This is another song that wasn't part of the original promo but another favorite of mine.

“My Town” was mostly a regional hit out of the Cleveland area by a band called the Michael Stanley Band. This band was HUGE in Ohio and played to audiences as many as 40,000 at their peak. The band started in 1974 and disbanded in 1987. The song “My Town” actually briefly hit the Top 40 in 1982. The Ohio State University Marching Band has performed it at half-time shows. Surprisingly, hardly anyone I know outside of friends who lived in Ohio are familiar with this song or this band.

Michael Stanley himself recently passed away in 2021.

How did I hear of this song? I was in high school in 1982 and saw the video of this song ONCE on MTV while at a friends house (just once). It was enough for me to go out and by the vinyl album (which I still have). While the song is actually about Cleveland I always thought of Philly when hearing and singing the lyrics (as that is “My Town” where I grew up). I actually performed this song a couple times in my cover band “The Tone Cats” in the 2000's in the Twin Cities area (people liked it but many thought it was an original).

When I first asked guitarist John Coburn to play on this track, I didn't send him the original recording but rather my scratch recording of the song minus the guitar. He came to my studio also thinking it was an original tune (he called it a “real toe-tapper” as I recall thinking I actually wrote the thing). So basically the guitar licks and solo are not duplicative of the original recording but John's improv to what he thought he was adding to an original piece (kinda funny, but cool).

You can here and/or purchase the song here: https://joevitullo.com/track/3588321/my-town

Or click on any of the social media links on this page to access it on services such as Spotify, iTunes, Pandora or iHeartRadio.