“As Long as I’m Rockin’ With You”
John Conlee
Written by Bruce Channel and Kieran Kane
Radio & Records
#1 (1 week)
May 4, 1984
Billboard
#1 (1 week)
May 26, 1984
“As Long as I’m Rockin’ With You” connects three decades of popular music together.
John Conlee broke through in the late seventies, and the song is written by sixties pop star Bruce Channel and rising eighties star Kieran Kane.
No wonder that this record has a feeling of timelessness, which is helpfully abled by an organic production. That’s been a rarity among Conlee’s best records, which are usually immediately identifiable as being from the late seventies and early eighties.
I think the record would work better with a slightly quicker beat, but that’s the only thing holding it back. Conlee gives a mature performance, singing in a lower register than he used on his earlier hits. It helps create the feeling that he’s stating his ongoing commitment to a long term partner.
Conlee had a handful of additional hits on MCA, ending with the top five “Old School” from his second greatest hits collection. We’ll see him again on a new label in 1986 when he earns his final No. 1 single to date.
“As Long as I’m Rockin’ With You” gets a B+.
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Conlee stands side-by-side with The Oak Ridge Boy’s as an artist I am emotionally unprepared to negatively criticize. He is emotionally too close to me for me to be objective about because I believe in his music.
It’s his voice. His vocals can transcend – or mend -any production flaws. His phrasing timing, and dynamics elevate any song to something significant to my ears. I guess that’s the dreaming part of my fandom.
I love the premise of no longer being frightened by aging despite coming up slightly short at the end with the usual trappings of financial wealth and success because you have someone to share life with. He sings with such believable confidence and conviction that the song becomes a matter of faith with a rocking chair as its emotional focal point. That image is both sentimental and scary.
Being John Conlee he makes it inviting and comfortable, something to both strive for and rest on. Goal and reward
I get goosebumps when he chases the rising strings into the chorus and his vocals take flight with the straining steel guitar.
Conlee’s sincerity contract with me is always signed with slightly distressed, lived-in heart and soul.