Tom Cochrane was already a family title in his native Canada earlier than releasing the worldwide hit “Life Is A Highway.” The musician had spent greater than ten years fronting the rock band Purple Rider, releasing seven albums with the group earlier than it cut up in 1990. After its cut up, Cochrane ventured into the highlight alone, and his new solo profession acquired off to a roaring begin.
Order Tom Cochrane’s “Life Is a Highway” as a part of the NOW ‘90s Pop Deluxe compilation.
In September 1991, the star shared his debut solo studio album, Mad Mad World, which featured “Life Is A Highway” on its tracklist. Though new, the music had first begun to take form years prior. It was solely after the musician visited Mozambique as a part of a visit with the famine reduction group World Imaginative and prescient that he returned to the preliminary sketch of the music and accomplished it.
Regardless of the “soul-sapping” poverty Cochrane witnessed on that journey, “Life Is A Highway” turned a beacon of positivity for the artist. “The song became a pep talk to myself […] saying you can’t really control all of this stuff, you just do the best you can,” he advised The Star in 2017. Quickly after its launch, the one turned a buoyant drive for listeners all over the world, too, topping the Canadian charts for 2 weeks and scoring Cochrane his solely US Prime 40 hit when it peaked at No.6 on the Billboard Scorching 100 in 1992.
Across the monitor’s fifteenth anniversary, it was given a brand new lease of life because of a canopy by American nation band Rascal Flatts. The Nashville trio was using a wave of success within the nation music scene when it was requested to place its personal spin on Cochrane’s hit for Pixar’s animated film Vehicles.
“You know, there’s certain songs you just wanna leave alone. You’re, like, ‘How can you re-do that?’ There are staples of music history, and ‘Life Is A Highway’ is one of them with Tom Cochrane. But [Pixar boss John Lasseter] was like, ‘I want you guys to do ‘Life Is A Highway.” And we had been, like, ‘Wow! Actually?’” singer Gary LeVox recalled to Songfacts in 2021.
Though Rascal Flatts’ model of “Life Is A Highway” wasn’t formally launched to nation radio, it nonetheless discovered enormous success on the Billboard Scorching Nation Songs chart, peaking at No.18. It fared even higher on the Scorching 100, touchdown at No.7 and giving the band its second-highest charting single. The duvet has since been licensed 6x platinum within the US by the RIAA.
Each variations are nonetheless beloved. For Cochrane, this led to a stretch of the freeway close to his hometown of Lynn Lake, Manitoba, being renamed “Tom Cochrane’s Life Is A Highway” in 2016. “A song like that changes people’s lives,” he mirrored to GoBe Weekly in 2023. “People come up to me and say this song got me through this or helped me through that. You just realize that you are a steward for people’s emotions and a steward of these songs that actually enhance people’s emotions and their lifestyle and their world.”
Order Tom Cochrane’s “Life Is a Highway” as a part of the NOW ‘90s Pop Deluxe compilation.
