Two iconic songs are celebrating milestone anniversaries this weekend.
45 years ago Saturday -- September 23rd, 1972 -- Mott the Hoople released the song that saved their career, David Bowie's "All the Young Dudes."
Mott the Hoople frontman Ian Hunter on recording "All the Young Dudes" with the song's writer and producer, David Bowie:
"It was really quick -- two evenings, that was it. David knew exactly what he wanted to do -- it was great. I mean, we did that and 'One of the Boys,' which became the B-side. I remember getting the vocal and he was going, 'I think "One of the Boys" is the single,' because the back end of '...Dudes,' all we're doing is we just keep on singing 'All the young dudes...' and it's boring. So then I went out and rapped on it, basically. But he's kind of like, he thought 'One of the Boys' was the single. I said, 'You're out of your mind.' '...Dudes' was just this incredible feeling to be behind this thing before anybody else heard it."
When Bowie heard that one of his favorite bands was on the verge of breaking up, he called and offered them "Suffragette City." They rejected it, which is when he wrote "All the Young Dudes." The song peaked at number-37 on the Billboard Hot 100 and gave Mott a new lease on life for a few more years.
The other big anniversary this weekend is "Come Sail Away" from Styx.
Former Styx singer-keyboardist Dennis De Young on what inspired "Come Sail Away:
"We'd just played the Crater Festival in Honolulu -- first time I was ever in Hawaii -- and I was just fascinated and overwhelmed by the beauty. I come from the midwest, and it was a song about escaping from one's troubles and problems. And I remember writing it in my living room, and we had horrible snow in Chicago '77-'8-'9. It was just ten feet of snow and I was sitting at my piano and remember looking out that window thinking about the beauty of Hawaiian Islands. And that's why the metaphor of sailing away is in there."
"Come Sail Away" sailed all the way to number-eight on the Billboard Hot 100.