You Can Do Magic
America most enduring single (with apologies to A Horse With No Name)
I was led to this song from the comment section of David Bennett’s video on secret songwriters. Bennett asked who he missed and someone mentioned Ross Ballard, saying he had been responsible for a lot of 80s hits. I looked at the list and was struck by this song. I had just been in a conversation about how we’re all magic and this dovetailed right in.
From the Abbey Road recorded album View From The Ground, this song was from 1982 would be America’s last top 10 hit, as well as their first since 1976. The folk duo lent their vocals to the track but Ballard played all the instruments save the drums, where he brought in Willie Leacox, America’s long-time drummer. This would become Ballard’s first big hit as a producer.
The internet is silent on the video. IMDB doesn’t list a director. It’s typical of the early age of music videos. It’s mostly shots of the band playing, including a smoke effect when the lead guitar plays something fancy. It uses what were then fancy fade techniques to move between the band and hands doing card magic. It’s sweet.
I’m planning on testing it out at karaoke. I’ll say in the comments how it went. Enjoy your song of the day!
Such a fantastic song, it’s one of my favorite America songs,thanks for sharing! Years ago I heard a live version of ‘The Border’ which is also right up there with my favorite America tracks, so much better than the studio version: https://youtu.be/0IOaV87vYhc
I was only 3 when it was released, but I always loved it in recurrent rotation on the stations my folks listened to. Years later, my mom told me that I loved that song when it was new, and was one of the first songs I would sing along to in the car.
Always makes me smile to think about that, so I appreciate the reminder of this terrific pop song!