CoronaVinyl Day 88 (Famous for Other Reasons): Now or Never by John Schneider

For an explanation of CoronaVinyl, click here.

Today's CoronaVinyl category is "famous for other reasons."  By that, I mean an album made by someone who is not primarily known as a musician -- such as an actor or actress, sports star, or authoritarian dictator -- who determines, for better or worse, that he or she needs to express him or herself musically.  This seemed to be a really popular thing for '80s actors and actresses to do, as the likes of Eddie Murphy, Patrick Swayze, Bruce Willis, Don Johnson, Jack Wagner, Pia Zadora, Michael Damian, Burt Reynolds, John Schneider, and Tina Yothers, among others, all putting out either albums or singles in the '80s, with varying degrees of success.

I actually have a Pia Zadora album, a Tina Yothers 12-inch single (autographed for her Family Ties co-star Brian Bonsall), and a John Schneider album.  Since Dukes of Hazzard was kind of my first favorite TV show, I'm going to go with John Schneider's 1981 debut album, Now or Never.  I don't know where or when I acquired this album, but according to the original shrink wrap that is still on the album, it was originally purchased at K-Mart for $6.37.

Schneider, of course, is best known for his portrayal of Bo Duke on Dukes of Hazzard -- a role that he got at age 17 -- though he played Clark Kent's adoptive father Jonathan in 100 episodes of Smallville and, more recently, was on Dancing With The Stars in 2018.

Over the years, while he has continued to regularly act, Schneider has also released dozens of albums, generally in the country genre.  Now or Never was pretty successful, reaching #8 on the Billboard Country Albums chart and #37 on the regular Billboard album chart.  He would have two other Top 10 albums on the country chart, 1984's Too Good to Stop Now (#4) and 1985's A Memory Like You (#1).  He has had 13 Top 40 songs on the Billboard Country chart, ten of which reached the Top 10 and four of which hit #1.  Now or Never certainly sounds like it was made in 1981.  It's generally cheesy soft country and pop -- kind of a cross between Ronnie Milsap and Barry Manilow.  That said, Schneider doesn't have a bad voice, and it certainly sounded older than his 21 years at the time.

The album is not available on Spotify, but the full album is available in one video on YouTube, so I embedded that below.  By the way, if there isn't a lesbian porn parody of Dukes of Hazzard called Dykes of Hazzard, I'm sounding the bell for it now.

Favorite song from Side 1:  "It's Now or Never"
Schneider's cover of the Elvis Presley classic reached #14 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #4 on the Billboard Country chart, with the latter giving the song the unique distinction of being the highest-charting Elvis cover of all-time in any genre, even to this date.

Favorite song from Side 2:  "(Am I) Fallin' in Love With Love"
This is a totally '80s kind of country pop song that could easily have been the theme song to a sitcom about a couple who is just trying to make ends meet, but at least they have each other.