“Big Wheels in the Moonlight”
Dan Seals
Written by Bob McDill and Dan Seals
Radio & Records
#1 (1 week)
January 27, 1989
Billboard
#1 (1 week)
February 18, 1989
1989’s perfect streak continues with one of Dan Seals’ best singles, co-written by Bob McDill.
Both of these men have been responsible for some of the decade’s best chart-topping singles, and this one brings a favorite theme from each man together in one song: Seals’ reflections on life’s crossroads, and McDill’s wistful nostalgia for the American south.
Those big wheels in the moonlight are seen by a small town boy in his town’s trucks top, and he grows up fantasizing on all of the world that’s been seen by the guys and gals who drive them. But he chooses to stay and settle down, trading the dream of exploration for his wife, his kids, and his steady job. As he grows older, those big wheels shift from being a symbol of what could be to a reminder of what never will be.
You get the sense that he’ll hold this secret close to him, but he’ll never be fully content in a town “so small, you look both ways, you could see it all.”
“Big Wheels in the Moonlight” gets an A.
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Kevin, Big Wheels In The Moonlight also went to #1 on Radio & Records on January 27, 1989 in addition to Billboard on February 18, 1989. So Kevin, Please fix it ASAP. Thank You.
While never an absolute favorite of mine, Dan Seals never issued a single that I actually disliked. He was a fine singer and even those early 1980s solo albums on Atlantic Records (Stones and Harbinger), although not exactly aimed at the country market, have their moments. Harbinger included a Pam Tillis composition “I Could Be Lovin’ You Right Now” that was released as a single. The song didn’t chart, but I think that if Atlantic had re-released it with a more country backing that it could have been a hit.
Anyway – this is a good song, although his success on the country charts was about to come to a screeching stop within a year.
Dan Seals delivers (no pun intended) again with a song with a very unique perspective. There’s no shortage of trucking songs in country music but this is the only “fantasy trucking song” I’m aware of, with a man’s humble ambition of taking to the highway in a big rig going unfulfilled. The narrator really seems devastated by “the peace he knows he’ll never find” to the point that it’s unclear why he doesn’t just follow through with his dream. As dreams go, this one doesn’t seem like it should be so out of reach. We’d have to know more about his current situation than the lyrics offer, which I suppose is the point as it makes the listener wonder why he has such a hole in his soul. The arrangement on this song is pretty sparse and perhaps disappointed me a little as a fan of Dan’s uptempo songs, of which none were released as singles from his “Rage On” album. The song has nonetheless grown on me over the years as the sense of longing that’s usually reserved for a lost love is conveyed here about “some big old diesel whine going through all the gears”. Pretty strong hook for a genre full of trucking songs.
Grade: B+
“Rage On” was one of the CDs I heard most often in my youth because my parents would argue over whose car it belonged in. This song holds a special place in my heart because not only was it the first song on that album, it basically was my gateway to road/transportgeekery
As a side note I think it’s cool that while Seals mainly recorded with studio musicians he did bring in his road lead guitarist for the electric guitar solos on the album
Rediscovering how strong and deep Seals’ ’80s catalogue is has been a true revelation throughout this feature.
Coming in, I may have dismissed him as the mid decade bookend to match Johnny Lee’s at the start of the ’80s, a comparison unfair to the contributions both artists made to country music history.
As this song brilliantly demonstrates, Seals has been writing empathetic and nuanced mature music for adults from the get-go. Even “Bop” was a wise and experienced, albeit half-baked, song for grown-ups listening to country music in 1985.
Keep this music coming!