Monday Music "Runner" by Manfred Mann

I remembered this song and it played well in 1984 and I had a .45 of the single in my collection.  I then forgot about the song until I heard it this past week on my Sirius/XM 80's channel.  I still couldn't find out a lot about it.  It isn't on an album or anything unless they had it on a greatest hits compilation...which is possible.
    I do know of Manfred Mann Earth band from their song "Blinded by the light" which was a very popular song in the mid 1970's.   The song is a bit haunting to me and I can't believe that I forgot the song.


In 1984, the band issued the single "Runner", a cover of the song by Ian Thomas, which had been written in response to cancer sufferer Terry Fox and his run across Canada for cancer awareness...Fox had succumbed to the cancer before finishing. The Manfred Man version featured Thompson on lead vocals and Mick Rogers on backing vocals. The song was a non-LP single in the UK but was included on the US release of Somewhere in Afrika. It was a top 40 hit in both Canada and the US and was used during ABC's broadcasting of the 1984 Summer Olympics and in the film The Philadelphia Experiment. At 22 on the Hot 100 it was their biggest hit since "Blinded by the Light" and was the band's second highest-charting song, as well as their final US/UK chart single. In 1986, Thompson exited the group and Mick Rogers returned with both appearing on the album Criminal Tango. For 1987's Masque album, the band consisted solely of Mann, Rogers, and drummer John Lingwood. Shortly thereafter, the Earth Band name was retired for a number of years.