#16: Hot Rod Hearts by Robbie Dupree

City: Saskatoon, SK
Radio Station: CKOM
Peak Month: September 1980
Peak Position in Saskatoon ~ #1
Peak Position in Vancouver ~ #7
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #15
YouTube: “Hot Rod Hearts”
Lyrics: “Hot Rod Hearts”

Robert Dupuis was born in 1946 in Brooklyn, New York. In 1980, he released his debut self-titled album Robbie Dupree. He took the name Robbie Dupree as his stage name. The debut single from the album was titled “Steal Away”. It reached #6 in the USA and #14 on the RPM Top 100 Singles chart in Canada. Dupree is regarded as a one-hit-wonder. “Steal Away” was ranked #64 by American cable TV network VH1 on their 100 Greatest One-Hit Wonders of the 80s list. However, Robbie Dupree actually released more than one Top 40 hit single. His followup was titled “Hot Rod Hearts”.

“Hot Rod Hearts” was cowritten by Bill LaBounty and Stephen Geyer. LaBounty was born in the early 50s in Wisconsin and learned to play keyboards and sing. He released his first studio album in 1975. In 1978, his song “This Night Won’t Last Forever” was a modest hit in 1979 for Colorado singer Michael Johnson. In 1985, Sawyer Brown had a number-one country hit with “Used to Blue”. In 1990, “The Domino Theory” was a Top Ten country hit for Steve Warner. In 1993, he penned a number-one country hit titled “Rock My World (Little Country Girl)”. That year Tanya Tucker and Delbert McClinton had a Top Ten country song with “Tell Me About It”. In 1995, “Tequila Talkin’” was a Top Ten hit for the country band Lodestar. And in the mid-90s, Shenandoah had two Top Ten country hits with “I Want to Be Loved Like That” and “Somewhere in the Vicinity of the Heart”. Though he released an album in 1978 titled The Night Won’t Last Forever, his album and title song release got little notice. LaBounty released his ninth studio album in 2014. He continues to perform and write as a singer-songwriter.

Stephen Geyer was born in Lima, Peru, in 1950. He is a studio and performance guitarist and has written scripts for TV. His father was a CIA operative. He wrote theme songs for a number of television shows. These include the crime drama Hardcastle and McCormick, the sitcom Blossom, and the comedy-drama series The Greatest American Hero. From the latter TV show came “Believe It Or Not”, which climbed to #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 for Joey Scarbury in 1981. It also reached number-one in New Zealand, and #2 in Australia. Geyer wrote just one other song for Scarbury which was a minor country hit a few years later. Geyer won two BMI Film & TV Awards, one in 1989 for the TV show Valerie, and a second in 1993 for Blossom. Other television shows Stephen Geyer has worked on include the crime-action-drama Stingray, the romantic comedy Free Guy, the adventure TV show The Roosters, the animated cartoon series The Wuzzles, the adventure series J.J. Starbuck, the comedy-drama TV show Cop Rock, and the 2005 romantic comedy film The 40-Year-Old Virgin.

“Hot Rod Hearts” is a song about young couples making out in the backseat of a car. They are parked “ten miles east of the highway.” In the back seat they are “cheek to cheek, sweatshirt to sweater.” When they see headlights coming, they drive on to a new location.

Schoolgirl brushes her hair back,
blue jeans can’t hide the bare facts,
Bad boy knows where to find her,
runs the light, sneaks up behind her.

“Hot Rod Hearts” peaked at #1 in Saskatoon (SK), Mobile (AL), Macon (GA), and St. Louis, #2 in Tucson (AZ), Presque Isle (ME), Bangor (ME), Seattle, and Atlanta, #3 in Washington DC, Pittsburgh, Corpus Christi (TX), Cincinnati (OH), Milwaukee (WI), Cleveland, and Minneapolis/St. Paul, #4 in Mesa (AZ), Providence (RI), Santa Maria (CA), and Bakersfield (CA), #5 in St. Cloud (MN), Regina (SK), Springfield (IL), Fort Dodge (IA), Hartford (CT), and Baltimore, #6 in Burbank (CA), #7 in La Crosse (WI), Winnipeg (MB), Fredericton (NB), Vancouver (BC), Phoenix, Houston, and New Haven (CT), #8 in Roanoke (VA), Lancaster (PA), Sherbrooke (PQ), and Framingham (MA), and #9 in Richmond (IN), Denver, Philadelphia, and Santa Barbara (CA).

In 1981, Dupree received a Grammy Award nomination for Best New Artist. He lost out to Christopher Cross, whose single “Sailing” topped the pop charts in 1980. Robbie Dupree’s final single to make the Billboard chart, “Brooklyn Girls”, peaked at #54 in June 1981.

Since his debut album in 1980, Robbie Dupree has released seven more albums. His eighth, Arc of a Romance, was released in 2012. He has performed on several soft rock/yacht rock oldies shows and cruises. Fellow ‘yacht rock’ pop stars sharing the stage have included Christopher Cross, Gary Wright, Al Stewart, John Ford Coley, Firefall, Orleans, Ambrosia, and Stephen Bishop.

June 24, 2026
Ray McGinnis

References:
“About Robbie,” robbiedupree.com.
“Bill LaBounty: “I always tried to approach my music as an artist regardless of my status in the business,” Yuzu Melodies, November 3, 2011.
“Stephen Geyer,” Imdb.com.
Robbie Dupree, “Steal Away“, Elektra Records, 1980.

CKOM 650-AM Saskatoon (SK) | September 17, 1980