Desperate Love

When you dive into Desperate Love, you encounter a track that, while not a lead single, is part of a key moment for America. This song, with a duration of 3 minutes and 54 seconds, is included on the album View from the Ground, released in August 1982. This record marked a comeback for the duo, who had been somewhat sidelined since the departure of Dan Peek five years earlier. The album had a moderate reception in the United States, reaching number 41 on the Billboard charts, and spawned two singles that did perform well: You Can Do Magic, which reached number eight on the main Billboard chart and number five on the adult contemporary chart, and Right Before Your Eyes (also known as Rudolph Valentino), which charted at number 45 for singles and number 16 for adult contemporary. Interestingly, You Can Do Magic remained on the charts for 20 weeks, longer than any other America single up to that point.

The recording of Desperate Love and the rest of the album View from the Ground featured David Cole and Jerry Smith as recording engineers, while the mixing was handled by Michael Verdick. The overall production was the responsibility of Bobby Colomby. To understand America's context, one must go back to 1970, when they formed in London. Its members, Dewey Bunnell, Gerry Beckley, and Dan Peek, were sons of American military personnel and shared a taste for the Californian folk-rock of bands like The Byrds and Crosby, Stills & Nash. The band's name emerged as a nostalgic nod to their roots. Their first album, released in 1971, gained momentum thanks to the inclusion of A Horse with No Name, a track that defined their desert and mysterious sound. During the seventies, they released albums such as Homecoming (1972) with Ventura Highway, Hat Trick (1973), and Holiday (1974), the latter produced by George Martin, who also worked on other records and helped refine their sound for radio with songs like Tin Man and Lonely People. Their commercial peak arrived with Hearts (1975).