"Keep on Movin'" by Pages

"Keep on Movin'" by Pages

In 1978 Richard Page and Steve George got some of their studio musician pals together, formed the band "Pages" and put out their first self-titled album "Pages." The album has some fine songs on it, but it did not have any commercial success as an album, and none of the songs made it on any of the charts. But there was real potential in the band, so they mixed up the supporting session musicians a bit and put out a second album in 1979 called "Future Street." Again, the album did not sell well, and the only song from the album to chart was "I Believe in You," which only got as high as #84 on the Billboard Top 100. Determined to try one more time, the band switched labels in 1981 from Epic to Capitol and put out a third album titled "Pages," achieving that rare musical feat of putting out TWO self-titled albums in a period of four years. 

Hint to record label marketing folks--if the first album with the title didn't sell well, you're probably not going to get much better results putting out a second album with the same title. All you're going to do is confuse the people that order new stock at Budget Tapes and Records who still remember how they got stuck with discount bin copies of the first album, so they won't dare risk bringing in any more albums with the same name.

Unsurprisingly, the third album did not sell well either, although once again, there is some very good tracks on the album worth listening to. Having bombed 3 times in a row, the band called it quits, and Page and George went back to work as session musicians for a number of other artists, leaving behind some very listenable but commercially unsuccessful songs. Among them, I think that "Keep on Movin'" is a hidden gem that should have charted back in 1979 when disco was in its full flowering. Also, this song should have lived on and on and on in aerobics classes and workout playlists.

This song was definitely worthy of a number on one of the many song charts that were around in 1979! It's too bad the band didn't keep on movin' and try at least one more time to put out some songs that would receive some kind of commercial success.

Oh, wait. They did. Page and George put together another band in 1984 and became half of the group "Mr. Mister." And after Page turned down offers to be the lead singer for Toto and Chicago, the group went on to chart with TWO #1 hits on the pop charts with "Kyrie" and "Broken Wings." 

Why Mr. Mister never put out a self-titled album remains a mystery.