You know when you’re settling into a nice playlist of classic chill ’70s tunes and you hear that one smooth song that was never your favorite, but still has a nice nostalgic sound? It’s instantly familiar, but you can’t quite place the artist that produced it? 

There’s a pretty good chance that the artist was Little River Band.

Formed as a supergroup out of the Melbourne music scene in 1975, the quintet hit American charts with 10 songs reaching the Top 20, spanning the gamut of soft rock to slightly less soft rock to yacht rock and back to more soft rock. 

Various incarnations of the band have toured regularly for decades, and the current version will be performing at Honeywell Center in Wabash on Friday, Feb. 2.

Story of love

Little River Band were never a band that featured virtuoso musicians or an iconic singing voice. Their easy-going melodies and chill vibe have survived the changing lineups and kept audiences reminiscing about days gone by.

“Reminiscing” was their biggest U.S. hit, reaching No. 3 on the Billboard chart and remains a mainstay of soft rock radio. A careful listening to the lyrics brings to mind that recorded music is a time machine. 

Featured on the 1978 album Sleeper Catcher, alongside “Lady,” the song is a confident assertion of the singer’s love for his girlfriend. He tells her to look into the future and picture them reminiscing about a happy life together. 

Since the song is more than 45 years old, one hopes that the singer’s vision has come true, and he can now look back on decades of happy memories.

Considering how pleasant the subject matter of “Reminiscing” is, there’s a sly irony to the lyrics of another one their hits, “Happy Anniversary,” off their sophomore album, 1977’s Diamantina Cocktail. 

Among the most misunderstood songs in music history, the song’s verse is strongly at odds with the celebratory lines of the chorus. The words “happy anniversary” are actually the sarcastic declaration of a man whose wife left him five years earlier and found someone better. It’s a bitter diatribe about not letting go of the past. 

Look up the lyrics if you don’t believe me.

With its funky opening bass line and instantly recognizable guitar riff, “Help Is on Its Way” off Diamantina Cocktail was LRB’s only No 1 hit, although that was in Australia. It reached No. 14 in the U.S.

The song’s success sent the band on a series of very successful U.S. tours, supporting acts with like-minded audiences such as The Doobie Brothers, Supertramp, and Fleetwood Mac. At the height of their touring success, they set an attendance record by drawing 80,000 fans to a free concert on the steps of the Sydney Opera House.

Yacht rock mainstays

The juxtaposition of jaunty melody and cynical lyrics continued with another ’70s standard, “Lonesome Loser” off their highest charting album, 1979’s First Under the Wire. 

The bouncy rhythm and energetic guitar solos contradict the unkind assessment of the songs subject, including the familiar rejoinder: “Don’t you want to be somebody?” Yet the song bounces along right to the end, with no apparent hope for the titular failure.

It’s not all romantic failure, though. Any yacht rock playlist worth downloading for a summer party features another of their familiar hits from the same album, “Cool Change.” 

Fear not. Its lyrics hold no secret meaning. It’s an earnest expression of the joys of sailing. While it was never released as a single in the band’s native land, the song was named one of Australia’s greatest 30 songs of all time in 2001.

Memories remain

Groups rarely stay intact forever, and inevitable friction arose when success began to wane. 

Their easy style didn’t mesh with the rise of punk and new wave, and a lengthy progression of lineup changes ensued. The original band members went through lawsuit after lawsuit over the rights to the name and the music. 

Through it all, the genial music remains frozen in time, evoking nostalgia in its contemporary fans and weaving the musical fabric of an unfamiliar time to its younger listeners. 

The lineup isn’t what it was, but this is a band that wasn’t what it was for very long. But the mood, the spirit, and the wry humor survive. 

You might not instantly know who sang that song, but like the couple from “Reminiscing,” it sure feels good to hear it again with someone you love.