Larry Rifkin, the songwriter and creative force behind the music project Rockaway, has announced a new single, “About Last Night,” out June 9, the latest release from his album Wrong Side of Love. From the first notes, the track settles into the kind of unhurried yet melodically assured pocket that adult contemporary and yacht rock built its reputation on in the 1970s, now filtered with a production sensibility that feels current. It’s warm without being sentimental and lyrically sharp.
"I had lyrics for a song called 'About Last Night' sitting in my phone for years. The title felt right, but I never really felt I had the right attitude for it,” explained Rifkin.
However, the premise is familiar, a night that got away from you, a morning full of unanswered questions, but Rockaway plays it cool rather than confessional, landing somewhere between a Steely Dan groove and a Kenny Loggins hook. Rifkin grew up on both artists, and the influence shows, though the song is entirely his own.
"I wanted something that captured a night you might want to forget or at least can't quite remember. I've barely been in a bar in my life, but sometimes the best songs come from exactly where you've never been," shared Rifkin.
The polished, layered sound of "About Last Night" is the product of a creative process Rifkin has refined across three albums with his collaborator Alasdair MacKenzie, a Boston-based multi-instrumentalist, singer, audio engineer, and member of the acclaimed indie rock outfit Hush Club. The two have developed an intuitive workflow: Rifkin records keyboard and vocal demos, which MacKenzie transforms into fully realized arrangements, playing every instrument himself and using entirely organic, non-synthesized sounds.
"He’s a wonderful collaborator. He can hear the bass line I'm looking for, the rhythmic attitude I'm going for, and where the song needs to go. We typically go back and forth until we get it the way we both want it," enthused Rifkin.
For Rifkin, songwriting occupies a category entirely its own, and the path that led him here is as unconventional as the music itself. Best known as the television executive who brought Barney the Dinosaur to PBS, his career spans television, radio, podcasting, and authorship. In his mid-60s, after leaving radio, he turned his attention to piano, teaching himself through online courses and self-directed study until the songs he'd been carrying in his head finally had somewhere to go. The turning point came when his daughter and son-in-law, wanting to surprise him, commissioned MacKenzie to produce one of Rifkin's demos as a birthday gift. That moment sparked a collaboration that has since yielded forty-three songs across three albums, bridging generations as much as it does genres—MacKenzie is 28, and Rifkin turns 74 the day before the release.
"I've been a TV executive, an author, a radio talk show host, and a podcaster. They all have their own intricacies, but songwriting, I don't think people realize what goes into taking an idea from your head and sculpting it into something that lands lyrically and melodically. If I'm proud of anything, I'm proud that I’m taking the time to continue to hone this craft," beamed Rifkin.
"About Last Night" sets the tone for an album that marks a meaningful creative pivot for Rockaway. Where their first two albums, It's Not My Circus (2024) and Southern Border (2025), leaned heavily into political commentary, Wrong Side of Love redirects almost entirely toward love—its textures, complications, and quiet endurance. Songs like "Are You Still with Me, Carmelita?", written about Rifkin's wife of 48 years, sit alongside "Movin' On," a Curtis Mayfield-inflected empowerment anthem, and "For the Others," an ode to the miners of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster. Even "Sleeping with the Enemy," which completes a song previewed as a demo on Southern Border, finds its place here.
"Every morning, you can wake up on the wrong side of love, but like the album cover shows, a window with light coming through it, the sun might shine again," said Rifkin.
Accompanying the single is Rockaway's first-ever music video, put together by Matt Terribile, of Ace Tone Productions, along with a second teaser for "The Last American Housewife," a social commentary on traditional gender expectations. On the live front, album listening parties are being planned in Connecticut, while Rifkin is also considering open mic appearances where he performs the bare keyboard demo of a song before the fully produced version, offering audiences an intimate look at the journey from first instinct to finished record.
And while Larry and Alasdair trade lead vocals throughout the album, Danny Rivera lends his silky voice to the soul-infused lead on "Ring Shout," and Nancy Walecki offers up a female lead to complement Alasdair on the call and response tune "I Was Out There Looking for You."
"About Last Night" by Rockaway releases June 9 and will be available on all major streaming platforms with promotional support from Starlight PR. Stay connected with Rockaway across social media for updates on the full album Wrong Side of Love, music videos, and new music.
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Go run it up and stream “About Last Night” now!
