With their clean-cut look and frothy pop melodies, Haircut One Hundred became major sensations in the UK when their debut album Pelican West was released in late 1981. The album wouldn't hit the States until the following summer and although they wouldn't create quite the stir they had in England, their lone US Top 40 hit would become one of the more unusual and memorable hits of the early '80s. That track was Love Plus One . Sparkling pristine, the song had a breezy, island feel accentuated by congas and Latin percussion as well as [...]
In the late summer of 1981, San Francisco rock quintet Journey would release their eighth album, Escape , their fifth with lead singer Steve Perry. It was the album that would make the band, which had been a popular live act and staples on album rock radio throughout the '70s, and make them mainstream superstars, scoring numerous pop hits, in the '80s. It was hardly that Journey had no pop success prior to Escape . They had charted four songs into the US Top 40, but their biggest success to that point - 1979's Lovin', [...]
In 1980, young actress Irene Cara, who had already accumulated a long list of credits since childhood, was cast in the film Fame . The film, which chronicled the lives of students at the New York School For Performing Arts, featured Cara as an aspiring singer and dancer. As such, she contributed several songs to the film's soundtrack. Somewhat of a surprise hit that year, the soundtrack to Fame became a best-selling album, driven by the release of the title song sung by Cara. Featuring a synthesized melody and a disco-tinged dance beat, Cara's vocal [...]
<With their first two albums, 1981's Too Fast For Love and 1983's Shout At The Devil , the Los Angeles glam-metal band Mötley Crüe 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-exist ant. However, by the time Mötley Crüe's third album, Theatre Of Pain , arrived in the summer of 1985, things had changed. Hard rock acts like Quiet Riot and Ratt [...]
Following nearly fifteen years of major commercial success despite being an enormously popular live draw, the J. Geils Band broke through in a major way with the release of their album Freeze-Frame in late 1981. By tempering their blues and R&B-based sound in a more pop-friendly direction, the group saw the album and lead single Centerfold become #1 smashes, as well as subsequent singles Freeze-Frame and Angel In Blue become US Top 40 hits. However, at the height of the success, tensions between lead singer Peter Wolf and primary songwriter [...]
"S-A-F-E-T-Y. Safety. Dance." One of the most memorable spelling lessons in pop music history, those letters and words also introduced the music world to the the synth-pop stylings of the Canadian band Men Without Hats. Including brothers Ivan and Stefan Doroschuk, the group had formed in 1980 and released an EP which was re-released the following year on Britain's legendary Stiff label. In 1982, they would release their full-fledged debut, Rhythm Of Youth , which would become a hit in the States in 1983, following success around the world. Driving the success was the single The [...]
The daughter of a bassoonist for the New York Metropolitan Opera, pop songstress Melissa Manchester wrote commercial jingles and sang back-up for Bette Midler before embarking on a solo career in the mid-'70s. While notching Top Ten hits like Midnight Blue and Don't Cry Out Loud , Manchester also found success as a songwriter as well, including writing the smash duet between Kenny Loggins and Stevie Nicks, Whenever I Call You Friend . However, Manchester's first couple albums of the '80s saw her commercial fortunes flag as her albums didn't sell quite as well [...]
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 [...]
Scottish singer/songwriter Ali Thomson came from a family familiar with music stardom as older brother Doug was the bassist for the band Supertramp. At the height of that band's popularity, following their smash album Breakfast In America , Thomson secured a record deal with A&M Records, Supertramp's label. If his brother's connections helped, Thomson certainly proved himself deserving when his debut album was released in 1980. Entitled Take A Little Rhythm , the melodic title song was issued as Thomson's debut single in the summer of 1980 and it quickly caught the attention of listeners. With [...]
For as much success as singer/songwriter Billy Joel had during the late '70s - a period where over the course of three albums, he notched hits like Just The Way You Are , My Life , and Only The Good Die Young - the '80s proved to be even more hit-laden for the piano man. From 1980 through the end of 1984, Joel released 14 songs that became US Top 40 hits - five of them reaching the Top Ten. Following 1983's An Innocent Man album, which spawned six Top 40 singles, [...]
More than a few acts from the '80s had their sound overshadowed by their video image and the New York band Scandal is one example. The quintet had one of the best-selling EPs of all time in 1983 when their self-titled debut spun off two hits, Goodbye To You and Love's Got A Line On You (although both failed to reach the US Top 40). In 1984, they released their first full-length album, The Warrior , and like their debut, it was filled with catchy, straight-ahead pop-rock. The title song was tabbed as [...]
One of the more curious hit makers of the '80s was undoubtedly Indonesian-born Taco Ockerse. Recording under the name of Taco, the singer recorded an album recreating hits from the '30s, as well as originals in the vein of that period, all given a bit of synth-pop twists. It was unusual musical course to take, but it proved to be a successful one (albeit short-term success). Released in the summer of 1983, Taco's debut, After Eight , received little initial fanfare. As a single, an update of the song Puttin' On The Ritz was issued. [...]
Toward the end of 1981, Los Angeles' The Go-Go's scored their first hit with Our Lips Our Sealed and, as 1982 began, they stormed the charts with its even more successful follow-up, We Got The Beat , which reached #2 on the pop charts and helped the band's debut album, Beauty And The Beat , become a #1 album. As the all-female band readied their sophomore album for a summer release in 1982, they had become a cultural phenomenon, including their famous Rolling Stone cover shot which featured the five band mates [...]
Although he hailed from Baltimore, singer/songwriter Greg Kihn found his way to San Francisco in the mid-70s, becoming a part of that city's rich pop music history. Strongly influenced by '60s guitar pop, Kihn became a successful local act during the late '70s with his band, embraced by fans for his straight-forward style of power pop. By 1981, Kihn and his band had released half a dozen albums, each one selling better than the previous, but he had yet to break out on a national scale. That changed with Rockihnroll , lucky album number seven, when it [...]
New Jersey-born singer/songwriter Benny Mardones holds the rare distinction of being a one-hit wonder who twice had a US Top 40 hit with the same song. Mardones managed to place his song Into The Night into the Top 40 nearly a decade apart. Although it would be his only hit song, there are few listeners to radio during the '80s to whom the song is unfamiliar. Mardones had released one album, when, in 1980, he issued Never Run, Never Hide . From it, Into The Night was chosen as a single and listeners [...]
Aside from Madonna, there might not have been a more popular female singer in the world in 1985 than Tina Turner. Returning from years of absence, Turner had released the album Private Dancer in early 1984 and, in addition to selling millions of copies, it had spawned five Top 40 singles, including three Top Ten hits - What's Love Got To Do With It , Better Be Good To Me , and the title track. In fact, at the time of the release of the movie Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome in the [...]
Singer John Waite was hardly unfamiliar to radio listeners when his album No Brakes arrived in the summer of 1984. As lead singer for the British band The Babys, Waite's voice was the one on that group's hits Isn't It Time , Everytime I Think Of You , and Back On My Feet Again , prior to their breakup in 1981. Waite's solo debut Ignition had misfired in 1982, failing to produce any sizable hits (although the single Change would belated chart in 1985 after appearing on the Vision Quest [...]
UK bassist Martin Briley spent the first half of the '70s in several bands, none of them having more than fringe followings among music fans. By the latter half of the decade, he had established himself as a session player including work with noted rocker Ian Hunter as well as pursuing a solo career with his debut album in 1981. It was two years later that Briley broke through with the single The Salt In My Tears . The song, taken from his second solo album One Night With A Stranger , began to receive pockets [...]
When Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young formed in 1968, the union brought together members of The Byrds, Buffalo Springfield, and The Hollies, making it one of the first supergroups in rock music history. During the next three years, the band played Woodstock, released two albums that went to #1, and had hits with classic songs including Suite: Judy Blue Eyes , Ohio , Teach Your Children , and Woodstock . However, the musical marriage was a volatile one and the four artists played in various permutations of the original line-up through much of the [...]
Comprised of veteran players, both American and British from several rock bands of the early '70s like Spooky Tooth , Foreigner not only became one of the success stories of the late '70s, but, rightly or wrongly, helped the term "corporate rock" enter the lexicon of music fans. Their first two albums produced a string of Top Ten singles, but their third album, 1979's Head Games , failed to generate the same commercial success. They were determined to return to glory with their next release, the appropriately titled 4 in 1981. Heralding the album's arrival [...]
Pop Go The '80s
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Princesse - Tell Me | MP3
