Song Link: You’ve Got Another Thing Coming
That is what I remember about hearing Hotel’s “You’ve Got Another Thing Coming.” It had the pace, the beat, the harmonies, and that voice. To my ears, everything was there. Surely it was only a matter of time before everybody else caught on.
Some did. But far fewer than I expected.
Hotel was a Birmingham band, and I heard them at Brother's Music Hall back when I was probably too young to be there. I saw some things I have never forgotten. But after all these years, the music is what stayed.
I loved that band. I loved the album. Even the artwork—the tile and architectural themes on the covers—became part of the experience for me. Those images still bring the music to mind. An album could do that in those days. You held it, studied it, played it again, and gradually the whole thing became attached to a season of your life.
“You’ve Got Another Thing Coming” was the song I kept coming back to.
Hotel had the musicians to deliver it. The familiar six-member lineup included Marc Phillips, Tommy Calton, Lee Bargeron, Mike Reid, George Creasman, and Michael Cadenhead. All six contributed vocals, and those harmonies were a defining part of their sound. They had spent years building a following around the Southeast before the national records came.
Written by Phillips and Bargeron, “You’ve Got Another Thing Coming” appeared on their 1979 self-titled album. It entered the Billboard Hot 100 that July, climbed to No. 54 in August, and was gone after eight weeks. Hotel placed four singles on the Hot 100, but none reached the Top 40.
I still find that hard to reconcile with what I hear.
Of course, that summer had no shortage of competition. Cheap Trick, the Cars, Supertramp, Little River Band, and ELO were all putting records into the same crowded musical world. Hotel got a hearing, but the larger breakthrough never came.
I cannot tell you exactly why. I can tell you that the song has outlasted plenty of records that climbed higher.
Years later, I got Marc’s book and contacted him. We got to know each other a little, and in 2011 he spoke at a Briarwood chapel.
The students loved him.
That was a particular pleasure for me. Here was someone whose voice had been part of my younger years, now connecting with students through his own story. They were meeting Marc for themselves. I got to watch another group respond to a man I had admired for a long time.
His story had plenty of hard chapters. In his book, Pouring It Out on Me, he wrote about music, addiction, his battle with throat cancer, and his faith in Christ. There was a great deal of life behind the voice I remembered from those records. www.marcphillipsmusic.com
My last interaction with Marc was a few months before he got COVID.
He was singing at a restaurant in Brook Highland. Just Marc and a keyboard, playing to a small group. We chatted briefly during his break.
I did not know that would be our last conversation. It was simply good to see him and hear him again.
Marc died on January 21, 2021, after battling COVID-19. He was 66.
When I think about him now, I have several memories to hold together: the band at Brother's Music Hall, the albums I loved, the man speaking to our students, and that last evening in Brook Highland.
And through all of them, I can still hear that song.
The title of this post makes a claim I obviously cannot prove. Some of you knew Hotel well. Some of you probably have your own candidate for the best band the world somehow missed.
But if you have never heard Hotel’s “You’ve Got Another Thing Coming,” give it a listen. I liked many of their other songs as well.
I have been waiting a long time for you to hear it. I think about those memories every time I drive down Lakeshore Drive in Homewood... now it is just a .... hotel. Ironic?
I published a song as a tribute to those memories on SoundCloud:
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