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In 1976, Foghat was riding high on the popularity of their massive hit single “Slow Ride.” The band’s Fool For The City album helped the band capture a whole new audience of young rock and roll fans. Released in 1975, Foghat’s Fool For The City became the band’s first album to go Platinum in sales. So, how does a band follow up their most successful album to date? The answer is simple: release an even better album to follow up their biggest seller. That’s precisely what Foghat did with the release of Night Shift in 1976.

I was 16 when Foghat released Night Shift. On Long Island, the band Foghat was huge. When Night Shift came out, everyone in High School who was into rock and roll music was raving about the album. It was extremely popular. People loved the album; everyone had a copy of it. There was a particular crowd of kids in high school in which music played a very important role in their lives. When an album that was as good as Foghat’s Night Shift album was released, it became a big deal.

“Driving Wheel” packed a powerful punch as the album’s opening track. The song “Driving Wheel” was a scorcher of a rock track. Listen to Rod Price’s opening guitar riff. I have never heard a riff that utilized feedback in time, with a guitar riff that was just jaw-dropping. Of course, it all comes together when Roger Earl knocks the door down with his high-spirited rock and roll drumming that kicked the song into Foghat land. Foghats’ new bassist, Scott McGregor, lays down a melodic and soulful rock bass line that locks in perfectly with Earls’s energetic playing. And then, of course, there is Lonesome Dave. The man had a voice like no one else’s. It was frantic, it was blues-infused, and it was simply perfect for the band. The man could also play a mean guitar. If you had ever seen Foghat live, it was such a joy to watch Dave and Rod standing together, wailing away.

It is not easy to follow up such a barn-burning opening album track like “Driving Wheel.” Foghat wasted no time as the second track, “Don’t Run Me Down,” hit you smack in the face like a Long Island Railroad Road Locomotive. The song was written by Lonesome Dave Peverett. Roger Earl’s snare drum on the song sounds so big and mean, while Craig MacGregor’s 8th note bass line simulates that driving train feel that echoes throughout the song. When the band slams into the chorus with that double time feel, it’s as if all chaos had broken loose. This one was a lot of fun.

Closing out Side One of the Night Shift album was another Lonesome Dave Peverett composition called “Burnin’ the Midnight Oil.” This track would be a really popular track at the time. I remember it was so many of my friend’s favorite songs on Night Shift. The guitar work on this cut is just stunning. Rod Price delivered a killer solo at about the three-minute mark.

There were only three songs on side one of the album. That was pretty typical of many rock records released in the 1970s. Bands were releasing new albums every six months back in the 1970s, so you couldn’t expect them to be releasing albums with more than nine or ten tracks. Additionally, by not trying to pack an album’s side with too many cuts, the wider space between the grooves allowed for a better sound when an album’s side was limited to under twenty minutes of music.

Side two of the album opened with the record’s title track, “Night Shift.” Lonesome Dave Peverett and Rod Price wrote the song. This was a darker minor key song with a force-driving beat that looked you straight in the eyes, convincing you to take this one seriously. What a song this was! It’s pure classic rock. It was a great concert staple. Listen to the guitar jamming at the end of the song.

The next song on side two, called “Hot Shot Love,” would be the only cut on the album to utilize a fade-in. This was an interesting track. It’s the most soulful tune on the album and placed perfectly in the album’s lineup. At its core, Foghat was a blues band. Most of the band members had originally been a part of the Savoy Brown Blues Band before they left the group to form Foghat. However, they shaped their own sound that, besides the rock blues elements, also incorporated a heavy dose of rock and roll boogie grooves and a soulfulness that wrapped it all up. They were, in essence, capturing what the 1970s were all about in music. If you couldn’t recognize all of that in the previous tracks, their cover of “Take Me To The River” solidifies our argument.

The song “Take Me To The River” was written by Al Green and guitarist Mabon “Teenie” Hodges in 1974. It’s a song many artists have covered in classic rock history. One of the most popular versions was the Talking Heads version, released in 1978. In the mid-1970s, the song was also covered by The Grateful Dead, Levon Helm, and Bryan Ferry. Foghat’s version is killer. We love the section where Roger and Soctt are grooving on bass and drums alone. It’s a special moment.

The album closes it all up with the track “I’ll Be Standing By.” The song was written by Rod “The Bottle” Price and Lonesome Dave Peverett. It’s a slow-moving blues tune highlighted by Dave’s emotional blues-infused singing that will knock you out of your rock and roll shoes. Rod’s blues playing on the track will leave you breathless. What a way to close up a phenomenal album.

Night Shift was Foghat’s sixth studio album. This album sold half a million copies. On the music charts, it broke into the top 40 on the Billboard Top 200 album charts.

Night Shift marked the debut of Craig MacGregor as the band’s bassist, who had replaced Nick Jameson, who had replaced Tony Stevens. The album was produced by Dan Hartman, who had taken his experiences playing with Johnny Winter and eventually the Edgar Winter Band into producing an album that sounded incredibly powerful and clean on your turntable.

When I interviewed Roger Earl in 2023, I picked up the CD of Night Shift I had next to me and showed it to him, saying that it was my favorite Foghat album. He just smiled and said “Yeah, we were pretty good back then,”