Great First Singles: "A Horse With No Name" by America

Being a rock star or having a hit single is much tougher than it sounds on the radio.  You have to begin playing an instrument at a very early age, practice extremely hard, have a mentor or someone that truly believes in you, and have songwriting talent.  For just being good on the guitar, piano or drums isn't good enough--songwriting is the key to transporting you from being a good musician to getting people to listen to you.

There are at least 100 new songs each week that are competing for radio airplay, and those are just the top ones that are released to radio stations.  Many times an artist will release several songs with no luck.  Once in a while, an artist breaks through into the public consciousness with their first single release.  

This is the case with this group, which hit #1 with their first single.  It went on to become one of The Top 100 Songs of the Rock Era*.

"A Horse With No Name"

America