by Jay Tilles
It’s likely that most Green Day fans aren’t aware that frontman Billie Joe Armstrong was singing long before his Bay Area punk band hit the big time.
Way back in 1977, a young Mr. Armstrong belted out a tune that will stick in your head today like the very worst of ear worms.
Titled “Look For Love,” the simple yet catchy tune was written and recorded for James J. Fiatarone’s Fiat Records. The flipside of the rare 7″ vinyl featured a spoken word track called “Meet Billie Joe,” where Fiatarone’s wife interviewed the youngster.
At only 5 years old, Armstrong had chops. And, Fiatarone knew it. As the owner of a local music shop where the boy and his siblings attended music lessons, Fiatarone made Armstong’s mother a deal. Rather than charge for piano and music lessons for all five children, has asked Billie Joe to record a song for his fledgling music label, notes Kjersti Egerdahl, author of Green Day: A Musical Biography.
Fiatarone and his Broadway tune loving wife would take the 5 year-old Armstrong to record at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley, Calif, where 16 years later he’d return to the same building to record Dookie.
According to Egerdahl, only 800 copies of “Look For Love” were made. Listen below.
