Seven Cities Of Gold

"Seven Cities Of Gold" is a song by Rush from their 19th studio album Clockwork Angels. Though not released as a single, "Seven Cities Of Gold" charted as an album track due to it being one of my personal favorite songs from the album. On March 3, 2013, the song reached #1, becoming Rush's sixth #1 song and tying with Oasis and Girls Aloud for most #1 singles by a group or band, as well as the fifth #1 from Clockwork Angels, becoming the second album to spawn five #1 songs following Lita Ford's Living Like A Runaway.

Following cores Lita Ford, Heart and Doro, I decided to chart a standout from Rush's album without a single release, and the resulting chart entry was one of my favorites from their latest album.

"Seven Cities Of Gold" is track 7 on Clockwork Angels and was one of the first album tracks leaked from the album in advance of its June release. Not only was it a standout for me, but it was also a standout for the band members themselves. Neil Peart said in a Rolling Stone interview there was an "immediate" connection with the words and music during the recording process, while Alex Lifeson said in an interview with MusicRadar that the music has a "cinematic" feel that adds to the album's storyline. Lifeson said of the recording: "We so got into this one. It started in the pre-studio writing stage, right when we were catching up and reviewing things at Ged’s place in September. We had some songs, but we wanted to get a few more things written before going into the studio in October. We spent the first week just drinking coffee and throwing the idea around that maybe we weren’t ready to record. I remember we went downstairs and didn’t really do anything for a couple of days, except drink more coffee and talk. And then we had what we call our ‘good six minutes.’ That’s all you need, a good six minutes a day. From there, the song took off."

The song gets its title from a myth that led to several expeditions throughout the 16th century. Peart said he wrote the song based on his fascination with Southwestern U.S. history: "The whole spur of the Spanish exploration of the Southwestern U.S. was the search for these mythical Seven Cities of Gold. The Spanish ones would go back to Mexico City and say, ‘I saw it! I saw it! I just couldn’t get to it, but I could see this city of gold in the distance!’ They kept believing it and sending expeditions."

"Seven Cities Of Gold" debuted toward the end of 2012, charting into the new year and immediately becoming a hit. It briefly disrupted the chart domination of Lita Ford's "Asylum", spending the first two weeks of March 2013 at #1. It became Rush's sixth #1 and fifth from Clockwork Angels, tying them with Lita for most #1 songs from one album.