We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.

Play It For Your Friends

by Al Hovden

/

  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card

      $1 USD  or more

     

about

Written: 1974
Writers: David Jenneson, Alan Hovden
Status: Published and recorded in 1974.
Genre and Style: Pop
Comments: Dave: Play It For Your Friends had a Beatles feel and flew in the face of everything every record producer had told us. Their first piece of advice to us or any songwriter was never judge the hit potential of a song by playing it for the people around you. Friends will invariably tell you it’s a wonderful song because they are being polite and in any case are not experts. Play It For Your Friends joyfully contradicted this mean-spirited rule and is ultimately about the pleasure of writing and sharing songs for their own sake. By some measure it showed we had come full circle – gone through the minefield of the recording industry and returned to what we loved most and did best. It caused a sensation at the Burner Revival and was recorded and released in 1974 by Stoney Productions.

lyrics

Play it For Your Friends

I’ve been writing such inviting
Songs for all these years
For yellow birds and cheating words I’d
Cry a million tears
How do you tell if it'll be a million seller
If it really casts a spell and this is it?

Play it for your friends
And if they really say they like it
If your friends say they like it
This is it
Play it for your friends
And if they really get the feeling
If your friends say they like it
It’s a hit.

They won’t hide it if they like it
Though your future’s all a dream
Of laughing ladies and they say he’s
Best songwriter’s ever been
Though your own guitar
Has taken you about as far
About as far as you’re concerned you’d like to quit

Play it for your friends
And if they really say they like it
If your friends say they like it
This is it
Play it for your friends
And if they really get the feeling
If your friends say they like it
It’s a hit.

L.A. is so far away
You wish you'd never came
And pity ain’t a New York City game
Seems like fortune’s wheel
Can spin without you, just the same
If your friends say they like it it’s a hit.

If you’re new and kind of blue at
Looking up the road that leads to fame
Look around you maybe found you
Got no cause to live in shame
When you find yourself with friends
And the song you’re playing ends
And you’ve somehow made them happy just to sit

You’ve played it for your friends
And if they really say they like it
If your friends say they like it
This is it
Play it for your friends
And if they really get the feeling
If your friends say they like it
It’s a hit.

credits

released November 7, 2016
Al Hovden - acoustic guitar/vocals
Al Harlow - electric guitar
Jim Elliott - bass
Rocket Norton - drums
Wayne Kozak- sax
Valerie Lord - vocals

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

Al Hovden image

Al Hovden Vancouver, British Columbia

Written songs for Bruce Fairburn – producer of Bon Jovi, Aerosmith, Yes and more; songs published by Bruce Allen (manager of Bryan Adams, Michael Buble and Diana Krall) and produced material for many other Canadian artists and publishers. Also wrote songs for two albums by Terry Jacks (famous for the #1 international hit Season’s In The Sun). This year placed a song in a US TV show TBA. ... more

contact / help

Contact Al Hovden

Streaming and
Download help

Report this track or account

If you like Al Hovden, you may also like:

Bandcamp Daily  your guide to the world of Bandcamp

On Bandcamp Radio

Saxophonist Isaiah Collier chats about his new LP and the influence of Pharoah Sanders.
listen now