Tom Scholz of Boston co-hosts Rock Classics Radio with Jenn on Apple Music Hits as he celebrates the 45th anniversary of the band’s eponymous album. He takes listeners through the hits that inspired him, from The Kinks and Led Zeppelin, to Jeff Beck, Deep Purple, and more. Scholz also talks about "Foreplay" being Boston’s first complete work, and when he realized "More Than A Feeling" was an impactful song in rock history. 

Key quotes previewing the episode are below, available to use with credit to Rock Classics Radio with Jenn on Apple Music Hits. Listen live for free to the full show this Friday, September 3rd at 11am PST / 2pm EST here.

On "Foreplay" being the first complete piece of music for Boston

Tom: "That's true. It wasn't a song because it's an instrumental, but I wrote it in 1969. I wrote it on a Wurlitzer electric piano. And for those of you who don't know what a Wurlitzer electric piano is, it actually had these strange little vibrating reeds inside, it was all electrical mechanical. So when you played it you were like banging on the keys, like you would on a real piano, hard. It wasn't an electronic keyboard. So mine was on the fourth floor of the apartment building I lived in and when I would get done with my problem sets and I had a little bit of time left, I would go crazy jamming on my electric piano. And one of the things I was working on was this song, 'Foreplay'. I would do that really late at night after I finished my problem set. So, at like 12 one in the morning, I'd be banging on this thing. And I didn't realize that it was a wood floor and it was connected directly to the ceiling below me of the three girls that lived in the apartment. I wonder why those girls didn't like me. You know, none of them, they never complained. They were the best. They never complained. And when I was leaving there, finally after two years, they said, 'You know, we heard you playing that piano every fricking night They'd never said a thing; thank God, because I would have stopped. It's still one of my favorite pieces of music to play. And thankfully, one of the things that I can remember without ever practicing."

On how it took 40 years for him to realize how impactful Boston's "More Than A Feeling" was

Tom: "I didn't really expect that people were going to get very excited about that song. You know, I went through this really agonizing process for like six years where I worked on material and built studios and, and designed equipment for making musical equipment, for making the sounds that I needed and so forth. And during that time, I was rejected by everyone all the time. I had virtually no positive support whatsoever. There was a drummer that I like to jam with and that I would sometimes work with for ideas. Other than that, there was just nobody, I didn't get encouragement from anyone. So as I was recording the first recording of 'More Than a Feeling', I didn't think anybody was going to like it. The reason I was doing it after, when I got to that point, which was about six years after I had sort of started on this, this quest, my goal was to get a song played on a local radio station for just a couple of times so that I could go out and play a guitar in a band locally and have people have some idea what they were going to hear. 

So it was reaching the end, and when I sent the last demo that had 'More Than A Feeling' on it. It was with the idea that this is the last demo I'm going to send out. And once it's out and it's done, I'm going to liquidate the equipment because I've got to be a little more responsible. I was almost 30. And I was, you know, basically spending all my time and money doing this. So it's time to do something else. So I never expected anybody was going to really care that much. It's shocking to see how sort of ubiquitous that song is. I mean, people that don't even listen to rock music really will recognize the song. So when you say, when did it dawn, when did it actually sink in, really? About 40 years." 

"More Than A Feeling" was released as the lead single from Boston's self-titled debut album on Epic Records in September 1976. It peaked at #5 on the Billboard Hot 100. The track is now a staple of classic rock, and in 2008 it was named the 39th best hard rock song of all time by VH1.