R50: Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the release of Rush's Debut Album

On March 18th, 1974, a typically cold day in the suburbs of Toronto, Canada, Rush released their self-titled debut album; the only album featuring their original drummer and co-founder John Rutsey. Though Rush was considered a fairly successful debut album for the band, the production and recording process wasn't without its share of issues. Recording began at Toronto's Eastern Sound back in April of 1973 with producer David Stock, and was completed within two days. The results, however, were less than stellar.

The band made the difficult - and expensive - decision to re-record most of the album at Toronto Sound in October where they also enlisted the services of Terry Brown. The second recording of the album led to the dropping of some songs, including their first single Not Fade Away. The initial recordings of Finding My Way, Need Some Love, and Here Again took place during this time. Recording, mixing, and editing was completed within a couple of weeks and the master tapes were finished on November 15th, 1973.

Months earlier, the band had produced their first single offering; Not Fade Away b/w You Can't Fight It. Unable to get a Canadian record company to back the single, Rush and its management team formed their own record label, Moon Records. With distribution assistance from London Records, the single was distributed around Toronto and its surrounding areas. Unfortunately sales were virtually non-existent. Months later when the time came to release the album, Rush and Moon Records would once again enlist the distribution assistance of London Records. With an initial pressing run of 3,500 copies, Rush under the Moon Records label and famously with its bright red logo, was released. The album was originally scheduled for release in December 1973 however, due to global shortages in oil at the time, and given vinyl is a petroleum byproduct, it was delayed until March of 1974. After Rush was released, the band, their management and crew had a release party at the Piccadilly Tube Bar; a venue they would perform at over two dozen times during their early career.

After garning moderate success in Canada, Rush signed a recording contract with Mercury Records who began distribution of the album in the U.S. in early August of 1974. The 'Rush' logo's color was changed to pink on the Mercury release, however to this day it's not clear why this change was made.

After the Mercury release of the album, two additional singles - Finding My Way b/w Need Some Love and In the Mood b/w What You're Doing" - were released, the latter of which reached #88 on the US Hot 100 singles chart. Rush would peak at #105 on the Billboard Album charts and would receive a Gold certification by the RIAA, denoting sales of 500,000 units, on February 1st, 1995; nearly 21 years later!

Today, 50 years later, we not only celebrate the release of Rush but also all those who helped to pave the way to its realization. And the rest, as they say, is history.

In memory of John and Neil

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