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WCSX Classic Cuts : Tom Sawyer

WCSX Classic Cuts Rush: “Tom Sawyer” The Hook: The song’s enduring success all over the world surprised them. Album: Moving Pictures Year: 1981 Writers: Geddy Lee, Neil Peart, Alex Lifeson…

LOS ANGELES, CA – APRIL 18: (L-R) Inductees Alex Lifeson and Neil Peart of Rush perform onstage at the 28th Annual Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony at Nokia Theatre L.A. Live on April 18, 2013 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)

Kevin Winter / Gettyimages

WCSX Classic Cuts

Rush: "Tom Sawyer"

The Hook: The song's enduring success all over the world surprised them.

Album: Moving Pictures

Year: 1981

Writers: Geddy Lee, Neil Peart, Alex Lifeson and Pye Dubois

Stats: Peaked at number-44 on the Billboard Hot 100 and at number-eight on the Mainstream Rock chart.

Background: "Tom Sawyer" is probably Rush's best-known song. Geddy Lee says that was a real surprise to the band.

Rush singer-bassist Geddy Lee on how the lasting success of “Tom Sawyer” took the band by surprise. OC:…that song. :29

“It was just one of those songs that when we made it had no idea it was going to have the impact that it had. Over time it’s kind of shown to be the quintessential Rush song for some reason. Wherever we go in the world, people identify us with that song. At the time we were making Moving Pictures, with that on it, it was just another song and mixing it as we would any other song, without any special feeling for it one way or the other. So it surprised me, the universality of that song.”