After recording approximately eight songs (see "Outtakes" section below), both Southside Johnny and Steve Van Zandt felt that the material was not meeting their standards, and as a result temporarily abandoned the album sessions.

Several months later, after meeting to rehearse material at Carroll Music in Manhattan, sessions resumed at Secret Sound Studios in downtown NYC.

Van Zandt asked photographer Frank Stefanko to shoot the album cover art, after meeting during Springsteen's Darkness on the Edge of Town.

The first two tracks, the guitar-driven, syncopated rave-up "Got To Find a Better Way Home" and the horn-powered "This Time Baby's Gone for Good", are classic Van Zandt compositions, heavily anchored in '60s soul.

Engineer Thom Panunzio dubbed them to cassette for Van Zandt (not present at the session), memorialized by a note reproduced in 2010's "The Promise: The Darkness on the Edge of Town Story".

[8] During 1978 sessions at Secret Sound Studios, he combined the base rhythm track from the tape with Southside's vocals, brass by the Miami Horns, and his own lead guitar.

[9] "Hearts of Stone" is soulful, almost wan, as it details the ache of lovers who cannot be together, while "Talk To Me", provided a bridge to the Jukes' familiar sound from their first two records.

The liner notes state the song is from the Hearts of Stone sessions and the track features the clear presence of Steven Van Zandt on harmony vocals.