On The Roof is the title of the formerly unidentifed song Stay (The Second Time Around) by Johan Lindell. It is notable for being one of the earliest cases of lostwave, rising to prominence in a similar way Subways Of Your Mind would years later.
Search history
In 1985, On the Roof, the English version of the song "Lämna nånting kvar," was released on the album Ghost Rider by Johan Lindell. It was played on the German radio show Pop Fit on NDR 1 sometime in 1986 and recorded by René M. onto a cassette tape. The name was announced, but René missed it. The station was initially suspected to be Hessen 3 (recorded in 1984 if the case) or NDR 1.
In the late 1990s, René first digitized the 1:27 snippet for CD, sending the CD to many German music journalists. No journalist had an answer as to which song it was.
Sometime in 2002, René uploaded to his website a small snippet of the song DeDiniDevil, giving it the placeholder name "Stay." On February 22, 2003, Paul Miceli posted a 0:53 snippet on Spirit of Radio. By March 2003, the song received considerable attention. Many songs called "The Second Time Around" were suggested but none were a match.
Meanwhile, "a few years" before April 2004 (not earlier than 2002), someone posted the snippet to a forum called New Wave Outpost, now lost. On April 2, 2004, a forum user named tha_farfetch started another forum in order to search for the song. The forum generated a lot of discussion about the song. On this forum, Dan Coogan, a huge fan of the search, was first seen to show interest. More songs were suggested here but all of these were ultimately ruled out. After René noticed the song was gaining attention on New Qave Outpost, on June 27, 2004 he sent the full 1:27 snippet he had, naming it "Stay (longer)." René also revealed that he missed most of the song and did not have any more of the song to share. Over time, other placeholder names like "Stay (The Second Time Around)" and "Second Time Around" became used.
On August 26, 2007, Dan Coogan uploaded the song on YouTube for the first time. By November of that year it gained 1,000 views. 2007 is also the first year the Wayback Machine website shows evidence of Johan Lindell's website being active. The copyright claims to be from 2006, and at the time the URL was gimmikk.se/johan/. The full song was also posted to his website at this time making it the first time the full version was posted to the internet.
In November 2007, a user on New Wave Outpost named Danielweaver said the title was "Heartbeat" - White & Torch. However, after emailing Roy White, a member of White & Torch, he confirmed they did not make the song. Between 2007-2013, more songs with possible matching names were searched but no matches.
Solving the Mystery
On Sepetmber 14, 2013, a Reddit user named u/SuperZoomBattle2086 posted the song to the subreddit r/todayilearned. He says he discovered the song and since 2002, no one can find it "despite extensive research." The post got 2.6k upvotes, and made the front page of Reddit. Two days after the post, a Swedish radio show named PP3 took interest in the mystery thanks to Sara Kinberg, its host, reading the front page of Reddit. They aired the song for its listeners to hear. One listener named Stefan Petersson called the station to give the song's true name and artist. Another listener called independently of Petersson to confirm the title.
Lindell's website was then found, now at the domain johanlindell.se to contain the song's full version in .mp3 format. Not too long after, Johan Lindell was informed of his newfound fame. He said he did not use the internet that much, so he would not know his song was a mystery. He was 62 years old at the time of solving and had only made music for himself since the end of the 80s. Johan was interviewed by PP3 after the song had been solved, stating that he was very intrigued by the mystery and had no idea that it had attracted such a huge audience. By the end of September 2013, Johan Lindell rereleased a remastered Ghost Rider (as well as the rest of his catalogue) to Spotify and what was then iTunes (now Apple Music), although it is unavailable in most countries.
Lyrics
Up on the roof I go
Sit and drink my wine
People running down below
I wanna feel the cool winds blow
Killing time up here
Just me and the empty sky
Trying to sort things out
About what happened the other night
Woman I done you wrong
I knew this had to come
Now your walking out my door
Calling a cab on the way you go
Sitting on a rooftop
Talking to a blue sky
Drinking on a rooftop
Listen to my heart go, don't go, don't go
Listen to my mind go
Stay, a second time around
Won't you please Stay, a second time around
Darling won't you please Stay, a second time around
Ah please Stay, a second time around
Watching the girls go by
Like a string of pearls in the crowd
Hey you with the long black hair
I've got some wine to share
Sitting on a rooftop
Talking to a blue sky
Drinking on a rooftop
Listen to my heart go, don't go, don't go
Listen to my mind go
Stay, a second time around
Won't you please Stay, a second time around
Darling won't you please Stay, a second time around
Ah won't you Stay, a second time around
Gallery
