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There were the nights when everything didn't fall in place - the time one of the amplifiers exploded, or somebody nearly was electrocuted because of a faulty wire. In one of their earliest shows, three guitarists had to use a single Marshall amplifier because the other amps malfunctioned. Some of the bands they opened for were less than enthusiastic about this new opening act with the monster hit album. At one point, they were opening for Foghat - "which was really cool," said Delp, "because one of Tom's favorite songs when we were working on that first record was 'Slow Ride'" - but lost their gig when a Milwaukee disc jockey introduced Boston, not headliner Foghat, as the best rock and roll band in the world.
"I was a little apprehensive about opening for Black Sabbath," said Delp, "because I figured their fans would be fanatical, they're not going to even want to know about us. But the record was doing so well that crowds knew who we were and they were responsive. The great thing about Black Sabbath was that they didn't do soundchecks. So we were afforded all the time we wanted on stage, Ozzy Osbourne would say, 'Ahh, you wanna go up and play some songs, go ahead.' They couldn't have been nicer."
Meanwhile, the album continued to sell. Two months after its August release, Boston sold 500,000 copies - gold record status. It sold anther 500,000 copies within 30 days - platinum record status. By January 1977, the debut disc sold two million copies, one of the fastest selling debut albums in rock history. "It was happening so fast," said Brad Delp, "It would have been different had we done the record and we're home reading the paper about this. But being on the road, we were doing interviews and we were doing in-stores, which was very big then - Peaches was the big store that you went to, and that kind of stuff - we were having fun. But I wasn't really grasping the magnitude of it. The crowds were getting bigger, and they knew all the words. We would get a telegram from the label saying 'Congratulations, you just sold 2 million records.' That was a big number, but it was just that, to my mind, it was a big number. It didn't have the same meaning as seeing the faces out there."
In his home, Tom Scholz hung a gold record next to the framed Epic rejection letter of so many years ago. He also went back to his job at Polaroid for a few weeks to finish up some loose ends. "I left Polaroid after the first little tour we had," said Scholz, "and actually went back and worked for them for a little while after the tour. You can't be too careful about these things, now."
Epic Records was pleased with their new acquisition - Boston and another new band, Wild Cherry, were among Epic's biggest success stories of 1976. "The whole company was charged up about [Boston]," said Epic president Ron Alexenburg to Variety writer Frank Meyer. "We know what FM radio can do and we have respect for it, but this one was playing on AM and FM ... It's a lot of fun when something like this happens. There's a buzz in the company. People were waiting for a new artist from us. Certainly there's pressure on them and on us. We want more singles from the first album and we're planning for the second album. Their dates have to be the best, so we want it all to be right."
While on tour, Boston received more accolades. The readers of Rolling Stone voted Boston as "Best New Band." Time praised the debut album as one of the top 5 releases of 1976. "I sold out arenas with this group in four cities from Lincoln, Nebraska to Louisville, Kentucky," said concert promoter Bob Bagaris to Billboard. "I've never seen such universal penetration of key secondary markets by any major group. Even the biggest acts usually don't do so well in every market."
Then came a Grammy nomination. Along with four other groups that had some modicum of success in 1976 with their debut discs - Wild Cherry, the Brothers Johnson, the Starland Vocal Band and Dr. Buzzard's Original "Savannah" Band - Boston was nominated for Best New Artist of 1976. "The Beach Boys were on stage reading the Grammy nominations," said Brad Delp, "That was exciting enough. We go into the theatre, sitting right behind us was Ella Fitzgerald. I turned around and actually said hello to her, because I was starstruck. The next aisle over, a couple of rows back, Ringo Starr's there, with Paul Simon, and then the Beach Boys were reading the nominations. Boston, Wild Cherry, Starland Vocal Band... I think I was almost afraid that we were going to win, because that would have meant I would have had to go up on national television."
Delp didn't have to worry. The Grammy for Best New Artist went to the Starland Vocal Band, based on the strength of their hit "Afternoon Delight." "The guy who happened to be our tour manager at the time used to work with Starland Vocal Band, and I guess they were John Denver's backup band for a long time, so they had kind of paid their dues in the business. I was a little bit relieved when they ended up winning. So I'm certainly not begrudging of that."
Boston continued to tour, but now they were headlining shows. Within a one-week span, they sold out four Southern California concert halls. Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band opened for Boston in Detroit. On their swing back to the Northeast, they sold out two nights in the Philadelphia Spectrum - and in their New York City debut, three sold-out shows at Madison Square Garden. Meanwhile, Boston sold six million albums, 8-tracks and cassettes by December 1977.
Then came the inevitable question - if the debut album could sell six million copies, what would the second album sell?
While the other members of Boston bought cars and other baubles with their profits, Tom Scholz sunk his share of record sales into a new house and basement recording studio, and began work on the second album.
But things were different. Now there were expectations - would the next album break new ground, or would it be commercially "safe"? And could the second album elevate Boston above an advertising tagline CBS initially used to sell the debut album - "Better Music Through Science," a slogan Scholz despised because it downplayed the music at the expense of technical wizardry.
Scholz continued to record. A song Boston performed at their live shows, "A Man I'll Never Be," was polished for the new disc, as was a new rocker called "Don't Look Back." There were other songs in the unrecorded Boston catalog, tracks like "She's A Looker" and "Shattered Images" and "Television Politician," and it would have been so easy to just add them onto the disc as filler. But Scholz wanted new songs. He wanted to go forward with Boston's musical excursion, a concept he made clear in the title track of this new album, Don't Look Back.
By early 1978, Scholz had finished the first side of the album, and with another year or two's redrafting and re-recording, the second side would be perfect. But there were new variables added to the mix. Ahern and McKenzie dissolved their professional partnership, with McKenzie receiving a cash buyout and Ahern receiving Boston. The three members hired after Boston signed the initial recording contract - Barry Goudreau, Sib Hashian and Fran Sheehan - wanted more of a say in the production and songwriting duties in the new album.
And Epic Records wanted to put their considerable CBS-backed muscle behind the new album - with radio airplay and a worldwide concert tour. Finally, Scholz turned over the new Boston tapes - with the second side still a few redrafts away from completion, as far as he was concerned - and held his breath.
Two years after their initial debut album was released, Boston's second album, Don't Look Back (Epic 35050) finally saw the light of day. As two million double-platinum-shipping copies hit the stores, Don't Look Back hit #1 on the Billboard album charts. The title track "Don't Look Back" (Epic 50590) blasted through the pop charts, peaking at #4. The follow-up single, "A Man I'll Never Be" (Epic 50638), a power ballad mixing Brad Delp's impassioned voice with Tom Scholz' melodic-yet-powerful guitar leads, also had some Top 40 success.
But Don't Look Back didn't have the legs of its predecessor. Despite its strong debut, Don't Look Back sold approximately 4 million copies - not too shabby by any stretch of the imagination, except when your previous album just sold its 8 millionth copy and is still on the charts.
But that didn't stop Boston. With Sammy Hagar as their opening act, Boston embarked on a worldwide tour, playing America, Europe and Japan - and even their home town, selling out the Boston Garden twice in their Beantown debut. During those Garden shows, Tom Scholz would strap on a green coat and cape, and doing his best "Phantom of the Opera" impression, blasted Bach's "Toccata in D Minor" through a huge pipe organ. The success of the concert tour was confirmed when Billboard voted Boston as the #1 stadium and arena band of 1979.
And although the band may have had an occasional beer now and then, they stayed away from the hard drugs - which couldn't be said for their road manager and some of the crew. "The band itself was anti-drug," said Hashian. "But the road manager was a stoned-out coke nut. He once dropped a half ounce of coke in a bag in front of me, and I didn't do coke, and I picked it up and said, 'Hey whose is this?' And he couldn't even admit that it was his."
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