Jacob's Ladder

"Jacob's Ladder" is a 1986 song, written by Bruce Hornsby and his brother John Hornsby, that was recorded by Huey Lewis and the News and became a number-one hit on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1987.[1]

Set in Birmingham, Alabama, the song marries the Biblical image of Jacob's Ladder to someone who rejects proselytizingevangelists, and is instead struggling to get through life one day at a time:


 * Step by step, one by one, higher and higher
 * Step by step, rung by rung, climbing Jacob's ladder.

The song was given by Hornsby to his friend Lewis, and it appeared on the group's September 1986 album ''[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fore! Fore!]''. It was the third single released from the album, and topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart for a week in March 1987.[1]

A music video was filmed of the band performing the song in a live concert.

Bruce Hornsby later recorded his own rendition of the song for his 1988 album, Scenes from the Southside. It became part of his concert repertoire as well; a live bluegrass-influenced version (very different from the version on Scenes from the Southside) appears on the 2006 album Intersections (1985–2005), which Hornsby performed with his brother John. ==Charts[ edit] ==