Barry Hay (vocals)
George Kooymans (lead guitar)
Rinus Gerritsen (bass, keyboards)
Cesar Zuiderwijk (drums)
Like other famous songs of the era („Highway Star„, „Stairway to Heaven„, „Bohemian Rhapsody„), „Radar Love“ is composed as a suite with several distinctive and quite different sections (although the tonality remains pretty much the same).
The intro starts with a guitar riff in four movements. The first movement is up from C# minor with three power chords slightly reminiscent of Deep Purple’s „Smoke on the Water„. The second movement heads down, the third is up again, higher than the previous, and the fourth leads all down to E major. According to bass player Rinus Gerritsen the intro was inspired by Carlos Santana.[4]
After the intro a driving snare drum sets the pace in 4/4 time, at around 100 BPM. The snare drum is soon joined by a signature bassline in F# minor. This is repeated eight times in two alternating lines.
Starting at 0:47, the first verse is sung to the ongoing bassline in F# minor:
„I’ve been driving all night, my hands wet on the wheel…“
The verse consists of four lines and each of them is answered by a simple guitar hook.
After the fourth line the song moves to a sort of bridge leading up to the chorus.
„When she is lonely and the longing gets too much, she sends a cable coming in from above…“
In this section, accompanied by vocal harmonies, the chords shift from E major via several changes to B major and finally C# minor at the start of the refrain:
„We’ve got a thing that’s called radar love…“
During the chorus, starting in C# minor at 1:20, the band is joined by a brass section and the drum beat is doubled to give the impression that the tempo has speeded up.[5]
After the chorus the song returns to the previous bassline in F# minor. In verse two the singing gets funkier and so does the responding guitar which is now played with double notes.
„The radio is playing some forgotten song, Brenda Lee’s „Coming on Strong„…“
At the end of the second chorus at 2:30 the album version continues with a different bassline and guitar improvisations until 3:49. In the single version this part has been left out and the song turns immediately to a trademark drum solo at 2:30 (or 3:49 respectively). Ten seconds into the solo the drummer is joined by guitar, bass and trumpets playing a riff derived from the intro which builds up repeating over several variations, until collapsing in an E major chord at 3:06 (4:25).
At this point the song shortly slows down, but soon the bassline restarts and the drummer returns to his driving beat.
Yet, verse three at 3:36 (4:55) is a slightly different affair, as illustrated also by the lyrics:
„No more speed, I’m almost there, gotta keep cool now, gotta take care…“
This time the voice, more hesitant than driving, is answered by bluesy guitar licks played by two guitars opposing on the stereo channels.
Energy returns with Brenda Lee coming on strong once more, and finally at 4:13 (5:32) the bridge and the chorus build up for a last ride with sounding horns.
At 4:44 (6:03) starts the outro with a variation of the bassline in F# minor and all instruments gradually joining in the same chord.