With a line-up that included members of '70s stalwarts such as Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Yes, and Uriah Heep, Asia not only helped popularize the term "supergroup," but they also scored the biggest-selling album of 1982 with their self-titled debut. While it wasn't surprising that the release found favor with rock audiences, the group managed to become immensely popular with pop audiences, notching a pair of hit singles with Heat Of The Moment and Only Time Will Tell (the former climbing to #4 on the charts). Asia's follow-up, Alpha , [...]
Producer and composer Jim Steinman first crossed paths with singer Marvin Lee Aday, better known as Meat Loaf, when the latter was in the cast of an off-Broadway musical penned by the former. Several years later, the two formed a creative team as Steinman wrote and produced Meat Loaf's phenomenally successful Bat Out Of Hell debut. Released in 1978, that album spawned a trio of US Top 40 singles and was one of the best-selling albums of the '70s. By 1981, Steinman had grown weary of waiting for Meat Loaf to be able to record a follow-up to [...]
Singer/songwriter Kenny Loggins got his start as a staff songwriter, penning songs for Nitty Gritty Dirt Band before uniting with former Poco member Jim Messina, who had been tabbed to produce Loggins' debut album as an artist. The union lasted for five years, during which time the duo of Loggins & Messina released eight albums and notched a trio of US Top 40 hits, including the #4 hit Your Mama Don't Dance in 1972. Loggins' solo career got off to an even more successful start in the late '70s when he quickly scored hits like [...]
With their first two albums, 1981's Too Fast For Love and 1983's Shout At The Devil , the Los Angeles glam-metal band Motely Crue had become one of the most popular acts in metal circles. Although Shout At The Devil had sold millions of copies and even spawned several videos that received heavy airplay on MTV, radio play was still practically non-existent. However, by the time Motley Crue's third album, Theatre Of Pain , arrived in the summer of 1985, things had changed. Hard rock acts like Quiet Riot and Ratt had [...]
With the twin-guitar attack of Jeff Watson and Brad Gillis - the latter having filled in with Ozzy Osbourne for the late Randy Rhoads - San Francisco's Night Ranger clicked with rock fans on their 1983 debut Dawn Patrol . The group also managed to crossover to a pop audience with the #40 single Don't Tell Me You Love Me . Their 1983 follow-up, Midnight Madness , looked as though it would keep the band in a holding pattern when its lead single (You Can Still) Rock In America stalled at #51 on [...]
During the '70s, the folk-inflected pop/rock of the trio America found great favor in an era when singer-songwriters were staples on pop radio. The group released a string of hit singles, including A Horse With No Name , Tin Man , Lonely People , and Sister Golden Hair , which would still receive airplay on oldies stations more than twenty years later. However, by the late '70s, America's sound had become passe and each subsequent release proved to have less of an impact with listeners. By 1977, founding member Dan Peek had left the [...]
One-time New York police officer Eddie Money burst onto the music scene with his self-titled 1977 debut, notching a pair of Top 40 hits and rock radio staples with Baby Hold Onto Me and Two Tickets To Paradise . His next several albums, though, failed to duplicate that success and by the beginning of the '80s, it appeared that Money's career had stalled. Then came his 1982 release, No Control . Arriving in late summer, the album quickly spawned a radio hit with Think I'm In Love . Like his earlier work, [...]
By the time Ronnie Milsap released his album There's No Gettin' Over Me in 1981, he had already become a country music superstar. Blind since the age of five, Milsap had been a member of guitarist J.J. Cale's band in the late '60s and gone on to notch a string of top-selling albums and more than a dozen #1 hit on the country singles chart in the '70s. Milsap had not been able to duplicate his success with pop audiences, only managing one lone crossover hit when It Was Almost Like A Song reached #16 on [...]
Formed in the late '60s by Jeff Lynne and Roy Wood, Electric Light Orchestra aimed to fuse modern pop music with classical overtones. Although the band's initial acceptance was lukewarm, by the end of the '70s ELO was one of the most successful and popular acts in pop music. By the time the '80s arrived, the group had amassed nearly twenty chart singles in the US with thirteen of them making the Top 40 and five reaching the Top Ten including Evil Woman , Telephone Line , and Don't Bring Me Down . ELO's first [...]
From their beginnings as a jazz-tinged ensemble in the early '70s and through the rest of the decade, when they scored hits with funk-driven songs like Jungle Boogie , Hollywood Swinging , and Ladies Night , Kool & The Gang had always been known for their upbeat, party anthems. The '80s saw that trend continue with the ubiquitous Celebration and, although they became increasingly pop-influenced, it was lively songs with which they were identified. So, it was a bit of a departure when they released the single Cherish in the late [...]
Californian musician Tony Carey spent time playing keyboards for hard rock band Rainbow in the '70s before relocating to Germany and pursuing a solo career. Forming a musical partnership with German producer Peter Hauke, he had earned radio play with the song Why Me under the name Planet P Project in 1983, as well as some minor hits as a soloist with songs including I Won't Be Home Tonight . In 1984, Carey released his second solo album, Some Tough City , on which he played virtually every instrument. Culled as the lead single, [...]
Hailing from Sheffield, Human League was one of the first New Wave acts to breakthrough in the US. Although their success in the States lagged behind that in the UK, their single Don't You Want Me topped the US charts during the summer of 1982, propelling its parent album Dare! into the Top Ten. Although the group failed to notch a follow-up hit, they received a Grammy nomination as Best New Artist in early 1983. Recording a follow-up album to Dare! proved to be difficult and by the summer of 1983, it [...]
Few American acts had more success and were a more ubiquitous presence on radio during the '70s than the band Chicago. From their beginnings in the late '60s as an ambitious horn-driven group fusing progressive rock, pop, and jazz, Chicago became a more streamlined, focused pop entity during the decade with ten Top Ten albums, including six #1s, and a string of smash singles like Colour My World , Saturday In The Park , and If You Leave Me Now . The accidental death of guitarist and founding member Terry Kath in 1978 sent Chicago [...]
In 1981, Phil Collins successfully launched a solo career parallel to his role as the lead singer of Genesis. Face Value saw him actually surpass the commercial fortunes of the band with the album reaching the Top Ten and it's first single, the horn-driven I Missed Again , climbing to #19. The album's second single went in an entirely different direction. Where I Missed Again was upbeat and almost playful, In The Air Tonight was filled with menace and dread. Featuring a now-classic, cavernous drum sound and Collins' echoed vocals, the [...]
Texas singer/songwriter Christopher Cross was the years-in-the-making overnight sensation of 1980. Despite fronting rock bands and earning a regional following, Cross spent much of the '70s trying to secure a record deal. When he finally did, he scored with his first single, Ride Like The Wind , which climbed to #2 on the pop charts in the spring of 1980. The song, which was the most rock-oriented track on his self-titled debut, was atypical of most of his material which was heavy on ballads and upbeat soft pop. With the second single from Christopher Cross [...]
British guitarist John Parr received his introduction to American listeners in early 1985 when his song Naughty, Naughty , a slice of melodic hard rock, climbed to #22 on the pop charts. It would be one of only two US Top 40 hits for Parr, but the song is probably remembered by far fewer music fans than his other one. That song, St. Elmo's Fire (Man In Motion) , would become a hit during the summer of 1985 and prove to be a far bigger hit for Parr. The song had a built-in audience as it [...]
Drummer Sheila E. was well-prepared for the success she found with the the release of the debut album in the summer of 1984. The daughter of Latin jazz percussionist Pete Escovedo, Sheila had been performing with his band since her teens. She had also recently provided vocals to the Prince song Erotic City , which had been the b-side to his #1 hit Let's Go Crazy (and she would become a member of his band in 1987). It was also Prince that wrote the title song for Sheila E.'s debut album The Glamorous Life [...]
Born in Argentina and raised in the UK, singer/songwriter Chris DeBurgh had reached superstar status in much of Europe and South America when he released his album The Gataway in May of 1983. However, during a career that had already spanned nearly ten years, he had been ignored in the US and UK. Produced by Rupert Hine (The Fixx, Howard Jones), The Getaway featured a heavier reliance on keyboards and, as keyboard-dominate acts were prospering, it proved to break DeBurgh in both the US and England. Driving the breakthrough success was the single [...]
With the their 1980 album Lost In Love and 1981's follow-up The One That You Love , Air Supply and their soft rock sound had become international stars. Both albums had gone multi-platinum and the Aussie act had scored a streak of six consecutive Top Ten singles, all of them reaching the Top Five. They were one of the greatest success stories of the early '80s even if they were critically mocked. In the summer of 1982, Air Supply returned with their album Now And Forever and the first single, Even The [...]
Born William McCord, Jr., Bill Vera found moderate success in the '60s as an artist and songwriter, penning songs for acts including Barbara Lewis and Rick Nelson. In the '70s, Vera saw Dolly Parton take his song I Really Got The Feeling to the top of the country charts. With friend and bassist Chuck Fiore, Vera put together a '50s-styled rock band christened The Beaters, which proved to be a popular live draw on the Los Angeles club scene in the late '70s. Signing to a small label, the group released Billy & The Beaters in [...]
Pop Go The '80s
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Who is BANKS?
The sweet gospel joy of Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros...
