In the second installment of "Alcatrazz History", which is posted regularly on the band's Facebook page, bassist Gary Shea talks about Jimmy Waldo's original New England demo that became Alcatrazz's biggest song, "Island In The Sun".

Evolution Of A Song - How "Take Another Ride" Became "Island In The Sun"

Gary Shea: "When Jimmy Waldo, Graham Bonnet and myself first got together Jimmy played us one of his original songs. It was just the three of us in a garage working through some initial ideas. The song was called 'Take Another Ride' which had been written for the 4th New England album (which was never finished as unfortunately the band split in early 1982). It has recently been issued as part of a New England 5 CD retrospective box set on Cherry Red Records for all to hear,

Graham really loved Jimmy's song, saying it had a Motown feel to it and we looked forward to using it for Alcatrazz. Musically a few changes were made, and it is without a doubt that we (with Yngwie's input) greatly improved upon the song. We thought in the beginning that having a song about Alcatraz Island would be really cool as a kind of band 'theme song', thus we went forward.  Jimmy changed a few keyboard parts and I made the bass more aggressive. Yngwie played a different solo, however as you can hear, Jimmy Waldo's signature melody stayed the same.

After we completed our first album, No Parole From Rock N Roll, it was decided by our record label and management that 'Jimmy`s song' would be our first single. It was also the unanimous choice for our first video release filmed in Los Angeles and Hawaii by my friend Michael Miner. He also produced our videos of 'Hiroshima' and 'God Blessed Video'. Later Michael achieved great fame for co-writing Robo Cop.

'Island In The Sun' to date is our best selling single, most enduring song and is still a mainstay in our live concerts. We look forward to performing it for you very soon!

Here are both versions to compare. Enjoy!"

Alcatrazz - "Island In The Sun"

New England - "Take Another Ride"