#24: Wind Him Up by Saga

City: Ottawa, ON
Radio Station: CFRA
Peak Month: March 1982
Peak Position in Ottawa ~ #2
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #64
Peak Position on Norwegian Singles chart – #5
Peak Position on West German Singles chart ~ #7
YouTube: “Wind Him Up”
Lyrics: “Wind Him Up”

Saga is a band from Oakville (ON). They formed in Michael Sadler (born 1954 in Penarth, Wales) provided lead vocals and played keyboards. Ian Crichton (born in 1956 in Oakville, Ontario) played guitar. Jim Crichton (born in 1953 in Oakville, Ontario) played bass guitar, piano and keyboards. Jim Gilmour (born in 1958 in Carfin, Scotland) played clarinet, keyboards and contributed backing vocals. While Steve Negus (born in 1952 in Hamilton, Ontario) played drums. In 1978, they released their self-titled album Saga which reached #33 on the Swedish album chart. A second studio album, Images at Twilight, was released the following year. A third album, Silent Knight, reached #15 on the Norwegian pop album chart.

In 1981, Saga released their fourth studio album Worlds Apart. The lead single from the album was titled “Wind Him Up”.

“Wind Him Up” is a song written by the Crichton brothers and Michael Sadler. The song is about a character named Aldo who is a compulsive gambler. Lead singer Michael Sadler came up with the story of Aldo, who hits the casino and gets entranced by the action. He is “wound like a clock,” a metaphor for how he’s spinning out of control. The character in the song is not based on any particular person, but is the embodiment of someone who can’t control his compulsions. “I don’t know if there’s a lesson to be learned or a moral to that,” Sadler said in a 2014 interview with Songfacts.com. Sadler confirmed in the interview the song is “…about gambling and the addiction factor.”

Statistics Canada reported in December 2024 the following:

• At least six out of ten Canadians have spent money on gambling.
• The average Canadian spends $6.75 per month on gaming and gambling, and 3% spend more than $100/month.
• 63% of men and 57% of women report they spend some money on gambling every month.
• Ontario reported gambling revenues of $1.4 billion between April 2022 and March 2023.
• There are over 19.3 million active online gamblers in Canada.
• 43% of women and 56% of men say they have gambled online.
• The annual contribution in revenue from Canada’s online gambling industry is expected to reach $3.1 billion by the end of 2023.
• Almost 3/4 of Canadians said problems associated with gambling have increased in their province.
• 83% of Canadians believe it is up to the individual to control their gambling habits.
• 65% of regular gamblers use lottery tickets as their most favored form of gambling.

“Wind Him Up” reached #2 in Ottawa, #6 in Winnipeg (MB), and Regina (SK), #11 in Toronto, and #13 in Minneapolis/St. Paul. Internationally, “Wind Him Up” reached #5 in Norway, #7 in West Germany, and #22 in Canada.

Worlds Apart reached #5 on the Norwegian album chart and #9 on the West German album pop chart. A second track from the album, “On The Loose”, peaked at #3 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock chart, and the Top 30 on the pop charts in both Canada and the Billboard Hot 100.

In 1982, Saga opened for Jethro Tull on their world tour. While Saga won the Juno Award for Most Promising Group of the Year. A fifth album Heads or Tales was released in late 1983 and became another success. It reached #3 on the West German pop album chart, and #4 in Norway, Sweden and Switzerland. The lead single, “The Flyer”, fared well in Canada and also became their final U.S. charting single, peaking at #79 on Billboard in December 1983. The follow-up single entitled “Scratching the Surface” became popular in Canada, peaking at #45 in April 1984.

Their sixth album, Behaviour, was released in 1985 and included the singles, “Listen to Your Heart” and “What Do I Know?”. The album peaked at #2 in West Germany, #3 in Switzerland, #4 in Sweden, and #6 in Norway.

In 1986 Steve Negus and Jim Gilmour left the band over management concerns, soon deciding to form a new band project under the name Gilmour-Negus Project (GNP). In 1988, they released their one and only album, Safety Zone (featuring Robert Bevan on lead vocals). Meanwhile, Saga continued to record and tour, with Michael Sadler and the Crichton brothers augmented by session musicians. Their 1987 release Wildest Dreams enjoyed better distribution under new label, Atlantic Records, but it failed to match expectations in America. However, it climbed to #8 in Sweden, and #11 in Norway.

For 1989’s The Beginner’s Guide to Throwing Shapes, Saga refocused on their earlier European popularity which marked a return to their earlier progressive style with a few sci-fi orientated pop elements to it. In 1992, Steve Negus and Jim Gilmour returned to Saga. The band’s next album, The Security of Illusion, released in 1993, was well received by Saga fans in Canada and Europe. The 1994 followup, Steel Umbrellas, was considered uneven when compared to their previous release, perhaps due to the material originally being produced for the short-lived television series Cobra. However, despite lackluster album sales, Saga’s 1993 and 1994 tours helped maintain the band’s popularity.

The band has been constantly successful in Germany since its inception. It is also very popular in Puerto Rico; Saga has visited the island twelve times. Saga’s second concert in Puerto Rico (1981) caused riots from fans trying to crash into a sold-out concert that sold over 10,000 tickets. Most of the inner cover photographs from the original vinyl release of In Transit (1982) were taken in Puerto Rico, including a live photograph from the 1981 concert. For a few years, a keyboard riff from their song “No Regrets” became the background music for station breaks at WCAD-FM in San Juan. The band received formal recognition as distinguished visitors from the Puerto Rican legislature in February 2005.

Steve Negus and Jim Gilmour rejoined the band in 1992. Negus departed for good in 2003. He has been replaced on drums by a number of musicians. This includes Brian Doerner, who left the band in 2012. Michael Sadler took a break between 2007 and 2010, but returned in 2011.

Among their more successful studio albums, 20/20 peaked at #13 in Germany in 2012, while Sagacity reached #17 in Germany in 2014. In 2021, the twenty-second studio album, Symmetry, peaked at #11 in Germany and #20 in Switzerland. Since 2012, Mike Thorne has been the drummer for Saga, and since 2019 Dusty Chesterfield has been a bass guitarist.

November 3, 2025
Ray McGinnis

References:
Greg Prato, “Michael Sadler of Saga,” songfests.com, August 8, 2014.
“Michael Sadler (Saga) Interview,” Backstageaxxess, May 4, 2011.
Olivia Bush, “Gambling Statistics in Canada,” Statistics Canada, December 31, 2024.

CFRA 580-AM Ottawa Top Ten | March 12, 1982