Keep On Loving You

Cronin wrote it alone. American Songwriter reports he woke in the night with the piano intro in his head, went to his home studio and wrote the verses on a red Wurlitzer electric piano in about 20 minutes, and the next afternoon at rehearsal found a simple I-IV-V chorus; he called it a miracle. The band initially ignored the piano version and felt it sounded like Barry Manilow, until Richrath played power chords on a Les Paul, and Cronin realized that was exactly what the song needed. Epic did not think it single-worthy, and the band persuaded them. He told Songfacts it was the most painful song he ever wrote, about a breakup, and later said he portrayed himself as more of the good guy than perhaps he was. The single, with "Follow My Heart" on the B-side, came out on November 4, 1980 at 3:20, and reached number one on the Hot 100 for one week in March 1981 (March 21 per Stereogum), their first single in the top 50 and the 10th of 1981. It was 7 in the UK, 2 in Canada and 3 in Australia, and is platinum in the US.

Bruce Gowers directed the video, in which Cronin tells a female psychiatrist about relationship troubles, and it aired on MTV's first day, August 1, 1981, as the 17th video played; Cronin said the clip made them look like even bigger dorks than they were. Setlist.fm shows 1,064 performances, fourth among their songs. Dolly Parton and Cronin recorded a duet for her album Rock Star, reported on February 9, 2023, and the song was covered by the Donnas, Evan Dando, Lisa Loeb and, per Songfacts, Deftones. It was used in The Last American Virgin (1982), Crank: High Voltage and an Ozark episode titled "Kevin Cronin Was Here". We do not know which version our upload is.