Forty-four years ago, they declared The Kings Are Here. Now Canada’s cherished rock legends are specifying exactly where “here” is: on the charts and rising.
This week, The Kings’ ridiculously compelling “Nowhere to Go But Gone” climbs to #42 on the Mediabase CHR Activator list—a nigh-on-miraculous showing for a Canadian classic-rock band on US radio. It’s a designation that shows the tune continues to spread like wildfire, receiving airplay in markets from Utah to Florida to Cape Cod. If this keeps up, the group might have to issue an official clarification that the title of their documentary, Anatomy of a One-Hit Wonder, was meant with tongue planted firmly in cheek.
Because really, The Kings never went away. Yes, they’re still best known for their breakout double A-sided single, “This Beat Goes On/Switchin’ to Glide,” which peaked at #43 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1980 and ultimately spent 23 weeks on that chart—not to mention earning the band a gold single award, a JUNO nomination and induction into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame. The success of the insanely catchy numbers also eventually drove their debut album, the aforementioned The Kings Are Here, to platinum-level sales in Canada. But in the ensuing decades, they’ve put out an absolute wealth of stellar material, on albums like Amazon Beach, RSVP, Unstoppable, Party Live in ’85, The Lost Tapes of a Seventies Bar Band and Because of You. Unstoppable alone yielded a cornucopia of Canadian hits, including the title track, “Lesson To Learn,” “Shoulda Been Me,” “Parting Of The Ways,” and the killer ballad “If We Don’t Belong Together.”
“Nowhere to Go But Gone” proves that their mettle as hitmakers remains undiminished. It’s an appropriately driving little ditty in which lead singer/bassist David Diamond namechecks all the places he’s about to hit on a much-needed jaunt behind the wheel:
Gonna head out on the highway
The highway is my friend
Gonna head out west
Where the highway ends
Then I’ll stop in Vancouver
Turn south towards LA
Twelve hundred miles of surfers
Waiting for a wave
There is no trip like a road trip
Nowhere to go, nowhere to go
Nowhere to go but gone
But what gradually comes into focus is that he’s actually singing about taking a breather from a relationship, to get a better perspective on why it’s one worth keeping. This is a song not of freedom and the endless open road, but of renewal and the journey home.
Oh, but when I return
The bridges I burned
Have been reassembled
Good to take a breather
Good to get some air
Good to be reminded
Of what it’s like out there
As recorded, the entire performance is a tour de force of moxie by Diamond, guitarist/co-composer Mister Zero, keyboardist Sonny Keyes (all three of them cofounders of the group) and drummer Todd Reynolds (who’s been firmly entrenched in the lineup since 2007). The track was co-produced by the band and recording engineer Chris Snow (a veteran of sessions with the likes of Barenaked Ladies, Big Wreck and Arkells) and mixed by Garth Richardson (who has produced Rage Against the Machine and engineered records by the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Nickelback and numerous other heavy hitters).
The song comes from The Kings’ most recent album, 2023’s The Longest Story Ever Told, which kept the faith with the group’s hardcore following while earning widespread critical acclaim. “Call it a comeback if you will, but regardless, it’s clear The Kings still rule,” raved American Songwriter.
With more than 2,000 live shows under their belt, these boys are perpetually in demand as a concert act throughout the Western hemisphere. The latest jewel in their crown was an August gig at the Kitchener Blues Festival Canada, and come November 8, they’ll be “gettin’ gone” all the way down to Planet Hollywood Cancun for the five-day The Sands festival, where they’ll appear alongside fellow ’80s survivors Rick Springfield, Bret Michaels, The Fixx, Level 42, Lou Gramm and Ace Frehley.
And believe it or not, they’re even bigger virtually: The official video for “This Beat Goes On/Switchin’ to Glide” has surpassed 6 million views on YouTube. In a further test of the hit’s enduring appeal, Chicago DJ Bob Stroud included it in his audience poll of the greatest one-two punches in music history—songs no listener or programmer would ever dare separate. The Kings landed at #1 on that list, above ubiquitous musical conjoined twins like “Living Loving Maid/Heartbreaker” by Led Zeppelin and even “We Will Rock You/We Are the Champions by Queen.
Now, with “Nowhere to Go But Gone,” The Kings are back to prove there’s plenty more gas in their tank. More than four decades later, we’re all still “holding hands as David Diamond sings” (as they once sang on their haunting “Love Store”). To say this beat goes on is an understatement: Once the world switches to glide, apparently, it just never switches back.