One Hit Wonders: Karla Bonoff’s “Personally”

Photo From Karla Bonoff's Single, "Personally" (Columbia, 1982)

One of the most respected songwriters to come out of the Los Angeles country rock scene of the ’70s, Karla Bonoff scored one hit in 1982 with “Personally.”

As I noted in our Forgotten Favorites post back in October, it took awhile for Bonoff to find success on the chart as a performer.

Her songs like “Someone to Lay Down Beside Me” had been recorded by Linda Ronstadt (for whom Bonoff was a backup singer) and her first two album, 1977′s Karla Bonoff and 1979′s Restless Nights, had won her some tempered praise from fans of the ’70′s Southern California country-rock craze.

But it was 1982′s Wild Heart of the Young and the single “Personally” that put Bonoff’s name on the lips of Top 40 DJs. Interestingly, of the nine tracks on the album, “Personally” was the only one that wasn’t written by Bonoff.

It was her greatest chart success, a #19 cut in August 1982.

Gone but not forgotten, at least not at WNEW, find more tales of One-Hit Wonders here …

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