -- all those things,

which are very good for excitement,

but also can give a little effervescence

to a soft-rock tune.

-The sounds of R&B, soul, and Motown

had been part of soft rock from the beginning.

By the mid-'70s, artists like Lou Rawls...

-* I like groovy people *

-* Whoa, sail on *

-...Lionel Richie and the Commodores...

-* Hearts afire... * -...and Earth, Wind & Fire

were producing hit after soft-rock hit.

-Our crossover appeal had a lot to do with Maurice's vision,

what he wanted the band to accomplish.

He wanted a group that everybody liked and enjoyed.

Now we call it global.

"That's the Way of the World" -- it was from the soundtrack

to the movie, "That's the Way of the World.

And the movie was not that successful.

-Leonard Maltin alluded that it was the worst movie

that had ever been made.

-But the album for us went double platinum.

It was the record that had broke us wide open.

It was number one on every chart at the time.

We already had an audience

in our own little genre of college radio.

But that was when we really went to arenas.

-It was this true melting pot within the studios --

a record that might have musicians on it

from Puerto Rico and Brazil,

and Black musicians from the Bronx and Brooklyn,

and white musicians from suburban California,

all on the same record.

-Many of these records were listed

on separate record charts,

creating confusion for listeners.

-"Baby, Come Back."

Now, okay. I thought they were Black.

-* Baby, come back *

-Yeah, well, that's partly because it was number one

on the R&B charts, you know?

We were in Chicago, and we got invited to go

to this Black radio station.

We went over there in the limo and everything.

And they see these little white guys

in high heels and puffy hair, you know?

I think two of us even had fur coats on,

And we're walking along, you know, and they're going,

"What the..." "What the..." It was very funny.

-When I found out they weren't Black, I was shocked.

Like, "Whoa." And again, I didn't differentiate that way.

But they sound Black.

-* You don't have to be a star, baby *

-"You Don't Have to Be a Star (To Be in My Show)"

was considered soft rock.

-It was a love song. -Yeah.

-It had some funk, and we really loved the whole sound,

being a fresh approach to our music.

-But people said, "You don't sound Black enough.

You're too white." Well, hold it.

How can you color a sound? We just making sounds of music.

-It's fucking just good fucking music.

Stop fucking labeling it.

-* Honey, I'll always love you *

-Soft rock was the sum of all America's musical parts,

and no one absorbed them like the musical prodigy from Detroit

who began making hit records in his teens.

-I would go up the pop chart and the R&B chart,

which everybody thought was amazing.

They were like, "Well, how'd you do that?"

I think I just sound more whiter. I don't know.

What you guys are calling "soft rock,"

maybe I feel is a combination of all my experiences put together.

When I was a kid, I had an accident

on a bicycle and broke my leg.

I had to have a cast

from my foot all the way up to my waist,

But that allowed me to just play the guitar every day, all day.

Man, I drove everybody nuts in the family.

My dad would put the amplifier on the outside of the house

in the wintertime, on the front porch.

He just said, "I love my son, but that's enough guitar."

So I'm 15 years, playing nightclubs in Detroit

just about every night of the week.

This Motown band leader came over to me.

He says, "I like the way you play.

You play pretty good, you know. Can you play with us big boys?"

He put me in the house band

behind Gladys Knight & the Pips, Marvin Gaye,

The Temptations, just everybody.

And then Marvin Gaye wants to cut an album

and use us as a rhythm section to the album.

First was "You're The Man,"

and that's me playing the wah-wah on the guitar.

That started a whole new wave of things.

Stevie Wonder, who I'd never met, who's my hero,

called me up for a session.

At that time, I'm only 17 years old.

I hung up on him -- it must have been three, four times.

I couldn't believe it was Stevie Wonder.

Why would Stevie Wonder be calling me on the phone?

And he says, "I talked to everybody, and everybody says,

'Call Ray if you need a guitar player,' so I'm calling you."

[ Cheers and applause ]

He offered me to go on tour with him and the Rolling Stones.

I went from a high school in Detroit

to the biggest tour in the world.

We're out playing big stadiums. I never seen anything like it.

He opened up my world to going to different cities

and seeing what other people are doing.

Then all of a sudden, I'm writing a song with Chaka Khan

and having a number-one record, like a year and a half later.

-* ...to give me the strength *

* To keep on livin' *

-* You've got a cute way... * -I had written a song called

"You Make Me Feel Like Dancing"...

-* You make me feel like dancing * -...which was a big hit.

I put the band together, and I'm playing on it,

and I got no credit for it at all -- zero.

It's not Leo's fault. Leo is one of my closest friends.

He's -- He's cool.

But I wasn't treated fairly on that.

-* Jack * -* Jack *

-* Like Little Red Riding Hood *

-Clive Davis got wind of that.

He says, "Well, don't give this Jack and Jill song to him.

Give that to me, and this time you get paid all your money."

That's when I started radio.

-You know, it's hard to write a pop song.

It's not as easy as it sounds.

And because Ray played on a lot of hits for other people,

he knew what a hit was

'cause he's playing on all of them, you know?

-Not only did I cut Stevie Wonder records

or Marvin Gaye, Smokey Robinson,

but I also cut Seals & Crofts records.

I also cut all the Carpenters records.

But "Jack and Jill" changed my life,

because before "Jack and Jill," I was a studio musician, period.

When "Jack and Jill" hit, that put me on the map.

-* 'Cause you're the only one I love *

-"You Can't Change That" was a little more nerve wracking,

because they thought maybe I got lucky on "Jack and Jill,"

and that was the end of my career right then and there.

So "You Can't Change That" kind of sealed it.

"No, he did it again."

-* She can fool around just like you do *

-My mom turned me on to that Ray Parker Jr.

I was like, "Oh my God."

I used to like -- he had his hair.

He had a lot of product in his hair.

Then he had the ladies all on him.

-I understand you're gonna be doing a tour soon,

which is something you haven't done in a while, right?

-I'm looking forward to getting out there.

-Yeah. I bet you are, Ray.

[ Chuckles ] -Oh, my trouble was girls, okay?

All of my songs were about love because I like to write

about girls, and I like to write about love,

and I wasn't writing about politics,

and I didn't write about the war, but that's where I was.

I was young and childlike and having a good time.

That's just who I am.

-In the late '70s, soft-rock musicians everywhere

were having a good time, too.

The record of the year is

Billy Joel "Just the Way You Are."

-Barry Manilow, "Copacabana."

-The Carpenters.

-Though it shared the spotlight with other genres,

soft rock's hold on pop music remained undisputed.

-You start to feel like, you know, you're bulletproof.

You're selling out big arenas and theaters.

You start to feel like, you know, "We can't fail."

-I mean, let's face it -- if you were a rock star

in the '70s and '80s,

other than being in the court of Louis XIV,

hard to beat.

-* Hey, oh, let's go *

* Hey, oh, let's go *

-But fern bars and leisure suits weren't made to last forever.

-* They're forming in a straight line *

-A rumbling threat was about to make its historic launch...

and land a fatal blow to the soft-rock empire.

-This sucks. Change it. -* Hey, oh, let's go *