Bob Seger’s First Single ‘The Lonely One’ Finally Getting the Attention It Deserves Airing on Detroit Radio for the First Time

Call it the rarity of all rarities, the first song Bob Seger ever recorded. The track, 'The Lonely One' was only pressed onto 6 records and aired on the radio only once - a station in his hometown of Ann Arbor.

Now thanks to a resurfacing online and airplay on WCSX in Detroit, 'The Lonely One' is finally getting some of the recognition it deserves.

Big Jim, who hosts mornings on WCSX says he's "been on a quest for years" to track down the song.

After finding doing the detective work and tracking down the single, it finally received its second-ever airing on the radio when WCSX spun the track just after 8AM on Monday March 15, 2021.

The song was cut in 1961 with his group at the time, The Decibels. That year WPAG in Ann Arbor gave the song its only airing.

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The story of the song? It's about a girl, the same girl in fact who was the subject of Night Moves.

The 'JimBits' podcast describes tracking down the song. You can listen to it here. Forward to 27:00 for the story of tracking down the song. A man named Rob was the person who owned the acetate recording of the song.

He tells of going through a group of acetates from a yard sale. Going through the tracks he purchased, he realized what we had.

Rob compared the disc he had with the YouTube video above and compared to the acetate he had.

Needing money, Rob sold the disc to a private collector - but not before he made some recordings of the original. That's what WCSX played on the radio.

Unfortunately, WCSX has not made the audio of playing the song available on any platform.