The week of December 7, 1985, found Phoenix-based band Mr. Mister having a moment. ‘Broken Wings,’ the first single from their sophomore album Welcome to the Real World, reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for two weeks.
The album’s next single, ‘Kyrie,’ would have its own two-week stint atop the chart the following March. And third single ‘Is It Love’ would reach the top ten in the summer of 1986. That trio of songs is pretty much the extent of most people’s knowledge of the quartet.
Better a three-hit wonder than a one-hit wonder, I suppose. Or perhaps Mr. Mister is better described as a one-album wonder, as Welcome to the Real World topped the albums chart on the strength of its hit singles.
‘Broken Wings’ shares a lyric with The Beatles’ ‘Blackbird’ (“take these broken wings and learn to fly”) that the songwriters dismiss as a coincidence. Rather the song was inspired by the 1912 novel Broken Wings by Lebanese-American author Kahlil Gibran.
Baby, don’t understand
Why we can’t just hold on to each other’s hands?
This time might be the last, I fear
Unless I make it all too clear
I need you so, oh
[Chorus]
Take these broken wings
And learn to fly again, learn to live so free
When we hear the voices sing
The book of love will open up and let us in
Take these broken wings
[Verse 2]
Baby, I think tonight
We can take what was wrong and make it right
Baby, it’s all I know that you’re half of the flesh
And blood that makes me whole, I need you so
[Chorus]
So take these broken wings
And learn to fly again, learn to live so free
When we hear the voices sing
The book of love will open up and let us in
Take these broken wings
You’ve got to learn to fly, learn to live, love so free
When we hear the voices sing
The book of love will open up and let us in
Yeah, yeah
[Interlude]
Let us in
Let us in
[Bridge]
Baby, it’s all I know that you’re half of the flesh
And blood that makes me whole
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
[Chorus]
So take these broken wings
And learn to fly again, learn to live so free
And when we hear the voices sing
The book of love will open up and let us in
Take these broken wings
You got to learn to fly, learn to live and love so free
When we hear the voices sing
The book of love will open up for us and let us in
Yeah, yeah
Meet Me In Montauk 
Of their three hits, “Kyrie” is definitely my favorite. It has a bit of a Toto vibe.
Actually, my only knowledge of Mr. Mister came from the chorus of Train’s Hey Soul Sister: ” Hey, soul sister, Ain’t that Mr. Mister on the radio…”, which in fact I only heard because the a capella group Street Corner Symphony performed a version on The Sing-Off in 2010. We’re entering serious rabbit hole territory here, so I’ll finish up with this for hilarity’s sake:
Hey Soul Sister actually made it to #3 on Billboard’s Hot 100, but since it will probably never be featured on your blog, I’ll just include this excerpt from a review in the Village Voice (courtesy of Wikipedia): “there is less soul in the entirety of Train than in the palest single member of Collective Soul https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collective_Soul. ‘Hey, Soul Sister’ is soul for people who refer to peanut butter and jelly as ‘soul food.’ It makes the California Raisins https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_California_Raisins look like the second coming of Sly and the Family Stone https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sly_and_the_Family_Stone. It’s so white, Sarah Palin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Palin just named it her running mate for 2012.”
Have a great Sunday! Reb