Love's So Tough
Love's So Tough is a studio album by the Iron City Houserockers. Released in 1979, the Iron City Houserocker's first album attempts to capture the presence of what was essentially a Pittsburgh bar band playing to a blue collar crowd every night. While Joe Grushecky's songwriting skills are clearly still developing, his potential is visible in cuts such as "Dance With Me" and "Heroes Are Hard to Find". The general sound of the album is reminiscent of a slightly "harder" Bruce Springsteen, and the heavy use of harmonica would be a distinguishing factor  of the Houserockers for several albums to come. Background. In the spring of 1977 Joe Grushecky's brother Jon sent him a full page advertisement from "Billboard", about the release of a Ronnie Spector record on Cleveland International Records. The band was known at that time as the Brick Alley Band, and they sent a demo tape to Steve Popovich at Cleveland International Records. After a personal phone call from Steve Popovich, Joe Grushecky and his band drove out to Cleveland and under the guidance of Steve Popovich and Marty Mooney, made a series of recordings that landed a deal  with MCA Records. The song "Blondie" was originally recorded during the "Love's So Tough" sessions and issued as the B-side to the "Hideaway" single. The song would go on to be completely re-written with the help of Steve Van Zandt and re-recorded during the "Have a Good Time... But Get Out Alive" sessions and issued on that album in 1980. The Chuck Berry song "School Days (Ring! Ring! Goes the Bell)" was also recorded for the album but was cut from the final release. The track was then released on "Pumping Iron & Sweating Steel: The Best  of the Iron City Houserockers". The album was reissued in CD format in 1999 by Rock Heritage, and again in 2019 in remastered digital format by Cleveland International Records for its 40th anniversary. with: Personnel. "Turn It Up" was recorded at Asterick Recording, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.