The Stories Behind The Songs
Saxon
Inspired by a BBC documentary, frontman Biff Byford wrote the song that would soon become one of the band’s biggest hits and greatest anthems: 747 (Strangers In The Night).
Inspired by a BBC documentary and Frank Sinatra, Biff Byford wrote lyrics for a song that would soon become one of the band’s biggest hits and greatest anthems: 747 (Strangers In The Night).
The Great Northeast blackout took place on November 9, 1965. Due to disastrous technical problems, electricity supplies to thousands of people in Canada and the US, were cut abruptly for 13 hours. Alarmingly, this included power supplies to airport runway lights, forcing countless planes to be re-routed elsewhere.
Fast forward to 1979. Saxon frontman Biff Byford is watching a BBC documentary about the blackout, and suddenly has a cool idea for a song. Within a matter of days, Saxon had 747 (Strangers In The Night). It would soon become one of the band’s biggest hits and greatest anthems.
“I was watching this documentary and somehow it all just went in, you know?” Byford recalls. “I’d heard another song with a lyric about ‘riding on a 747’ and that was stuck in my head, and it all seemed to come together naturally.
“I came up with the melody for the chorus first. I think I wrote that arpeggio in the chorus with the words ‘Strangers in the night’ in there. I probably got the idea from the [1966] Frank Sinatra song – the syllables were the same. I’m a big Sinatra fan. I like his phrasing. So when that riff came along, it all fitted together really nicely.”
Saxon released their self-titled debut album in May 1979, to no great acclaim but plenty of encouraging ripples of enthusiasm from a steadily growing UK heavy metal scene. Less than a year later, Saxon recorded Wheels Of Steel, their nowclassic second album and one of the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal’s unimpeachable benchmarks.
A relentless barrage of riff-driven classics, Wheels Of Steel was the moment when Saxon cemented their identity as masters of thunderous shout-alongs like Motorcycle Man and Wheels Of Steel and more overtly melodic hard rock material like 747 (Strangers In The Night).
“Wheels Of Steel was definitely an eighties album, without a doubt,” says Byford. “We had no sense of destiny or anything, but we knew we had some great songs. We knew we’d done something great, but we didn’t know we’d written a defining album for that era.”
In truth, 1980 was a crucial year for metal, as Wheels Of Steel shared shelf- space with Ace Of Spades, Back In Black, Heaven And Hell, Iron Maiden, Blizzard Of Ozz and British Steel, to name a few seminal records released within those 12 months.
But even in such commanding company, 747 (Strangers In The Night) stood out as an unexpectedly subtle and affecting piece of songcraft, one that offered something distinctly different from the burgeoning metal scene’s usual lyrical preoccupations of fantasy, horror and partying.
“I must admit there was a lot of street fighting and girls in our lyrics, for sure,” Byford says with a chuckle. “But 747 was always a melancholy song. It had to be. I had this image of the power cut as you’re coming in to land, and the airport lights blink out. These planes were being diverted elsewhere and the city’s in darkness. I thought that was a powerful idea.
“I also thought it was quite cool that strangers were meeting in the blackout. They say that there was a baby boom nine months later. I imagine there was a lot of looting, too. So I just put the two together, really. Some parts of the lyrics don’t make sense logistically, I know, but it just came together that way. It was a moment of magic.”
Wheels Of Steel was released in May 1980 and became an instant hit, reaching No.5 in the UK and having similar success across Europe. The album’s popularity was plainly helped by the fact that the proudly radio-friendly 747 (Strangers In The Night) was released as a single in June and rocketed up the UK chart, peaking just outside the Top 10 and earning Saxon an invitation to appear on legendary TV chart show Top Of The Pops. Unfortunately, things didn’t quite work out.
“We never did Top Of The Pops for that song because the BBC went on strike!” Byford laughs, ruefully. “It probably would have got a lot higher in the charts if we’d done it. We were looking at the top five, to be honest. But then the cameramen went on strike. Top Of The Pops was like the
“I still like that song and I still get off on the audience loving it. That’s what we’re all there for.”
British MTV. If you did it, you crossed over quite a bit. But we did it with Wheels Of Steel and a few other songs, and it was good to be in there with everything else.”
Despite being denied the chance to arse about in front of the TOTP cameras, Saxon were bona-fide pop stars by the time 1980 turned into ’81. 747 (Strangers In The Night) eventually peaked at No.13 in the singles chart, a major achievement for a heavy metal band in any era. More importantly, it was embraced enthusiastically by Saxon’s fans and has long since been regarded as one of the defining metal songs of the 80s.
“Melodically we made a real statement with that song,” says Byford. “It was the biggest song from the album that went mega and it helped to make us even bigger. But 1980 was an extraordinary year for songwriting in general, I think. You had Motörhead and Whitesnake and Priest, who were all already massively established, and then these new bands like us and Maiden were thrown in too.
“Suddenly we’re on the radio and TV all the time, and not just in the UK but across Europe. Honestly, I can tell you that a lot of American bands were listening to what was happening and getting influenced by it.”
Four decades on, Saxon were celebrating their 40th anniversary, focusing on material from the band’s first few classic records. And yes, they told us at the time, they would be performing 747 (Strangers In The Night) every night, as they have done at nearly every Saxon show since those chartbothering days in the early 80s.
“It might be hard to believe, but we have dropped it from the set a couple of times,” Byford says. “If we do a short set-list it sometimes gets lost. It would be unfair to audiences if we didn’t play 747. I still like that song and I still get off on the audience loving it. That’s what we’re all there for, isn’t it?”