It sets an environment for the subtle drama that unfolds within it. In some ways though, the song’s tentative and sonically inconsistent arrangement really suits the subject matter. As the poet once said you never can tell. But it was eventually added to the RIAA Songs of The Century list, coming in at #287. On paper, this song shouldn’t have worked. Ultimately, they had to stay in to keep the song’s momentum going. The result is a song full of tentative gaps and stutters, with notable empty spaces filled by hand claps which were initially in place only to set the tempo. Former Spiders From Mars guitarist Mick Ronson was on hand at the session to help Mellencamp work out the very unconventional arrangement. But it didn’t work with the full band in the studio that well, and nearly ended up on the scrap heap. When Mellencamp initially played it solo on acoustic guitar, it worked fine. And ironically, much of it only comes to light as one gets older.įor all of its successes, “Jack and Diane” had a tough birth for a hit record. And yet, as with so many records that help define the times in which they’re released, there is an ocean of meaning underneath the scant story presented here. “Jack and Diane” concerns itself with two American kids growing up in the heartland and unsure of their places in the world. ![]() By 1982, “Jack and Diane” sounded like a progression for Mellencamp, who was then gathering momentum for a classic run of singles during the eighties and into the early nineties. As popular as it was, and is, there’s just something about this one that set it apart, seeming to have a cinematic quality that very few songs at the time contained. The song had enormous impact not only on the charts, but on pop culture during a time when music was becoming more and more stylistically ghettoized. It’s “Jack and Diane”, his enormous 1982 number one hit single as taken from the album American Fool, his fifth. Listen to this track by Indiana-born and bred heartland troubadour John Mellancamp, aka Johnny Cougar, aka John Cougar, aka John Cougar Mellencamp (whew!).
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