According to their website, there have been a whopping 19 different lineups of the band Orleans since their 1972 start, and they’ve been an active unit in all but three of those years since then.

“I’ve tried to honor everybody, but yes, that’s a lot!” laughs the longest serving member of all those incarnations—bassist/singer Lance Hoppen—via Zoom from his home. He was still a teenager when he joined the group started by his brother Larry Hoppen (guitar/keyboards), John Hall (lead vocals/guitar), and Wells Kelly (drums/keyboards) shortly after the founding.

And it is he who leads the current lineup that will bring two shows including their troika of lasting hits “Still the One,” “Dance with Me,” and “Love Takes Time” to Tomball’s Main Street Crossing on March 15.

“What we have now is a different animal then the ’70s band. That was more funky, improvisational, and explorative. We wanted to push boundaries, but everyone was looking for their space,” he says, adding that members might also leave and then come back. “This version has a lot more pop, with five strong singers who all sing lead at one point. And it’s a band band. It’s not me with four guys backing me.”

The rest of the band today includes Tom Lane (guitar), Brady Spencer (drums), Tony Hooper (guitar), and his younger brother Lane Hoppen (keyboards). The Hoppens share most of the lead vocals.

“There’s history thrown in as well, but not too much,” he continues. “I’ve very pleased and proud of this band. And of course, we culminate with ‘Still the One.’”

Ah yes, “Still the One.” It’s the band’s highest charting hit, reaching #5 in 1976. The buoyantly upbeat tune is about a man who tells his longtime love that after all these years “they’re still having fun.” Written by member John Hall and his then-wife Johanna, it also got a ton of airplay when the ABC network first used it as its theme song to promo the 1977-78 television season, then again in 1979-80 (both versions of the song were re-recorded by some peppy studio singers).

That means plenty of Gen Xers waiting to watch “The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries,” “The Six Million Dollar Man,” “Happy Days,” “Laverne & Shirley,” and “Three’s Company” had it drilled into their heads. It was an early use of an existing hit song used in advertising.

“It’s still one of the most licensed songs every for TV and movies and commercials and political campaigns. It’s a publishing deal. They have to get rights to use the song, then they can use the original or a soundalike or a live version,” Hoppen explains.

He adds that John Hall was already “itching to leave” the band to go solo, and this lucrative deal for he and his wife perhaps made it easier to do so soon after. “It led to the [classic lineup] breakup, which everyone in retrospect believed was a very, very bad idea!”

The album it came from was Waking and Dreaming. The title track would be considered Orleans’ “epic” song, and features some of Hoppen’s best bass playing. “It was challenging to record, and it was always challenging to play live,” Hoppen says. “And since it doesn’t have an ending, it transitioned to the next song.”

The album cover features the five members (by now including drummer Jerry Marotta) posting shirtless together. In the years since it’s also held a famous (or infamous) position as one of the weirdest or worst album covers of all time. And in fact, Hoppen notes it is one of six chosen to be featured on the cover of the 2004 book The Worst Album Covers Ever.

He’s maintained a good humor about it, though, adding that the band never intended to show skin at all when they showed up for the photo shoot.

“That was nobody’s idea!” Hoppen laughs. “We were sent to the studio of [rock photographer] Norman Seef, and it was very L.A. There were models walking around and wine. And we’re doing the shoot and Norman says ‘Hey guys, you are so stiff! Take your shirts off and see what happens!’ And then took photos of all of us with our eyes open, and then our eyes closed.”

In the final product though, Hoppen says that Seef airbrushed Hall’s face in reverse from the second shot, so his “closed” pose contrasts with everyone else’s “open.” That’s reversed on the back cover, where Hall is looking at the listener and everyone else has their peepers closed. But it’s on point.

“That’s the ‘Waking’ and ‘Dreaming’—but nobody ever gets that!” Hoppen laughs. “And we were not completely naked, only from the waist up. Wal-Mart would not even carry it! But no one talks about the Pablo Cruise where they are stark naked. They’re just kneeling!” (That would be 1976’s Lifeline).

By that time, Orleans had already been pegged as a “soft rock” band since the year earlier, their first hit “Dance with Me” went to #6 on the charts. And it stuck, even though material like “Cold Spell” were deep cut rockers.

“We were more of a rock, funky, college band. And then ‘Dance with Me’ came out of the blue as an anomaly. But that’s what broke through and we got kind of pushed into the MOR thing,” Hoppen says. “We then toured with Melissa Manchester while—no shade on her—it was that kind of [soft rock] audience. We then toured with Little Feat, and that’s where we belonged.”

Another genre that Orleans gets lumped into is Yacht Rock. Their hits are often found on YR playlists, and behind Hoppen’s head on the Zoom is a poster for the 2013“Sailing Rock” tour they were on alongside Christopher Cross, Firefall, Gary Wright, John Ford Coley, Robbie Dupree, Player, and Al Stewart.

Music nerds of course, will debate the credentials of some of those, under the auspice that “All Yacht Rock is Soft Rock, but not all Soft Rock is Yacht Rock.” The originators of the web series that gave the genre its name even have a website, www.yachtornyacht.com, which ranks performers and songs by their Yachtiness.

When I show Hoppen the grid for Orleans, he’d never seen it before and is surprised that the only song in their catalog that gets even a passing grade on the boat is the 1982 deep cut “I Found Someone.”

“That got no airplay whatsoever! But that’s interesting they even know about that song!” Hoppen says. “We are tangentially Yacht Rock, but not mainstream.”

In recent years, Orleans has put out a mixture of brand-new material, remixes, re-recorded songs, YouTube videos, and even a Christmas album that was recorded wholly remotely during the COVID lockdown.

He notes that it’s difficult for a classic band to find an audience for new material, though he says that Orleans is working on songs. He has several things in the works, and feels the band has “one last capper album” in them, that may also include some compilation and live material. He and Hall are still in communication (of the “original” quartet, Wells Kelly died in 1984 and Larry Hoppen in 2012). Hall actually had an entire other career in 2007-2011 representing New York in the U.S. House of Representatives.

As to if he feels any extra pressure as the “last man standing” of the classic lineup in the current band, Hoppen says it is a mixture of pressure and responsibility. But as long as bookers and promoters and audiences still want to see the band, he’s willing—at the age of 71—to go out. And he addresses the group’s evolution and changes during the show.

Finally, Hoppen says that while he does not have any particular memories of Houston over the years, the night before the band will be playing in New Braunfels. That’s near where Hoppen’s daughter and three grandchildren (ages 14, 11 and 8) live, because his military-career son-in-law is based at San Antonio’s Fort Sam Houston.

“This will be good to play in front of the grandkids. And the oldest will be working the merch table!” he laughs. “Having them experience Poppy onstage will be a cool thing. And Grandad really is the best gig.”

For more on Orleans, visit OrleansOnline.net

This interview originally appeared at HoustonPress.com