Ignazio Deddu1985) For most of the 80's Oingo Boingo was to L.A. and Orange County what the Grateful Dead was to San Francisco. Oingo Boingo developed the kind of fan following that made every appearance an event. They were "our band", and we believed they knew and appreciated our enthusiasm.
If you must compare them to any other groups, I think Madness would come close; Not so much for musical styling as for their composition. Both groups were mini-orchestras, and to see them on stage was to behold brilliant chaos.
Musically, they were one of a kind. Sonically bright and cheerful, lyrically questioning and slightly morbid, they were at the forefront of what became known as New Wave.
To those who are not familiar with their songs, they can be intimidating and strange (think Sparks, if you're familiar with them).
Their most accessible songs are Dead Man's Party, Weird Science and I Love Little Girls: listen to these a couple of times and the rest of their catalog will come easier.
SoCal remembers our house band, and we miss them very, very much.
Oingo Boingo - Weird ScienceIgnazio Deddu2010-02-03 | 1985) For most of the 80's Oingo Boingo was to L.A. and Orange County what the Grateful Dead was to San Francisco. Oingo Boingo developed the kind of fan following that made every appearance an event. They were "our band", and we believed they knew and appreciated our enthusiasm.
If you must compare them to any other groups, I think Madness would come close; Not so much for musical styling as for their composition. Both groups were mini-orchestras, and to see them on stage was to behold brilliant chaos.
Musically, they were one of a kind. Sonically bright and cheerful, lyrically questioning and slightly morbid, they were at the forefront of what became known as New Wave.
To those who are not familiar with their songs, they can be intimidating and strange (think Sparks, if you're familiar with them).
Their most accessible songs are Dead Man's Party, Weird Science and I Love Little Girls: listen to these a couple of times and the rest of their catalog will come easier.
SoCal remembers our house band, and we miss them very, very much.The Police - Every Breath You TakeIgnazio Deddu2011-06-14 | 1983) The Police were an English rock band formed in London in 1977. For the vast majority of their history, the band consisted of Sting (lead vocals, bass), Andy Summers (guitars) and Stewart Copeland (drums). The Police became globally popular in the late 1970s and are generally regarded as one of the first New Wave groups to achieve mainstream success, playing a style of rock that was influenced by punk, reggae, and jazz. Their 1983 album, Synchronicity, was number one on both the UK Album Chart and the US Billboard 200, and sold over 8,000,000 copies in the US. The group disbanded in 1984, but reunited in early 2007 for a one-off world tour lasting until August 2008. The Police have sold more than 50 million albums worldwide, and were the world's highest-earning musicians in 2008, thanks to their reunion tour.Kool And Tha Gang - FreshIgnazio Deddu2011-06-14 | 1984) Kool & The Gang are an American jazz, R&B, soul, funk and disco group, originally formed in Jersey City, New Jersey in 1964.
They went through several musical phases during the course of their recording career, starting out with a purist jazz sound, then becoming practitioners of R&B and funk, progressing to a smooth pop-funk ensemble, and in the post-millennium creating music with a modern, electro-pop sound.
They have sold over 70 million albums worldwide.George Clinton - Atomic DogIgnazio Deddu2010-09-09 | 1982) The mastermind of the Parliament/Funkadelic collective during the 1970s, George Clinton broke up both bands by 1981 and began recording solo albums, occasionally performing live with his former bandmates as the P.Funk All-Stars. Born in Kannapolis, NC, on July 22, 1940, Clinton became interested in doo wop while living in New Jersey during the early '50s. He formed the Parliaments in 1955, based out of a barbershop back room where he straightened hair. The group had a small R&B hit during 1967, but Clinton began to mastermind the Parliaments' activities two years later. Recording both as Parliament and Funkadelic, the group revolutionized R&B during the '70s, twisting soul music into funk by adding influences from several late-'60s acid heroes: Jimi Hendrix, Frank Zappa, and Sly Stone. The Parliament/Funkadelic machine ruled black music during the '70s, capturing over 40 R&B hit singles (including three number ones) and recording three platinum albums.
By 1980, George Clinton began to be weighed down by legal difficulties arising from Polygram's acquisition of Parliament's label, Casablanca. Jettisoning both the Parliament and Funkadelic names (but not the musicians), Clinton signed to Capitol in 1982 both as a solo act and as the P.Funk All-Stars. His first solo album, 1982's Computer Games, contained the Top 20 R&B hit "Loopzilla." Several months later, the title track from Clinton's Atomic Dog EP hit number one on the R&B charts; it stayed at the top spot for four weeks, but only managed number 101 on the pop charts. Clinton stayed on Capitol for three more years, releasing three studio albums and frequently charting singles -- "Nubian Nut," "Last Dance," "Do Fries Go With That Shake" -- in the R&B Top 40. During much of the three-year period from 1986 to 1989, Clinton became embroiled in legal difficulties (resulting from the myriad royalty problems latent during the '70s with recordings of over 40 musicians for four labels under three names). Also problematic during the latter half of the '80s was Clinton's disintegrating reputation as a true forefather of rock; by the end of the decade, however, a generation of rappers reared on P-Funk were beginning to name check him.
In 1989, Clinton signed a contract with Prince's Paisley Park label and released his fifth solo studio album, The Cinderella Theory. After one more LP for Paisley Park (Hey Man, Smell My Finger), Clinton signed with Sony 550. His first release, 1996's T.A.P.O.A.F.O.M. ("the awesome power of a fully operational mothership"), reunited the funk pioneer with several of his Parliament/Funkadelic comrades from the '70s. Clinton's Greatest Funkin' Hits (1996) teamed old P-Funk hits with new-school rappers such as Digital Underground, Ice Cube, and Q-Tip. [See Also: Parliament, Funkadelic] ~ John Bush, RoviDepeche Mode - Enjoy The SilenceIgnazio Deddu2010-09-04 | 1990) Depeche Mode are an English electronic music band which formed in 1980, in Basildon, Essex. The group's original line-up consisted of Dave Gahan (lead vocals), Martin Gore (keyboards, guitar, vocals, chief songwriter after 1981), Andrew Fletcher (keyboards) and Vince Clarke (keyboards, chief songwriter 1980--81). Vince Clarke left the band after the release of their 1981 debut album, Speak & Spell, and was replaced by Alan Wilder (keyboards, drums) with Gore taking over songwriting. Wilder left the band in 1995 and since then Gahan, Gore, and Fletcher have continued as a trio.
Depeche Mode have had forty-eight songs in the UK Singles Chart and #1 albums in UK, US and throughout Europe. According to EMI, Depeche Mode have sold over 100 million albums and singles worldwide, making them the most successful electronic band in music history. Q magazine calls Depeche Mode "The most popular electronic band the world has ever known".
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"Enjoy the Silence" is Depeche Mode's twenty-fourth UK single, released on February 5, 1990, and the second single from the then upcoming album Violator. "Enjoy the Silence" was re-released as a single in 2004 for the Depeche Mode remix project Remixes 81 - 04, and was titled "Enjoy the Silence (Reinterpreted)" or, more simply, "Enjoy the Silence 04". The "Reinterpreted" version was remixed by Mike Shinoda, the rapper and producer for the American nu metal/alternative rock band Linkin Park. As it is one of Depeche Mode's most well-known songs to date, it has been recorded as a cover version by many other artists, including Breaking Benjamin, Keane, Tori Amos, Lacuna Coil, Nada Surf, Entwine, Failure, It Dies Today, Evergreen Terrace, Tanghetto, The Academy Is... with Cobra Starship, Anberlin, HIM, Matthew Good, Bell X1, Apoptygma Berzerk, and No Use for a Name. Today, many people consider this as Depeche Mode's signature song.Beastie Boys - (You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party!)Ignazio Deddu2010-06-08 | 1987) Many elements of the music video for 'Fight for Your Right' appear to be influenced by George A. Romero's zombie horror movie "Dawn of the Dead". During Dawn of the Dead a biker gang infiltrates a shopping mall and attacks the zombies with (amongst other things) pies-in-the-face. At one point a biker even smashes television set with a sledge-hammer, just like MCA in this video.
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Beastie Boys are an American hip-hop group from Brooklyn, New York. The group comprises Michael "Mike D" Diamond, Adam "MCA" Yauch, and Adam "Ad-Rock" Horovitz. A fourth less-known Beastie Boy is John Jacobs who grew up Long Island. He is actually the firm bedrock in which the group has built their dynasty. His stage name "The Notorious Jay Cobbz" has since been retired. He is forever enshrined as one of Hip Hop's all-time greatests. Since around the time of the Hello Nasty album, the DJ for the group has been Michael "Mix Master Mike" Schwartz, who was first featured in the song "Three MCs and One DJ".
Beastie Boys began as a hardcore punk group in 1979, appeared on the compilation cassette New York Thrash with Riot Fight and Beastie, and released their debut EP in 1982. After achieving moderate local success with the 1983 release of experimental hip-hop 12" Cooky Puss, they switched to hip-hop in 1984 and a string of successful 12" singles followed culminating with their debut album Licensed to Ill (1986) which received international critical acclaim and commercial success.
They are one of the longest lived hip-hop acts worldwide and continue to enjoy commercial and critical success in 2009, more than 25 years after the release of their debut album. On September 27, 2007, they were nominated for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In 2009, the group released digitally remastered deluxe editions of their albums Paul's Boutique, Check Your Head', Ill Communication and Hello Nasty.Mary Jane Girls - In My HouseIgnazio Deddu2010-05-05 | 1984) Just as Vanity 6 and Apollonia 6 wouldn't have existed without Prince, the Mary Jane Girls were created by Rick James and were very much a product of the funkster's imagination. The group's name was coined in the late '70s, when James hired them as background singers for his Stone City Band. The Mary Jane Girls (whose name underscored James' fondness for marijuana) soon became an actual group, and in the early '80s were signed to Motown (the R&B powerhouse for which James and his protégée Teena Marie had been recording). With a lineup consisting of Joanne "Jojo" McDuffie (the main singer), Candice "Candi" Ghant, Kim "Maxi" Wuletich, and Ann "Cheri" Bailey, the Mary Jane Girls portrayed various characters James had developed -- while JoJo was the tough street chick and Candi was the glamorous supermodel, Cheri was the cutesy Valley Girl and Maxi was the whip-toting, handcuff-carrying dominatrix in black leather. In 1985, Ann "Cheri" Bailey was replaced by Yvette "Corvette" Marine.
James did all of the writing and producing on the Mary Jane Girls' self-titled debut album of 1983 (which boasted such hits as the infectious "Candy Man" and the sexy, irresistible "All Night Long") as well as on the group's sophomore effort of 1985, Only Four You. That album contained the number three R&B hit "In My House" and the number ten R&B hit "Wild and Crazy Love." The only song James didn't write for the group was a 1986 cover of Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons' "Walk Like a Man," which was included in the comedy film A Fine Mess.
Regrettably, the Mary Jane Girls never recorded a third album. James had a major falling out with Motown in the mid-'80s, and this would lead to the group's breakup. When Ghant was working at the music-industry trade magazine Black Radio Exclusive in 1986, she told On the Scene magazine that she hoped to see the Mary Jane Girls continue and work with hit producers/songwriters Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. But that never came about. By 1987, the group had officially broken up. ~ Alex Henderson, All Music GuideLevel 42 - Something About YouIgnazio Deddu2010-05-05 | 1985) The music video of Something About You is directed by Stuart Orme, who also directed videos for the Level 42 songs "Lessons in Love" and "Running in the Family" as well as Phil Collins and Genesis. The music video appears in their video album Family of Five, released in 1987. Mark King is characterized as a dark magician, it represents the negative side of the relationship of Mike Lindup, Phil, and Boon Gould with their girlfriends; all played by actress Cherie Lunghi. ________________________________
At the beginning of their career, Level 42 was a jazz-funk fusion band, following in the footsteps of such pioneers as Stanley Clarke. By the end of the '80s, they were a pop-R&B band with a number of hit singles to their credit. Featuring Mark King (bass, vocals), Phil Gould (drums), Boon Gould (guitar), and Mike Lindup (keyboards), the band formed in 1980. Before they released their first single, "Love Meeting Love," the band was pushed to add vocals to their music in order to give it a more commercial sound; they complied, with King becoming the lead singer. Released in 1981, their self-titled debut album was a slick soul-R&B collection that charted in the U.K. Top 20, resulting in the release of The Early Tapes by their former record label, Polydor. Level 42 had several minor hit singles before 1984's "The Sun Goes Down (Living It Up)" hit the British Top Ten. Released in late 1985, World Machine broke the band worldwide; "Lessons in Love" hit number one in Britain and "Something About You" hit number seven in America. Their next two records, Running in the Family (1987) and Staring at the Sun (1988), were a big success in the U.K., yet only made some headway in the U.S. Both of the Gould brothers left the band in late 1987; they were replaced by guitarist Alan Murphy and drummer Gary Husband. Murphy died of AIDS-related diseases in 1989; he was replaced by the renowned fusion guitarist Alan Holdsworth for 1991's Guaranteed. The band followed Guaranteed in 1995 with Forever Now. Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music GuideKatrina & The Waves - Walking On SunshineIgnazio Deddu2010-02-22 | "Walking on Sunshine" and national success (1985-1989)
For the first Capitol album, the band re-recorded, remixed, or overdubbed 10 songs from their earlier Canadian releases to create their self-titled international debut album in 1985.
The Katrina and the Waves album was a substantial critical and commercial success, and the group had a worldwide hit with the song "Walking on Sunshine," (#9 US, #8 UK) (a completely re-recorded, and substantially rearranged version of the song when compared to its initial 1983 Canada-only release). A Grammy award nominee for "Best New Artist" followed, as did constant touring, both of which helped to spur moderate sales of new releases.
A follow-up single to "Walking on Sunshine" called "Do You Want Crying" (written by de la Cruz) also became a top 40 US hit reaching #37 in the late summer of 1985.
However, the band's follow-up album to Katrina and the Waves (simply entitled Waves) didn't meet with the same measure of success, either critically or commercially. Rew wrote only two of the ten songs on the LP; de la Cruz and Leskanich each wrote four. Drummer Cooper, interviewed some years later, claimed "It was (a) mistake when we started taking over from Kimberley in the musical contribution side. The second Capitol album was awful...".
The album did spin off a minor UK and US hit in the form of the Rew-penned "Is That It?" (#70 US, #82 UK), and "Sun Street" (a de la Cruz composition) was a UK Top 30 hit in 1986. However, Capitol dropped the band after the Waves album didn't perform to expectations.
The band subsequently recorded a 1989 album for SBK Records called Break of Hearts, a harder, more rock-oriented effort than their previous releases. The album included "That's the Way" which reached #16 in the US (credited to Leskanich/Rew), but subsequent singles, including the infectious "Rock'n'Roll Girl", failed to chart, and the band once again was dropped from their label.Cameo - CandyIgnazio Deddu2010-02-17 | ...The Power Station - Some Like It HotIgnazio Deddu2010-02-16 | 1985) Despite Duran Duran ruling the earth by late 1984 (due to countless hits and sold-out tours), the band had completely burned themselves out with a non-stop, grueling work schedule. 1985 was supposed to be a year-long break for its members from band duties, but its five members ultimately formed two separate side-projects: the Power Station, which was comprised of Duranee's John Taylor (bass) and Andy Taylor (guitar), plus solo artist Robert Palmer (vocals) and ex-Chic member Tony Thompson (drums); as well as Arcadia, which featured the three other Duran members, singer Simon Lebon, keyboardist Nick Rhodes, and drummer Roger Taylor.
The formation of the Power Station came as a complete accident, as John Taylor was dating model/groupie Bebe Buell at the time, and offered to assemble a funky version of T. Rex's classic rocker, "Bang a Gong (Get It On)," for Buell to contribute vocals to (with Andy Taylor and Tony Thompson joining the proceedings). But before the recording could take place, Taylor and Buell split up. The trio decided to press on, however (having already demoed several originals, as well), with a plan to have several different noted pop singers provide vocals. Robert Palmer was invited to sing on a track, but with the vocalist and the rest of the band extremely impressed with the results, Palmer ended up singing on all of the resulting album's eight tracks. Issued in early 1985, the quartet's self-titled debut was a sizeable hit, due to a pair of monster hit singles which merged rock with a dance edge, the original tune "Some Like It Hot" and the aforementioned cover of "Bang a Gong." The album's immediate commercial success prompted the group to organize a supporting tour, but surprisingly, Palmer pulled out just a few days before the tour's launch.
The Power Station first attempted to lure Paul Young into the group (who had just scored a hit with the ballad, "Everytime You Go Away"), before settling on former-Silverhead frontman Michael Des Barres. Despite an appearance at the mammoth Live Aid benefit festival in July of 1985, the bandmembers decided to call it quits upon the tour's completion. As a side note, the band member's temporary "break" from Duran Duran failed to recharge their batteries, as both Andy and Roger Taylor split from the band shortly thereafter, while Palmer would go on to issue some of the '80s biggest pop hits, including "Addicted to Love" and "Simply Irresistible." Surprisingly, the original Power Station lineup re-formed almost exactly ten years later, issuing a sophomore effort, Living in Fear, in 1996. Unsurprisingly, the album failed to replicate its predecessor's success. ~ Greg Prato, All Music Guide .Sheena Easton - You Could Have Been With MeIgnazio Deddu2010-02-16 | 1981) 1980s pop diva Sheena Easton was born Sheena Shirley Orr in Bellshill, Scotland on April 27, 1959. Inspired to pursue a singing career after seeing Barbra Streisand in The Way We Were, she later attended the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama while moonlighting with the group Something Else. Exposure on the BBC television production The Big Time: Pop Singer not only resulted in a record deal with EMI but also pushed Easton's 1980 debut singles, "Modern Girl" and "9 to 5," into the U.K. Top Ten, and she became the first female artist to score two simultaneous Top Ten hits. Her self-titled debut LP followed in 1981, while "9 to 5" was reissued in America under the title "Morning Train" to avoid confusion with Dolly Parton's recent hit of the same name; regardless, the single topped the U.S. pop charts, with "Modern Girl" cracking the Top 20 a few months later. After earning a Grammy as Best New Artist, Easton was tapped to sing the title theme of the latest James Bond film, For Your Eyes Only; in 1983, she duetted with Kenny Rogers on the smash "We've Got Tonight," returning to the Top Ten later that year with "Telefone (Long Distance Love Affair." However, with 1984's A Private Affair, Easton retooled her squeaky clean image, following the sassy "Strut" with the salacious "Sugar Walls," written and produced by one Alexander Nevermind (a.k.a. Prince, to whose "U Got the Look" she contributed vocals in 1987). She followed a stint as Don Johnson's ill-fated TV wife on Miami Vice by scoring the number two smash "The Lover in Me" in 1989; however, 1991's "What Comes Naturally" proved to be Easton's last chart entry, and after starring in a musical revival of Man of La Mancha she spent much of the decade on stage, also appearing in a revival of Grease as well as on the seasonal tour The Colors of Christmas. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Music GuideMarillion - KayleighIgnazio Deddu2010-02-16 | 1985) Marillion are a British rock group, formed in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, England in 1979. Their recorded studio output comprises fifteen albums and is generally regarded as comprising two distinct eras, delineated by the departure of original vocalist & frontman Fish in late 1988 after their first four albums, and the subsequent arrival of replacement Steve Hogarth ("h") in early 1989. Marillion has thus far released eleven albums with Hogarth.
The core lineup of Steve Rothery (Lead Guitar and the sole 'pre-Fish' original member), Pete Trewavas (Bass), Mark Kelly (Keyboards) and Ian Mosley (Drums) is unchanged since 1984. The band has enjoyed critical and commercial success with a string of UK Top Ten hits spanning their career, an estimated fifteen million total worldwide album sales and even an entry into the Guinness Book of World Records.
The band's music has changed stylistically throughout their career. The band themselves have stated that each new album tends to represent a reaction to the preceding one, and for this reason their output is difficult to 'pigeonhole'. Their original sound (with Fish on vocals) is best described as guitar and keyboard led progressive rock or "neo-prog", and has sometimes been compared with Gabriel-era Genesis.
More recently, the band's sound has been compared, on successive albums, to that of Radiohead, Massive Attack, Keane, Crowded House, The Blue Nile and Talk Talk, although not consistently comparable sonically with any of these acts. The band themselves in 2007, tongue-in-cheek, described their own output merely as: "Songs about Death and Water since 1979..."
Marillion are widely considered within the industry[6] to have been one of the first mainstream acts to have fully recognised and tapped the potential for commercial musicians to interact with their fans via the Internet circa 1996, and are nowadays often characterised as a rock & roll 'Web Cottage Industry'. The history of the band's use of the internet is described by Michael Lewis in the book Next: The Future Just Happened as an example of how the internet is shifting power away from established elites, such as record producers.
The band is also renowned for having an extremely dedicated following with some fans regularly travelling significant distances to attend single gigs, driven in large part by the close fan base involvement which the band cultivate via their website, podcasts, bi-annual conventions and regular fanclub publications.Paul Hardcastle - 19Ignazio Deddu2010-02-16 | 1985) Paul Hardcastle is a producer and keyboardist from London. He recorded solo in the mid-'80s with his "19," a record featuring news reports and other sources on Vietnam, becoming a major hit in Britain. Later, he produced and did remixes for artists such as Ian Dury and Phil Lynott. He sells well in the specialty dance market and occasionally releases records as part of the duo Kiss the Sky (with Jaki Graham), as well as names like the Def Boys, Beeps International, and Jazzmasters. Among his releases: 1985's Zero One, 1994's Jazzmasters II, and 1996's Hardcastle 2. 1997's two-disc Cover to Cover assembled his greatest hits, along with a bonus record of newly recorded cover versions. 1999 saw the third installment in the Jazzmasters series, and in 2005, a collection of his greatest moments over the past two decades was issued along with a new album, Hardcastle 4. ~ Steve Huey, All Music GuideJ. Geils and - CenterfoldIgnazio Deddu2010-02-16 | 1981) "Take out your false teeth, mama . . . I wanna SUCK on your GUMS." With these gentle words, the J. Geils Band's frontman, Peter Wolf, seared himself onto rock history, and his henchmen took their place as the finest Jewish blues-rockers ever to do the Boston Monkey. The J. Geils Band had a lean, mean approach to old-school R&B, blasting through John Lee Hooker and Otis Rush classics in a completely nonacademic way, making everything sound tough and crass and ironic. Wolf, the self-proclaimed "Woofa Goofa with the Green Teeth," made David Lee Roth seem like the shy type; Magic Dick played the harmonica; in album-cover photos, the entire band dissolved into one giant Jewish Afro with shades; and naming the band after the nonsinging guitarist (who could barely play) was so rock & roll. The Geils gang didn't do much songwriting at first, covering obscure blues and soul treasures instead, though the 1973 hit "Give It to Me" was a freaky seven-minute move into early reggae. But Full House (source of the aforementioned "false teeth" patter) proved that J. Geils could rip it up live, from "First I Look at the Purse" to the pounding finale, "Looking for a Love." The Magic Dick showcase "Whammer Jammer" became the "Smoke on the Water" of the harmonica.
Nightmares was the best of the early J. Geils studio albums, with the house party "Stoop Down #39," the stoopid-fresh "Detroit Breakdown" (for some reason, Boston bands are always obsessed with Detroit), and the breakup ballad "Must of Got Lost." The double-live Blow Your Face Out had a classic live version of the latter, beginning with a long preacherly rap from Wolf ("this is a song about L-O-V-E and if you abuse it, you're gonna lose it, and if you lose it, you ain't gonna be able to choose it," etc.), and whomping renditions of "Love-Itis" and "Where Did Our Love Go?" But J. Geils was starting to mature, calling itself just "Geils" on the cover of Monkey Island as Wolf recited a nine-minute poem about alienation in the title track. Sanctuary was even tougher, with the touching "I Don't Hang Around Much Any More," the Italian-girl-worshipping "Teresa," the manic "Jus' Can't Stop Me," and the confusing but kind-of-intense title anthem.
Sanctuary was so damn good, it seemed that J. Geils would never be able to match it, but to everyone's surprise, the band bought a synthesizer and promptly became 10 times bigger than ever. Not with a pop sellout, either: "Love Stinks" was one of the great trash-rock singles of the '80s, with a three-chord riff that later showed up as "Smells Like Teen Spirit." The album added the rollicking "Till the Walls Come Tumbling Down," the failed Eurodisco experiment "Come Back," and the Firesign Theatre rip "No Anchovies, Please." Freeze Frame updated the band's rock attack with arty synth-funk beats, resulting in a couple of huge singles ("Freeze Frame," "Centerfold") and a hit album that bridged traditional rock, new wave, punk, disco, and slick pop. The best was the finale "Piss on the Wall," where Wolf pondered the nature of reality: "Some people say the world ain't what it is/All I know is I just got to take a whizz."
Unfortunately, after years of white-knuckling it to the top, the band responded to mainstream success by kicking out Peter Wolf. Keyboardist Seth Justman took over the vocals for You're Getting Even While I'm Getting Odd, one of the most disastrous followups in music-biz history, a career ender for everyone involved. (Chili Peppers fans take note: It did include a song called "Californicating.") Wolf went on to solo success, but J. Geils fans still wept for what might have been. Showtime! was the band's third and weakest live album. Flashback is a flimsy best-of from the band's three big EMI albums; the two-disc Houseparty is a much better compilation of both early and late J. Geils. But the best places to start are the Atlantic collections Best of, with the bowling pins on the cover, and Best of Two, which has classic album tracks such as "Stoop Down #39" and "The Lady Makes Demands." (ROB SHEFFIELD)
From 2004's The New Rolling Stone Album GuideStarship - We Built This CityIgnazio Deddu2010-02-15 | 1985) In June 1984, Paul Kantner, the last remaining founding member of Jefferson Airplane, left Jefferson Starship, and then took legal action over the Jefferson Starship name against his former bandmates. Kantner settled out of court and signed an agreement that neither party would use the names "Jefferson" or "Airplane" unless all members of Jefferson Airplane, Inc. agreed to it (Bill Thompson, Paul Kantner, Grace Slick, Jorma Kaukonen, Jack Casady). The band briefly changed its name to "Starship Jefferson" while legal proceedings occurred, but ultimately the name was reduced to simply "Starship". Freiberg stayed with the band after the lawsuit and attended the first studio sessions for the next album. However, he became frustrated with the sessions because all the keyboard work in the studio was being done by Peter Wolf (who'd played on the sessions for Nuclear Furniture and briefly joined the band on the road for the followup tour) and that was the instrument Freiberg was supposed to be playing. He left the band and the next album was finished with the five remaining members. In 1984, Gabriel Katona (who'd previously done stints in Rare Earth and Player) joined the band to play keyboards & saxophone on the road with them through the end of 1986.
The next album, Knee Deep in the Hoopla was released in October 1985 and scored two #1 hits. The first was "We Built This City", written by Bernie Taupin, Martin Page, Dennis Lambert, and Peter Wolf; the second was "Sara". The album itself reached #7, went platinum, and spawned two more singles: "Tomorrow Doesn't Matter Tonight" (#26), and "Before I Go" (#68). The band hadn't had a #1 hit record since the original Jefferson Starship released Red Octopus in 1975.
In 1987, "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now" was featured in the film Mannequin and hit #1, although only Slick and Thomas (plus Craig Chaquico's guitar solo) appeared on it. At that time, the song made Slick the oldest female vocalist to sing on a number-one Billboard Hot 100 hit, at the age of 47, (She held this record until Cher broke it at the age of 52, in 1999 with "Believe".) The following year, the band's song "Wild Again" (which reached #73 on the Billboard singles chart) was used in the movie Cocktail.
By the time No Protection was released, bassist and keyboardist Pete Sears had left the band due to the commercial direction the music had taken. Sears went on to play keyboards with former Jefferson Airplane members, Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Casady in Hot Tuna for ten years. Starship's No Protection was not released until well after "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now" (its most popular single) had peaked on the charts, but still went gold; in addition to "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now" (#1), it featured the singles "It's Not Over ('Til It's Over)" (#9), and "Beat Patrol" (#46). The last song on the album, "Set The Night To Music", would later become a huge hit when re-recorded as a duet between Roberta Flack and Maxi Priest. For the No Protection tour, Brett Bloomfield was brought in to replace Sears and Mark Morgan was their new stage keyboardist.
Grace Slick left Starship in 1988, going on to join the reformed Jefferson Airplane, for one album in 1989, before announcing that she was retiring from music. Slick, then in her late forties, was becoming more self-conscious about her age. As Kantner, Sears and Freiberg had left the band, all the new and remaining members were more than a decade younger than her. To this day Grace maintains that old(er) people "don't belong on a rock and roll stage".
With Slick's departure, Thomas became sole lead singer. The revamped lineup released Love Among the Cannibals in August 1989. On September 24 of that year while the band was in Scranton, Pennsylvania for a show, Donny Baldwin seriously injured Mickey Thomas in a fight. Thomas was forced to undergo reconstructive facial surgery, and Baldwin was involuntarily dismissed from the team.Diana Ross - Upside DownIgnazio Deddu2010-02-15 | 1980) Diana Ross (born Diane Ernestine Earle Ross, March 26, 1944) is an American singer and actress. During the 1960s, she helped shape the Motown sound as lead singer of The Supremes, before leaving the group for a solo career on January 14, 1970. Since the beginning of her career with The Supremes and as a solo artist, Ross has sold more than 100 million records.
During the 1970s and through the mid-1980s, Ross was among the most successful female artists, crossing over into film, television and Broadway. She received a Best Actress Academy Award nomination for her 1972 role as Billie Holiday in Lady Sings the Blues, for which she won a Golden Globe award. She won awards at the American Music Awards, garnered twelve Grammy Award nominations, and won a Tony Award for her one-woman show, An Evening with Diana Ross, in 1977.
In 1976, Billboard magazine named her the "Female Entertainer of the Century." In 1993, the Guinness Book of World Records declared Diana Ross the most successful female music artist in history with a total of eighteen American number-one singles: twelve as lead singer of The Supremes and six as a soloist. Ross was the first female solo artist to score six number-ones. This feat puts her in a tie for fifth place among solo female artists with the most number-ones on the Hot 100. She is also one of the few recording artists to have two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame—one as a solo artist and the other as a member of The Supremes. In December 2007, she received a John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Honors Award.
Including her work with The Supremes, Ross has released 67 albums.Night Ranger - Sister ChristianIgnazio Deddu2010-02-15 | 1984) The video of the song shows the band performing it, with guitarist Brad Gillis and bass player Jack Blades standing shoulder to shoulder. The other guitarist, Jeff Watson, is renowned for his 8 fingered tapping technique.[citation needed] However, he also played piano, and is shown playing keyboards standing up in this song (the song has 2 separate keyboard parts). The band's main keys player - Alan Fitzgerald - is shown seated, and plays the well-known intro. Although Kelly Keagy sings this song, bassist Jack Blades sang the majority of Night Ranger's songs. The plot of the video portrays a girl questioning her ascension into womanhood. In the end, she rejects the nuns and makes herself beautiful in a bathroom with her friends, and then gets in a convertible with rock band members.
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Featuring ex-Ozzy Osbourne guitarist Brad Gillis and former Montrose keyboardist Alan Fitzgerald, Night Ranger was one of the most popular mainstream hard rock bands of the mid-'80s. The group formed in the early '80s in San Francisco; in addition to Gillis and Fitzgerald, the members included Jack Blades (vocals, bass), Jeff Watson (guitar), and Kelly Keagy (drums). After a few local gigs, promoter Bill Graham managed to get them supporting slots on Judas Priest, Santana, and Doobie Brothers concerts. Night Ranger's first album, Dawn Patrol (1982), reached number 38 on the U.S. charts, yet it was 1983's Midnight Madness that established the band as a commercial force. Featuring the AOR hit "(You Can Still) Rock in America" and the number five single "Sister Christian," the record peaked at number 15 and sold over a million copies. 1985's 7 Wishes was just as successful, reaching number ten on the charts. Night Ranger's audience began to diminish after 1987's Big Life. Fitzgerald left the following year and the band released their last album, Man in Motion, which failed to go gold or spawn any Top 40 singles. Night Ranger broke up the next year. Jack Blades joined the supergroup Damn Yankees, which also featured Ted Nugent and Tommy Shaw. A reunited Night Ranger returned in 1998 with Seven. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music GuideVanilla Ice - Ice Ice BabyIgnazio Deddu2010-02-14 | 1990) "Ice Ice Baby" is a hip hop song written by American rapper Vanilla Ice and DJ Earthquake. The song samples the bassline of "Under Pressure" by Queen and David Bowie, who did not initially receive songwriting credit or royalties until after it had become a hit. Originally released on Van Winkle's 1989 debut album Hooked and later on his 1990 national debut To the Extreme, it is his most famous and popular song. It has appeared in remixed form on Platinum Underground and Vanilla Ice Is Back! A live version appears on the album Extremely Live, while a rap rock version appears on the album Hard to Swallow, under the title "Too Cold".
"Ice Ice Baby" was initially released as the B-side to Van Winkle's cover of "Play That Funky Music", but the single was not initially successful. When a disc jockey played "Ice Ice Baby" instead, it began to gain success. "Ice Ice Baby" was the first hip hop single to top the Billboard charts. Topping the Australian, Dutch, Irish, Italian and UK charts, the song helped diversify hip hop by introducing it to a mainstream audience.
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Robert Matthew Van Winkle (born October 31, 1967), best known by his stage name Vanilla Ice, is an American rapper. Born in Dallas, Texas, and raised in Texas and South Florida, Van Winkle released his debut album, Hooked, in 1989 through Ichiban Records, before signing a contract with SBK Records, which released a reformatted version of the album under the title To the Extreme. Van Winkle's single "Ice Ice Baby" was the first hip hop single to top the Billboard charts, and has been credited with helping to create diversify hip hop by introducing it to the main public
Although Van Winkle was successful, he later regretted his business arrangements with SBK, which had paid him to adopt a more commercial appearance and had published fabricated biographical information without his knowledge. After surviving a suicide attempt by drug overdose, Van Winkle was inspired to change his musical style and lifestyle. Further albums by Van Winkle, including Hard to Swallow, Bi-Polar and Platinum Underground, featured a less mainstream rock-oriented sound, and did not chart.Blondie - Heart Of GlassIgnazio Deddu2010-02-14 | 1979) The "Heart of Glass" promotional video was filmed at the Studio 54 discothèque in New York City with director Stanley Dorfman. The video begins with footage of New York City in the night before joining Blondie perform at Studio 54. Then, the video alternates between close-ups of Harry's face as she lip-syncs, and mid-distance shots of the entire band. In the video Harry wears a silver dress designed by Stephen Sprouse. To create the dress, Sprouse photo-printed a picture of television scan lines onto a piece of fabric, and then, according to Harry, "put a layer of cotton fabric underneath and a layer of chiffon on top, and then the scan-lines would do this op-art thing". The popularity of the song helped Sprouse's work earn a lot of exposure from the media.
"Draped in a sheer, silver Sprouse dress," Kris Needs summarized while writing for Mojo Classic, "Debbie sang through gritted teeth, while the boys cavorted with mirror balls". Studying Harry's attitude in the "effortlessly cool" video, music writer Pat Kane felt she "exuded a steely confidence about her sexual impact ... The Marilyn [Monroe] do has artfully fallen over, and she's in the funkiest of dresses: one strap across her shoulder, swirling silks around about her. Her iconic face shows flickers of interest, amidst the boredom and ennui of the song's lyrics". Kane also noted that the band members fooling around with disco balls, "taking the mickey out of their own disco fixation". Reviewing the Greatest Hits: Sound & Vision DVD for Pitchfork Media, Jess Harvell wrote that while "owning your own copy of 'Heart of Glass' may not seem as cool [anymore] ... there's the always luminous Deborah Harry, who would give boiling asparagus an erotic charge, all while looking too bored to live".
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Blondie is an American rock band founded by singer Deborah Harry and guitarist Chris Stein. The band was a pioneer in the early American new wave and punk rock scenes of the mid-1970s. Their first two albums contained strong elements of these genres, and although successful in the United Kingdom and Australia, Blondie was regarded as an underground band in the United States until the release of Parallel Lines in 1978. Over the next three years, the band achieved several hit singles and was noted for its eclectic mix of musical styles incorporating elements of disco, pop and reggae, while retaining a basic style as a new wave band.
The band broke up after the release of their 1982 album The Hunter. Debbie Harry continued to pursue a solo career with varied results (though she took a few years off to care for partner Chris Stein, who was diagnosed with pemphigus, a rare autoimmune disease of the skin). Keyboardist Jimmy Destri also embarked on a solo career of his own with somewhat less success than Harry.
The group reformed in 1997, achieving renewed success and a number one single in the United Kingdom with "Maria" in 1999. The group toured and performed throughout the world over the following years, and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2006. Blondie has sold 40 million records worldwide.Blondie - Call MeIgnazio Deddu2010-02-13 | ...Styx - Mr.RobotoIgnazio Deddu2010-02-13 | 1983) The song's video, directed by Brian Gibson, depicts Jonathan Chance (played by guitarist Tommy Shaw) walking in Rock Museum to meet Kilroy and a robot approaches. After this, it morphs into five robots moving and dancing. Shortly thereafter, the robots transform into the members of Styx and including a clean-shaven Dennis DeYoung (he shaved his trademark moustache off at the conclusion of the Paradise Theater tour in 1982 and has remained clean-shaven to this day). The video then alternates between the band playing the song on a stage and scenes from the Kilroy Was Here backdrop film. Then, the members of Styx morph back into the robots and DeYoung confronting the robots before collapsing after screaming in the ear of one of the robots. Then DeYoung awakens to see he is being experimented on and runs off. Then, we cut back to the ending of the first scene of the video and Jonathan Chance climbs on to the stage and before the robot reveals his mask to be Kilroy, another shot of the robot with lights on was used to end the clip.
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bar circuit from 1963 until 1969, when Nardini left the group and the Panozzos and DeYoung entered Chicago State University. There they met John Curulewski, with whom they formed TW4. James Young joined a year later, and they changed their name to Styx (after the river that flows through Hades in Greek mythology).
After incessant touring, their national break came in 1975 with the #6 single "Lady," featuring the blaring vocal triads that are a Styx trademark. From 1977 until their breakup in 1984, every one of their releases sold platinum or better: The Grand Illusion (#6, 1977, 3 million sold), Pieces of Eight (#6, 1978, 3 million sold), Cornerstone (#2, 1979, 2 million sold), Paradise Theatre, and Kilroy Was Here (#3, 1983, 1 million sold). Their concerts were invariably sold out. Their hit singles included "Come Sail Away" (#8, 1977); "Fooling Yourself (the Angry Young Man)" (#29) and "Blue Collar Man (Long Nights)" (#21), 1978; "Babe" (#1, 1979); and "The Best of Times" (#3) and "Too Much Time on My Hands" (#9), both 1981.
In 1983 the group toured 3,000-seat halls with a theatrical presentation of Kilroy Was Here, an anticensorship concept album that included the hit singles "Mr. Roboto" (#3) and "Don't Let It End" (#6). In 1984 the group members went their separate ways for a while. DeYoung and Shaw, who had written most of Styx's music, each embarked on initially auspicious solo careers. DeYoung's Desert Moon (#29, 1984) featured the #10 title single, while Shaw's Girls With Guns (#50, 1984) had a #33 title track. Subsequent releases were not as successful, and in 1990 Shaw joined Ted Nugent's Damn Yankees [see entry].
Four members of Styx, with newcomer Glen Burtnik, released the comeback Edge of the Century in the fall of 1990. Its "Show Me the Way" (#3, 1990) became something of a theme song during the Gulf War, and "Love at First Sight" was a Top 30 single later that next spring. In 1995 DeYoung played Pilate in the 1995 Broadway revival of Jesus Christ Superstar. He later completed his own musical based on The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
Shaw returned to the band when he helped rerecord "Lady" for 1995's Greatest Hits; Styx's initial label, Wooden Nickel, had refused to license the original version for the A&M compilation. By 1990, drummer John Panozzo had developed a debilitating drinking problem. In 1996 Styx was forced to hire a temporary touring replacement, Todd Sucherman. In July of that year Panozzo died, the result of a gastrointestinal hemorrhage, and Sucherman became a permanent addition. The live Return to Paradise was the first-ever gold record for Styx's new label, CMC International. During the sessions for 1999's Brave New World, DeYoung developed an acute case of photosensitivity. Styx acrimoniously replaced him for the ensuing tour. Burtnik also returned, this time on bass, to replace Chuck Panozzo, who had also left the band.
From the Third EditionThe Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & RollBelinda Carlisle - Heaven Is A Place On EarthIgnazio Deddu2010-02-13 | 1987) The promotional video was directed by Academy Award-winning actress Diane Keaton and features an appearance of Carlisle's husband Morgan Mason. Carlisle appeared wearing a sampo and later changed to a black off-the-shoulder blouse. The video was partially filmed at Six Flags Magic Mountain theme park in Valencia, California, on the Spin Out ride.
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Belinda Carlisle pursued a solo career after leaving the Go-Go's in 1984. As her solo career progressed, Carlisle removed any of the rough edges remaining in her style, transforming from a new wave rocker to a polished adult contemporary pop singer. The change was evident on her first album, 1986's Belinda. Featuring the number three hit single "Mad About You," the record went gold and established her as a viable hitmaker. The following year, Carlisle released Heaven on Earth, her greatest solo success. Continuing the immaculately produced mainstream pop of Belinda, the record featured the number one title track, the number two single "I Get Weak," and the Top Ten ballad "Circle in the Sand." Runaway Horses, released in 1989, was another successful album, spawning the hit singles "Leave a Light On" and "Summer Rain," yet it showed signs that her audience was shrinking. That suspicion was confirmed by the dismal performance of 1991's Live Your Life Be Free, which failed to make the charts. Real, released in 1993, didn't revive Carlisle's career and she subsequently joined the re-formed Go-Go's in 1994. The Go-Go's reunion was short-lived, even though it was widely praised. Carlisle returned to solo recording in 1996 with A Woman and a Man, which failed to gain much attention. A myriad of collections and compilations followed, as well as another Go-Go's reunion. Carlisle released a new solo album, Voila, in 2007. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music GuideTom Petty And The Heartbreakers - Dont ComeAround Here No MoreIgnazio Deddu2010-02-13 | 1985) The music video is themed around Alice in Wonderland and directed by Jeff Stein. Dave Stewart appears at the beginning, sitting on a mushroom with a hookah water pipe. Tom Petty performed in the video dressed as The Mad Hatter, and actress Wish Foley played Alice. He eats Alice in the end.
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Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers are a heartland rock band, most of whose members are from the United States. They were formed in 1976 by Tom Petty, Mike Campbell, and Benmont Tench, all of whom had been members of Mudcrutch. Petty and the Heartbreakers are known for hit singles such as "American Girl", "Breakdown", "The Waiting", "Learning to Fly", "Refugee" and "Mary Jane's Last Dance."
The Heartbreakers still tour regularly and continue to make and record albums. They have gone through numerous line up changes between 1982 and 2002, with Tench, Petty and Campbell being the only members consistently in the band from when it first started.
Petty has fought against his record company on more than one occasion, first in 1976 over transference to another label and then again in 1981 over the price of his record, which was (at that time) considered expensive. He is also outspoken on the current state of the music industry and modern radio stations. On his 2002 album, The Last DJ, Petty sang about that and other issues and talked about them on the bonus DVD that came with the limited edition album.
Although most of what they do is together as The Heartbreakers, they have also participated in outside projects, with Petty himself releasing solo albums, the most successful being 1989s Full Moon Fever.
Although Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers have not released an album since 2002, the three founding members, along with Randall Marsh and Tom Leadon recorded an album by Mudcrutch. This was the band's first album, made more significant by the fact that they had not recorded together since 1974.Propaganda - Dr.MabuseIgnazio Deddu2010-02-12 | 1984) Synth-pop band Propaganda was formed in Germany by vocalist Claudia Brücken and drummer Michael Mertens plus keyboard players Susanne Freytag and Ralf Dorper. The quartet moved to England in 1983 and signed to ZTT Records, also the home of Frankie Goes to Hollywood and Art of Noise. Propaganda's first single, "Dr. Mabuse," reached the British Top 30 in early 1984, but the band's second release was more than a year in coming. Finally, in May 1985, "Duel" trumped the debut single by hitting number 21.
Propaganda's first album A Secret Wish appeared one month later, and the resulting tour necessitated the addition of bassist Derek Forbes and drummer Brian McGee -- both formerly with Simple Minds. After the release of the remix album Wishful Thinking later that year, Dorper became the first original member to leave the band, and Propaganda splintered soon after, due to a prolonged legal battle to leave ZTT. The group finally re-emerged in 1988 with Mertens, Forbes, McGee and American vocalist Betsi Miller. The quartet signed with Virgin, and released 1234 in 1990. The single "Heaven Give Me Words" broke the British Top 40 in 1990, and "Only One Word" placed modestly later that year.
Meanwhile, Claudia Brücken -- who had stayed with ZTT in large part because of her marriage to label-owner Paul Morley -- formed Act with Thomas Leer. The duo charted "Snobbery and Decay" in mid-1987 and released their only album, Laughter, Tears, and Rage in 1988. Brücken became a solo act by the turn of the decade, and charted only one single, "Absolut (E)," from her 1991 album Love, And a Million Other Things. Though neither the band nor Brücken had recorded recently, rumours flew during the mid-'90s that a Propaganda reunion was in the works. ~ John Bush, All Music Guide .Lionel Richie - Dancing On The CeilingIgnazio Deddu2010-02-12 | 1986) Solo career. He released his self-titled debut in 1982, which contained three hit singles: the huge U.S. #1 song "Truly" that launched his career as one of the most successful balladeers of the 1980s. Other U.S. Top Five hits "You Are" and "My Love". The album hit #3 on the music charts and sold over 4 million copies. His 1983 follow up album, Can't Slow Down, sold over twice as many copies and won two Grammy Awards including Album Of The Year propelling him into the first rank of international superstars. The album spawned the #1 hit "All Night Long", a Caribbean-flavored dance number that was promoted by a colorful music video produced by former Monkee, Michael Nesmith. Several more Top 10 hits followed, the most successful of which was the ballad "Hello" (1984), a sentimental lod "Se La" (U.S. #20), The latter is Richie's most recent U.S. Pop Top Twenty hit. The title selection, which revived the lively dance sound of "All Night Long (All Night)", was accompanied by another striking video, a feature that played an increasingly important role in Richie's solo career. In 1985, Richie collaborated with Michael Jackson and Stevie Wonder on the USA For Africa "We are the World" project. The critical consensus was that this album represented nothing more than a consolidation of his previous work, though Richie's collaboration with the country group Alabama on "Deep River Woman" did break new ground. By 1987, Richie was exhausted from his work schedule and after a controversial year laid low taking care for his father in Alabama. His father, Lionel Sr., died in 1990. He made his return to recording and performing following the release of his first greatest-hits collection, Back to Front, in 1992. Since then, his ever-more relaxed schedule has kept his recording and live work to a minimum. He broke the silence in 1996 with Louder Than Words, on which he resisted any change of style or the musical fashion-hopping of the past decade. Instead, he stayed with his chosen path of well-crafted soul music, which in the intervening years has become known as Contemporary R&B. His albums in the 1990s such as Louder Than Words and Time all failed to achieve the previous decade's commercial success. Some of his recent work such as the album Renaissance has returned to his older style, achieving success in Europe, but only modest notice in the United States. Since 2004, he has produced a total of six Top 40 singles in the UK.Lionel Richie - Say You Say MeIgnazio Deddu2010-02-12 | 1985) Solo career. He released his self-titled debut in 1982, which contained three hit singles: the huge U.S. #1 song "Truly" that launched his career as one of the most successful balladeers of the 1980s. Other U.S. Top Five hits "You Are" and "My Love". The album hit #3 on the music charts and sold over 4 million copies. His 1983 follow up album, Can't Slow Down, sold over twice as many copies and won two Grammy Awards including Album Of The Year propelling him into the first rank of international superstars. The album spawned the #1 hit "All Night Long", a Caribbean-flavored dance number that was promoted by a colorful music video produced by former Monkee, Michael Nesmith.
Several more Top 10 hits followed, the most successful of which was the ballad "Hello" (1984), a sentimental lod "Se La" (U.S. #20), The latter is Richie's most recent U.S. Pop Top Twenty hit. The title selection, which revived the lively dance sound of "All Night Long (All Night)", was accompanied by another striking video, a feature that played an increasingly important role in Richie's solo career. In 1985, Richie collaborated with Michael Jackson and Stevie Wonder on the USA For Africa "We are the World" project. The critical consensus was that this album represented nothing more than a consolidation of his previous work, though Richie's collaboration with the country group Alabama on "Deep River Woman" did break new ground. By 1987, Richie was exhausted from his work schedule and after a controversial year laid low taking care for his father in Alabama. His father, Lionel Sr., died in 1990. He made his return to recording and performing following the release of his first greatest-hits collection, Back to Front, in 1992.
Since then, his ever-more relaxed schedule has kept his recording and live work to a minimum. He broke the silence in 1996 with Louder Than Words, on which he resisted any change of style or the musical fashion-hopping of the past decade. Instead, he stayed with his chosen path of well-crafted soul music, which in the intervening years has become known as Contemporary R&B.
His albums in the 1990s such as Louder Than Words and Time all failed to achieve the previous decade's commercial success. Some of his recent work such as the album Renaissance has returned to his older style, achieving success in Europe, but only modest notice in the United States. Since 2004, he has produced a total of six Top 40 singles in the UK.Lionel Richie - Running With The NightIgnazio Deddu2010-02-12 | 1983) Solo career. He released his self-titled debut in 1982, which contained three hit singles: the huge U.S. #1 song "Truly" that launched his career as one of the most successful balladeers of the 1980s. Other U.S. Top Five hits "You Are" and "My Love". The album hit #3 on the music charts and sold over 4 million copies. His 1983 follow up album, Can't Slow Down, sold over twice as many copies and won two Grammy Awards including Album Of The Year propelling him into the first rank of international superstars. The album spawned the #1 hit "All Night Long", a Caribbean-flavored dance number that was promoted by a colorful music video produced by former Monkee, Michael Nesmith.
Several more Top 10 hits followed, the most successful of which was the ballad "Hello" (1984), a sentimental lod "Se La" (U.S. #20), The latter is Richie's most recent U.S. Pop Top Twenty hit. The title selection, which revived the lively dance sound of "All Night Long (All Night)", was accompanied by another striking video, a feature that played an increasingly important role in Richie's solo career. In 1985, Richie collaborated with Michael Jackson and Stevie Wonder on the USA For Africa "We are the World" project. The critical consensus was that this album represented nothing more than a consolidation of his previous work, though Richie's collaboration with the country group Alabama on "Deep River Woman" did break new ground. By 1987, Richie was exhausted from his work schedule and after a controversial year laid low taking care for his father in Alabama. His father, Lionel Sr., died in 1990. He made his return to recording and performing following the release of his first greatest-hits collection, Back to Front, in 1992.
Since then, his ever-more relaxed schedule has kept his recording and live work to a minimum. He broke the silence in 1996 with Louder Than Words, on which he resisted any change of style or the musical fashion-hopping of the past decade. Instead, he stayed with his chosen path of well-crafted soul music, which in the intervening years has become known as Contemporary R&B.
His albums in the 1990s such as Louder Than Words and Time all failed to achieve the previous decade's commercial success. Some of his recent work such as the album Renaissance has returned to his older style, achieving success in Europe, but only modest notice in the United States. Since 2004, he has produced a total of six Top 40 singles in the UK.Enigma - Return To InnocenceIgnazio Deddu2010-02-12 | ...Enigma - Sadeness Part 1Ignazio Deddu2010-02-11 | 1990) The video shows a scholar, possibly a reference to Marquis de Sade, who falls asleep at a desk in his room whilst writing ... and has a fantastic, seductive, and enlightening dream. The scholar finds himself wandering among cathedral ruins. He comes up to Auguste Rodin's The Gates of Hell, which is probably the "Forbidden Door", according to the album concept. As the young man looks on, he sees a beautiful young woman beyond it. She whispers the main lyric to him in a seductive tone - "Sade, dis-moi" "Sade, donne-moi" or translated- "Sade, tell me" "Sade, give me". The man turns and tries to flee, but relents to his desires and is "sucked" back through the door. At this point, the young man wakes from the dream and looks around anxiously, but finds only a light from his window shining down on him.
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Enigma is an electronic musical project founded by Michael Cretu, David Fairstein and Frank Peterson in 1990. The Romanian-born Cretu conceived of the Enigma project while working in Germany, but has been based at his recording studio A.R.T. Studios in Ibiza, Spain, since the early 1990s, where he has recorded all of Enigma's studio releases to date. Cretu is both the composer and the producer of the project. His former wife Sandra often provided vocals on Enigma tracks. Jens Gad co-arranged and played guitar on three of the Enigma albums (Jens Gad wasn't co-producer of Enigma project).
Seven studio albums have been produced under the name of the project. Their first and most successful album, MCMXC a.D., sold more than 22 million copies worldwide.Curiosity Killed The Cat - Down To EarthIgnazio Deddu2010-02-11 | 1986) They appeared out of nowhere, as if they were transported from a parallel universe wherein blue-eyed soul was seen as rock & roll's salvation in the late 80s. Likeminded groups like Johnny Hates Jazz, Waterfront, Living in a Box, and Curiosity
Killed the Cat all debuted and disappeared at the same time. Of the four Curiosity Killed the Cat leaned more towards the teen girl population that hung "Smash Hits" posters on their bedroom walls. The band's lightweight funk and photogenic looks rewarded them with mainstream acceptance in their native England but America didn't budge. Curiosity Killed the Cat was formed in 1984 by Ben Volpeliere-Pierrot (vocals), Julian Godfrey Brookhouse (guitar), Nicholas Bernard Throp (bass), Michael Drummond (drums), and Toby Anderson (keyboards). While in art school Volpeliere-Pierrot met Throp, who was then in a post-punk group called Twilight Children with the other future members of Curiosity Killed the Cat. After inviting him to sing Volpeliere-Pierrot became the band's new lead singer. They recorded a track entitled "Curiosity Killed the Cat" which caught the interest of businessman Peter Rosengard, who eventually renamed the band after their song and became their manager. In 1985, Curiosity Killed the Cat was signed to Phonogram, and the group began making their first LP. However, producers Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare were taken off the project, replaced by Stewart Levine; as a result, the album was delayed for nearly a year. The toe-tapping single "Misfit" was released in July 1986, but it was not successful. The band gained much attention after Andy Warhol became a fan; he even did a cameo for the "Misfit" video. In early 1987 "Down to Earth" became a Top-10 hit in the U.K. Two years later the group shortened their appellation to Curiosity. 1992's "Hang On In There Baby" peaked at No. 3 on the British charts, and the band disappeared from the music scene until they joined the 80s nostalgia Here and Now tour in 2001. ~ Michael Sutton, All Music GuidePet Shop Boys - Its A SinIgnazio Deddu2010-02-11 | 1987) Directed by Derek Jarman, the It's a Sin video marked the experimental director's first of several collaborations with the band. It extended the lyrical themes of the song by showing Tennant under arrest by an inquisition with Lowe as his jailer and Ron Moody in the role of his judge, interspersed with brief clips of personifications of the seven deadly sins
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The Pet Shop Boys are an English pop duo: keyboarder Chris Lowe and singer Neil Tennant. Neil and Chris first met in 1981 by accident in an electronics shop on the London Kings Road. They discovered their common interest in electronic music and started to write songs together. First they called themselves West End but soon changed the name into Pet Shop Boys - inspired by friends who worked in a pet shop.
Their first single West End Girls was first released in 1984. But it wasn't successful. The record company wanted to make a new song, but Neil and Chris were convinced of the yet-to-come success of this record and made a new mix, which became their first number one hit in 1986. That was the first step in becoming the world's most successful pop duo! They had more number one hits with It's a sin, Heart, Always on my mind and Go West . In 1999 they started a big comeback with their album nightlife and their successful worldtour - brilliantly titled: nightlife on tour 99/00.Pet Shop Boys - West End GirlsIgnazio Deddu2010-02-11 | 1985) The Pet Shop Boys are an English pop duo: keyboarder Chris Lowe and singer Neil Tennant. Neil and Chris first met in 1981 by accident in an electronics shop on the London Kings Road. They discovered their common interest in electronic music and started to write songs together. First they called themselves West End but soon changed the name into Pet Shop Boys - inspired by friends who worked in a pet shop.
Their first single West End Girls was first released in 1984. But it wasn't successful. The record company wanted to make a new song, but Neil and Chris were convinced of the yet-to-come success of this record and made a new mix, which became their first number one hit in 1986. That was the first step in becoming the world's most successful pop duo! They had more number one hits with It's a sin, Heart, Always on my mind and Go West . In 1999 they started a big comeback with their album nightlife and their successful worldtour - brilliantly titled: nightlife on tour 99/00.Pat Benatar - Love Is A BattlefieldIgnazio Deddu2010-02-11 | 1983) The music video, which depicted Benatar as a teenage runaway trying to survive the mean streets of New York City, was nominated for an MTV Video Music Award for Best Female Video and was viewable on the DVD for the movie 13 Going on 30. The single was unlike most of Benatar's previous work, as it featured an electronic dance element, but guitars and drums were still present. The song won Benatar a Grammy Award for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance.
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Pat Benatar was the most successful female hard-rock singer of the '80s. She grew up on Long Island, where at age 17 she began vocal training in preparation for study at the Juilliard School of Music. She soon rebelled against the rigorous training and ended her studies. After turning 18, she married Dennis Benatar, a GI stationed in Richmond, Virginia. There she worked as a bank clerk before taking a job as a singing waitress. In 1975 the couple returned to New York; they later divorced.
Benatar began working Manhattan's cabaret circuit in 1975 with a chanteuse style derived from Barbra Streisand and Diana Ross. At Catch a Rising Star, she attracted the attention of club owner Rick Newman, who became her manager. By 1978 she had switched to a more aggressive rock approach, and after being rejected by several labels was signed to Chrysalis.
Benatars debut went platinum (the first of six) on the strength of the #23 single Heartbreaker. Her 1980 followup, Crimes of Passion, sold over 4 million, yielding two hit singles, Hit Me With Your Best Shot (#9, 1980) and Treat Me Right (#18, 1981). Precious Time (also multiplatinum), boasted Promises in the Dark (#38, 1981) and Fire and Ice (#17, 1981).
Benatars early sex-kitten image - which she later stated had been thrust upon her - belied the singers choice of assertive, tough-girl lyrics and take-no-crap delivery. In 1982 she married her guitarist and musical director, Neil Giraldo, with whom she wrote most of her songs. Her streak of hits continued with Shadows of the Night (#13, 1982), Little Too Late (#20, 1983), Love Is a Battlefield (#5, 1983), and We Belong (#5, 1984). She returned to recording after the birth of her first daughter, Haley, with Invincible (#10, 1985), Sex as a Weapon (#28, 1985), and All Fired Up (#19, 1988). Something of a stylistic departure, True Love, a collection of blues recordings, produced no hits. Two years later, Benatar was back with Gravitys Rainbow, which failed to chart.
The disappointing response to her comeback, along with the birth of her second daughter, Hana, in 1994 and the absorption of her longtime label, Chrysalis, by EMI in 1995, caused an extended break in Benatars recording career. She left Chrysalis and recorded 1997s largely acoustic Innamorata for CMC International, a label that focuses on artists who had their heyday in the 70s and 80s. (The label also released a recording of a 1980 Benatar concert.) In addition to joining new labelmates Styx on a summer tour that year, she performed two dates of the first Lilith Fair. In 1999 Benatar and Giraldo were given carte blanche to select songs for the three-disc hits collection Synchronistic Wanderings, distributed by Chrysalis new parent company. The box set includes eight previously unreleased tracks, including an early cover of Roy Orbisons Crying. In 2000 the couple began recording a new album for Sonys Portrait label and had turned their attention to encouraging their teenage daughter Haleys band, GLO.
from The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll (Simon & Schuster, 2001)aSurvivor - Eye Of The TigerIgnazio Deddu2010-02-11 | 1982) Survivor's brand of melodic, hard AOR netted the group several hits through the '80s, including two smash themes from Rocky films, but never quite matched the success or consistency of contemporaries like Foreigner. Survivor was founded in 1978 by guitarist/keyboardist Jim Peterik, formerly the lead singer of the Ides of March, and guitarist Frankie Sullivan; the two recruited lead singer Dave Bickler and recorded a self-titled debut album as a trio with studio musicians Dennis Johnson on bass and Gary Smith on drums. Their places were taken by permanent members Stephen Ellis and Marc Doubray, respectively. The group's big break came in 1982 when Sylvester Stallone commissioned them to write the theme to Rocky III; the result, "Eye of the Tiger," was an instant hit with its bombastic opening riff and anthemic chorus. It spent six weeks at number one on the Billboard charts and pushed the accompanying album of the same name over the one million sales mark. Bickler quit in 1983 due to medical reasons and was replaced by former Cobra singer Jimi Jamison. The shakeup gave the band a kickstart, and they had two Top Ten hits in 1985 with "High On You" and "The Search Is Over." The band's theme from Rocky IV, "Burning Heart," provided their second biggest hit in 1986, but their fortunes slid downhill from there; by the end of the year, Jamison, Peterik, and Sullivan were the only remaining members, and Survivor finally disbanded in 1989. Bickler, Sullivan, Ellis and Doubray returned to the studio as Survivor in 1997; Jamison later returned to the lineup as well. ~ Steve Huey, All Music GuideJean Michel Jarre - Oxygene 4Ignazio Deddu2010-02-11 | 1979) Celebrated as the European electronic music community's premier ambassador, composer JeanMichel Jarre elevated the synthesizer to new peaks of popularity during the 1970s, in the process emerging as an international superstar renowned for his dazzling concert spectacles. The son of the famed film composer Maurice Jarre, he was born August 24, 1948, in Lyon, France, and began studying piano at the age of five. Abandoning classical music as a youth, Jarre became enamored of jazz before forming a rock band called Mystere IV; in 1968, he became a pupil of the musique concrète pioneer Pierre Schaeffer, joining Groupe de Recherches Musicales. His early experiments in electroacoustic music yielded the 1971 single "La Cage"; the fulllength Deserted Palace followed a year later.
Jarre's early works were largely unsuccessful, and gave little indication of the work to follow. As he struggled to find his own voice, he wrote for a variety of singers, including Françoise Hardy, and also composed for films. Seeking to push electronic music away from its minimalist foundations as well as the formal abstractions of its most experimental practitioners, he slowly developed the orchestrated melodicism of his 1977 breakthrough effort, Oxygène, an enormous commercial hit that reached the number two spot on the U.K. pop charts. The followup, 1978's Equinoxe, was also a smash, and a year later Jarre held the first in a series of massive openair concerts at the Place de la Concorde in Paris, the estimated one million spectators on hand earning him a place in The Guinness Book of World Records.
Only in the wake of 1981's Les Chants Magnétiques (Magnetic Fields) did Jarre mount a proper tour, traveling to China with a staggering amount of stage equipment in tow; the five performances, performed backed by some 35 traditional instrumentalists, later generated the LP Concerts in China. Released in 1983, Music for Supermarkets instantly became one of the most collectible albums in history recorded for an art exhibit, only one copy was ever pressed, selling at a charity auction for close to 10,000. The master was then incinerated, guaranteeing the record's rarity. Jarre's next proper release was 1984's Zoolook, which failed to connect with audiences with the same success as its predecessors.
A twoyear hiatus followed before he resurfaced on April 5, 1986, with an extravagant live performance in Houston celebrating NASA's silver anniversary; in addition to the over one million in attendance, it was also broadcast on global television. RendezVous appeared a few weeks later, and after another highly visual live date in Lyon, France, Jarre assembled the best material from the two events as the 1987 concert LP Cities in Concert: Houston/Lyon. Revolutions, featuring the legendary Shadows guitarist Hank B. Marvin, followed in 1988, and a year later a third concert LP, dubbed simply Jarre Live, hit stores. After 1990's En Attendant Cousteau (Waiting for Cousteau), Jarre mounted his biggest live experience yet, with an attendance of over two and a half million fans converging on Paris to see him perform in honor of Bastille Day.
The decade to follow proved surprisingly quiet, however, and apart from the occasional live appearance Jarre was largely removed from the limelight; finally, in 1997 he issued Oxygène 713, updating his concepts for a new musical era.
- Jason Ankeny, All Music GuideJean Michel Jarre - Magnetic Fields 2Ignazio Deddu2010-02-10 | 1981) Celebrated as the European electronic music community's premier ambassador, composer JeanMichel Jarre elevated the synthesizer to new peaks of popularity during the 1970s, in the process emerging as an international superstar renowned for his dazzling concert spectacles. The son of the famed film composer Maurice Jarre, he was born August 24, 1948, in Lyon, France, and began studying piano at the age of five. Abandoning classical music as a youth, Jarre became enamored of jazz before forming a rock band called Mystere IV; in 1968, he became a pupil of the musique concrète pioneer Pierre Schaeffer, joining Groupe de Recherches Musicales. His early experiments in electroacoustic music yielded the 1971 single "La Cage"; the fulllength Deserted Palace followed a year later.
Jarre's early works were largely unsuccessful, and gave little indication of the work to follow. As he struggled to find his own voice, he wrote for a variety of singers, including Françoise Hardy, and also composed for films. Seeking to push electronic music away from its minimalist foundations as well as the formal abstractions of its most experimental practitioners, he slowly developed the orchestrated melodicism of his 1977 breakthrough effort, Oxygène, an enormous commercial hit that reached the number two spot on the U.K. pop charts. The followup, 1978's Equinoxe, was also a smash, and a year later Jarre held the first in a series of massive openair concerts at the Place de la Concorde in Paris, the estimated one million spectators on hand earning him a place in The Guinness Book of World Records.
Only in the wake of 1981's Les Chants Magnétiques (Magnetic Fields) did Jarre mount a proper tour, traveling to China with a staggering amount of stage equipment in tow; the five performances, performed backed by some 35 traditional instrumentalists, later generated the LP Concerts in China. Released in 1983, Music for Supermarkets instantly became one of the most collectible albums in history recorded for an art exhibit, only one copy was ever pressed, selling at a charity auction for close to 10,000. The master was then incinerated, guaranteeing the record's rarity. Jarre's next proper release was 1984's Zoolook, which failed to connect with audiences with the same success as its predecessors.
A twoyear hiatus followed before he resurfaced on April 5, 1986, with an extravagant live performance in Houston celebrating NASA's silver anniversary; in addition to the over one million in attendance, it was also broadcast on global television. RendezVous appeared a few weeks later, and after another highly visual live date in Lyon, France, Jarre assembled the best material from the two events as the 1987 concert LP Cities in Concert: Houston/Lyon. Revolutions, featuring the legendary Shadows guitarist Hank B. Marvin, followed in 1988, and a year later a third concert LP, dubbed simply Jarre Live, hit stores. After 1990's En Attendant Cousteau (Waiting for Cousteau), Jarre mounted his biggest live experience yet, with an attendance of over two and a half million fans converging on Paris to see him perform in honor of Bastille Day.
The decade to follow proved surprisingly quiet, however, and apart from the occasional live appearance Jarre was largely removed from the limelight; finally, in 1997 he issued Oxygène 713, updating his concepts for a new musical era.
- Jason Ankeny, All Music GuideNik Kershaw - Wouldnt It Be GoodIgnazio Deddu2010-02-10 | 1984) During the mid-'80s, Nik Kershaw managed to score a handful of pop hits and, in doing so, establish himself as a profitable commercial songwriter. Kershaw began his musical career by learning to play guitar when he was a teenager. In 1974, he joined his first band, Half Pint Hogg, which played nothing but Deep Purple covers. However, his musical ideas were not limited to heavy metal; after he left school, he joined a jazz-funk band called Fusion. Fusion released one album, 'Til I Hear From You, in the late '70s. Once the group broke up, Kershaw signed to MCA Records with the help of Nine Below Zero's manager, Micky Modern.
Kershaw released his first solo single, "I Won't Let the Sun Go Down on Me," in 1983; it peaked at number 47 on the U.K. charts. His next single, "Wouldn't It Be Good," hit number five in the U.K. and charted at number 46 in the U.S. Its success led to stardom in Britain for Kershaw; "I Won't Let the Sun Go Down on Me" was re-released in summer of 1984 and charted at number two, leading to a series of hit singles. Released in 1986, his third album, Radio Musicola, wasn't as successful as his previous albums. Kershaw subsequently retreated from performing and recording regularly. Although he released The Works in 1990, Kershaw's main musical contribution since the late '80s is as a songwriter; he's written several songs for other artists, including Chesney Hawke's hit single "The One and Only." After years of writing for others, Kershaw returned with his own 15 Minutes for Pyramid Records. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music GuideNik Kershaw - The RiddleIgnazio Deddu2010-02-10 | 1984) The music video to "The Riddle" depicts Kershaw walking through a house shaped like a question mark, making his way through certain obstacles and looking through drawers while singing. At the beginning of the music video Nik is seen trying to get through a door with a screwdriver, it ends with the camera moving up away from Nik to reveal that the question mark is lying in the street, at which point a man in a green costume seen earlier in the video comes and picks it up. The green man is the Riddler, a villain from the Batman comics. Kershaw claimed the video was inspired by his love for post-modern artistic expressionism. Another thing to add, is that the music video shows characters from Alice in Wonderland and Beyond the Mirror.
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During the mid-'80s, Nik Kershaw managed to score a handful of pop hits and, in doing so, establish himself as a profitable commercial songwriter. Kershaw began his musical career by learning to play guitar when he was a teenager. In 1974, he joined his first band, Half Pint Hogg, which played nothing but Deep Purple covers. However, his musical ideas were not limited to heavy metal; after he left school, he joined a jazz-funk band called Fusion. Fusion released one album, 'Til I Hear From You, in the late '70s. Once the group broke up, Kershaw signed to MCA Records with the help of Nine Below Zero's manager, Micky Modern.
Kershaw released his first solo single, "I Won't Let the Sun Go Down on Me," in 1983; it peaked at number 47 on the U.K. charts. His next single, "Wouldn't It Be Good," hit number five in the U.K. and charted at number 46 in the U.S. Its success led to stardom in Britain for Kershaw; "I Won't Let the Sun Go Down on Me" was re-released in summer of 1984 and charted at number two, leading to a series of hit singles. Released in 1986, his third album, Radio Musicola, wasn't as successful as his previous albums. Kershaw subsequently retreated from performing and recording regularly. Although he released The Works in 1990, Kershaw's main musical contribution since the late '80s is as a songwriter; he's written several songs for other artists, including Chesney Hawke's hit single "The One and Only." After years of writing for others, Kershaw returned with his own 15 Minutes for Pyramid Records. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music GuideLevel 42 - ItsOverIgnazio Deddu2010-02-10 | 1987) The music video of this single was produced by the band, generating praise for Polydor and for the band. The video has a calm and romantic climate, the scenery showing a lot of trees and vegetation. The landscape was perfect, and combined with the rhythm of the music created an atmosphere which contributed perfectly with the mood of the song. This single was played on the radio across the world, so much that still, to the present day it is still performed live by the band.
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At the beginning of their career, Level 42 was a jazz-funk fusion band, following in the footsteps of such pioneers as Stanley Clarke. By the end of the '80s, they were a pop-R&B band with a number of hit singles to their credit. Featuring Mark King (bass, vocals), Phil Gould (drums), Boon Gould (guitar), and Mike Lindup (keyboards), the band formed in 1980. Before they released their first single, "Love Meeting Love," the band was pushed to add vocals to their music in order to give it a more commercial sound; they complied, with King becoming the lead singer. Released in 1981, their self-titled debut album was a slick soul-R&B collection that charted in the U.K. Top 20, resulting in the release of The Early Tapes by their former record label, Polydor. Level 42 had several minor hit singles before 1984's "The Sun Goes Down (Living It Up)" hit the British Top Ten. Released in late 1985, World Machine broke the band worldwide; "Lessons in Love" hit number one in Britain and "Something About You" hit number seven in America. Their next two records, Running in the Family (1987) and Staring at the Sun (1988), were a big success in the U.K., yet only made some headway in the U.S. Both of the Gould brothers left the band in late 1987; they were replaced by guitarist Alan Murphy and drummer Gary Husband. Murphy died of AIDS-related diseases in 1989; he was replaced by the renowned fusion guitarist Alan Holdsworth for 1991's Guaranteed. The band followed Guaranteed in 1995 with Forever Now. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music GuideCinderella - Dont Know What Youve Got Till Its GoneIgnazio Deddu2010-02-10 | 1988) Cinderella is an American rock band from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They emerged in the mid-1980s with a series of multi-platinum albums and hit singles whose music videos received heavy MTV rotation. They were famous for being a glam metal and hard rock band, but then shifted over towards a more blues-rock sound. By the mid-1990s, the band's popularity declined severely due to personal setbacks and public changes in musical tastes.
1980s. Cinderella was formed in Philadelphia in 1983 by singer-songwriter, keyboardist, and guitarist Tom Keifer and bassist Eric Brittingham. The initial lineup also included guitarist Michael Smerick and drummer Tony Destra. In 1985, Smerick and Destra left to form Britny Fox, another Philadelphia-based glam metal band that later relocated to Los Angeles. Cinderella got their big break when Jon Bon Jovi saw them perform at the Empire Rock Club in Philadelphia and recommended that his A&R rep Derek Shulman who knew of the band, to see them as well.[1] In 1985, with a recording contract with Mercury/Polygram Records in the works, guitarist Jeff LaBar and drummer Jim Drnec joined the band.
During the recording of the band's debut album, Night Songs, studio session drummer Jody Cortez was brought in when producer Andy Johns found Drnec difficult to work with.[2] While finishing the recording, Drnec was replaced by former London drummer Fred Coury, who joined in time to make the album's cover and play on upcoming tours. Night Songs was released on August 2, 1986 and eventually achieved triple platinum status, selling 50,000 copies per week at one point. The album reached #3 on the Billboard charts in February 1987.
Cinderella's first tour was in 1986 with fellow glam metal rockers Poison, opening for Japanese heavy metal band Loudness. Further tours into 1987 were spent playing to large arena audiences: five months opening for former Van Halen frontman David Lee Roth, and seven months with Bon Jovi, taking the opening slot for their Slippery When Wet tour. Later that year, the band went overseas, appearing in Japan, Scandinavia, and at the Monsters of Rock festivals in England and Germany.
Cinderella's second album, Long Cold Winter, was released in 1988. It signified a shift towards blues-rock, though it could still be described as glam metal. A 254-show tour to support the album lasted over 14 months and included dates on the Moscow Music Peace Festival alongside other metal acts, such as Ozzy Osbourne, Scorpions, Mötley Crüe, Bon Jovi, and Skid Row. The tour's stage show included Keifer being lowered to the stage while playing a white piano during their radio hit "Don't Know What You Got (Till It's Gone)".David Bowie - Ashes To AshesIgnazio Deddu2010-02-10 | 1980) The video clip for "Ashes to Ashes" was one of the most iconic of the 1980s. Costing £25,000, it was at the time the most expensive music video ever made. It incorporated scenes both in solarised colour (helped by an innovative Quantel Paintbox technique) and in stark black-and-white, featuring Bowie in the gaudy Pierrot costume that became the dominant visual representation of his Scary Monsters phase. Also appearing were Steve Strange and other members of the London Blitz scene, including Judith Franklin and Darla Jane Gilroy, forerunners of (later participants in) the New Romantic movement that was heavily influenced by Bowie's music and image.
Bowie described the shot of himself and the Blitz Kids marching towards the camera in front of a bulldozer as symbolising "oncoming violence". Although it appears that two of the Blitz Kids bow at intervals, they were actually trying to pull their gowns away from the bulldozer in an effort to avoid them getting caught.[6] Scenes of the singer in a space suit - that suggested a hospital life-support system - and others showing him locked in what appeared to be a padded room, made reference to both Major Tom and to Bowie's new, rueful interpretation of him. Contrary to received opinion, the elderly woman lecturing Bowie at the end of the clip was not his real mother, but Wyn Mac, the wife of comedian Jimmy Mac, who was well-known to summer season audiences at the Floral Pavilion Theatre, New Brighton, Merseyside.
Record Mirror readers voted "Ashes to Ashes" and Bowie's next single, "Fashion", the best music videos of 1980.
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David Bowie (pronounced /ˈboʊ.iː/, BOH-ee; born David Robert Hayward-Jones, 8 January 1947 is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. Active in five decades of popular music and frequently reinventing his music and image, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s. He has been cited as an influence by many musicians[4] and is known for his distinctive voice and the intellectual depth of his work.
Although he released an album (David Bowie) and several singles earlier, David Bowie first caught the eye and ear of the public in the autumn of 1969, when the song "Space Oddity" reached the top five of the UK Singles Chart. After a three-year period of experimentation he re-emerged in 1972 during the glam rock era as the flamboyant, androgynous alter ego Ziggy Stardust, spearheaded by the hit single "Starman" and the album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. The relatively short-lived Ziggy persona epitomised a career often marked by musical innovation, reinvention and striking visual presentation.
In 1975, Bowie achieved his first major American crossover success with the number-one single "Fame", co-written with John Lennon, and the hit album Young Americans, which the singer identified as "plastic soul". The sound constituted a radical shift in style that initially alienated many of his UK devotees. He then confounded the expectations of both his record label and his American audiences by recording the minimalist album Low (1977)—the first of three collaborations with singer/songwriter/composer/producer Brian Eno over the next two years. The so-called "Berlin Trilogy" albums all reached the UK top five and garnered lasting critical praise.
After uneven commercial success in the late 1970s, Bowie had UK number ones with the 1980 single "Ashes to Ashes" and its parent album, Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps). He paired with Queen for the 1981 UK chart-topping single "Under Pressure", but reached a commercial peak in 1983 with the album Let's Dance, which yielded the hit singles "Let's Dance", "China Girl", and "Modern Love". Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, Bowie continued to experiment with musical styles, including blue-eyed soul, industrial, adult contemporary, and jungle. His last recorded album was Reality (2003), which was supported by the 2003-2004 Reality Tour.
In the BBC's 2002 poll of the 100 Greatest Britons, Bowie ranked 29. Throughout his career he has sold an estimated 136 million albums, and ranks among the ten best-selling acts in UK pop history. In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine ranked him 39th on their list of the 100 Greatest Rock Artists of All Time and the 23rd best singer of all timeDavid Bowie - Lets DanceIgnazio Deddu2010-02-10 | 1983) This loneliness and desperation seeps into the music video, made with David Mallet on location in Australia including Sydney Harbour, which features Bowie watching an Aboriginal couples struggles against metaphors of Western cultural imperialism impassively while playing with his band.
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David Bowie (pronounced /ˈboʊ.iː/, BOH-ee; born David Robert Hayward-Jones, 8 January 1947 is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. Active in five decades of popular music and frequently reinventing his music and image, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s. He has been cited as an influence by many musicians[4] and is known for his distinctive voice and the intellectual depth of his work.
Although he released an album (David Bowie) and several singles earlier, David Bowie first caught the eye and ear of the public in the autumn of 1969, when the song "Space Oddity" reached the top five of the UK Singles Chart. After a three-year period of experimentation he re-emerged in 1972 during the glam rock era as the flamboyant, androgynous alter ego Ziggy Stardust, spearheaded by the hit single "Starman" and the album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. The relatively short-lived Ziggy persona epitomised a career often marked by musical innovation, reinvention and striking visual presentation.
In 1975, Bowie achieved his first major American crossover success with the number-one single "Fame", co-written with John Lennon, and the hit album Young Americans, which the singer identified as "plastic soul". The sound constituted a radical shift in style that initially alienated many of his UK devotees. He then confounded the expectations of both his record label and his American audiences by recording the minimalist album Low (1977)—the first of three collaborations with singer/songwriter/composer/producer Brian Eno over the next two years. The so-called "Berlin Trilogy" albums all reached the UK top five and garnered lasting critical praise.
After uneven commercial success in the late 1970s, Bowie had UK number ones with the 1980 single "Ashes to Ashes" and its parent album, Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps). He paired with Queen for the 1981 UK chart-topping single "Under Pressure", but reached a commercial peak in 1983 with the album Let's Dance, which yielded the hit singles "Let's Dance", "China Girl", and "Modern Love". Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, Bowie continued to experiment with musical styles, including blue-eyed soul, industrial, adult contemporary, and jungle. His last recorded album was Reality (2003), which was supported by the 2003-2004 Reality Tour.
In the BBC's 2002 poll of the 100 Greatest Britons, Bowie ranked 29. Throughout his career he has sold an estimated 136 million albums, and ranks among the ten best-selling acts in UK pop history. In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine ranked him 39th on their list of the 100 Greatest Rock Artists of All Time and the 23rd best singer of all time.Peter Gabriel - Shock The MonkeyIgnazio Deddu2010-02-09 | 1982) Peter Brian Gabriel (born 13 February 1950) is an English musician and songwriter who rose to fame as the lead vocalist and flautist of the progressive rock group Genesis. After leaving Genesis, Gabriel went on to a successful solo career. More recently he has focused on producing and promoting world music and pioneering digital distribution methods for music. He has also been involved in various humanitarian efforts. Gabriel was awarded the Polar Music Prize in 2009.
Gabriel founded Genesis in 1967 with fellow Charterhouse School pupils Tony Banks, Anthony Phillips, Mike Rutherford, and drummer Chris Stewart. The name of the band was suggested by fellow Charterhouse alumnus, the pop music impresario Jonathan King, who produced their first album, From Genesis to Revelation.
A lover of soul music, Gabriel was influenced by many different sources in his way of singing mainly Otis Redding and other soul singers, as well as Family lead singer Roger Chapman. In 1970, he played the flute on Cat Stevens' album, Mona Bone Jakon.
Genesis drew some attention in England and eventually also in Italy, Belgium, Germany and other European countries, largely due to Gabriel's flamboyant stage presence, which involved numerous bizarre costume changes and comical, dreamlike stories told as the introduction to each song (originally Gabriel developed these stories solely to cover the time between songs that the rest of the band would take tuning their instruments and fixing technical glitches). The concerts made extensive use of Black light with the normal stage lighting subdued or off. A backdrop of fluorescent white sheets and a comparatively sparse stage made the band into a set of silhouettes, with Gabriel's fluorescent costume and make-up providing the only other sources of light.
Gabriel refused to title any of his first four solo albums, which were all labelled Peter Gabriel using the same typeface, but which featured different cover art. They are usually differentiated by number in order of release (I, II, III, IV), or by sleeve design, with the first three solo albums often referred to as Car, Scratch and Melt respectively, in reference to their cover artwork. His fourth solo album, also called Peter Gabriel, was titled Security in the U.S. at the behest of Geffen Records.
After acquiescing to distinctive titles, Gabriel used a series of 2-letter words to title his next three albums: So, Us, and Up. His most recent greatest hits compilation is titled Hit; within the two-CD package, disc one is labelled "Hit" and disc two is labelled "Miss".Tina Turner - Whats Love Got To Do With ItIgnazio Deddu2010-02-09 | 1984) Tina Turner (born Anna Mae Bullock; November 26, 1939) is an American singer and actress whose career has spanned more than 50 years. She has won numerous awards and her achievements in the rock music genre have earned her the title "The Queen of Rock 'n' Roll". Turner started out her music career with husband Ike Turner as a member of the Ike & Tina Turner Revue.[4] Success followed with a string of hits including "River Deep, Mountain High" and the 1971 hit "Proud Mary". Allegations of spousal abuse following her split with Turner in 1977 arose with the publication of her autobiography I, Tina. Turner rebuilt her career, launching a string of hits beginning in 1983 with "Let's Stay Together" and the 1984 release of her album Private Dancer.
Her musical career led to film roles, beginning with a prominent role as The Acid Queen in the 1975 film Tommy, and an appearance in Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. She starred opposite Mel Gibson as Aunty Entity in Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome for which she received the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture, and her version of the film's theme, "We Don't Need Another Hero", was a hit single. She appeared in the 1993 film Last Action Hero.
One of the world's most popular entertainers, Turner has been called the most successful female rock artist and was named "one of the greatest singers of all time" by Rolling Stone. Her records have sold nearly 200 million copies worldwide. She has sold more concert tickets than any other solo music performer in history. She is known for her energetic stage presence,[2] powerful vocals, career longevity, and widespread appeal. In 2008, Turner left semi-retirement to embark on her Tina!: 50th Anniversary Tour. Turner's tour has become one of the highest selling ticketed shows of 2008-2009.Peter Gabriel - Games Without FrontiersIgnazio Deddu2010-02-09 | 1980) The song's title comes from a European game show, Jeux Sans Frontières, that featured teams competing for prizes while dressed in bizarre costumes. The British version of the show was called It's a Knockout, a phrase that also appears in the song. The teams represented towns and cities from each country, so the games had an inevitable element of nationalism. While some games were simple races, others allowed one team to obstruct another.
The lyrics are seen as a critique of nationalism and war, which the song portrays as essentially childish. The tag line of the song, "Games without frontiers, war without tears" is a comment on the sublimation of the rivalries within Europe, caused by centuries of war, in a meaningless game.
The name Lin Tai Yu, which appears in the song, belongs to a character from the classic Chinese novel Dream of the Red Chamber.
Chiang Ching, another name mentioned, refers either to the wife of Chairman Mao and a leader of the Cultural Revolution or to Chiang Ching-kuo, the son of Chiang Kai-shek, who was president of Taiwan at the time the song was written.
Additionally, the end of the first verse refers to Hitler and Enrico Fermi: "Suki plays with Leo, Sacha plays with Brit; Adolf builds a bonfire, Enrico plays with it." Hitler started World War II in Europe, while Fermi's nuclear reactor enabled the nuclear weapons which ended the war in Japan.
The album version of the song includes the line "Whistling tunes we piss on the goons in the jungle" before the second chorus. This was replaced for the single release with a more radio-friendly repeat of the line "Whistling tunes we're kissing baboons in the jungle" from the first chorus. The whistling is Gabriel along with producers Steve Lillywhite and Hugh Padgham.
Winter X Games XIII introduced Gabriel and Lord Jamal's remix of the song, redubbed "X Games Without Frontiers," which became the theme for subsequent games.
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Peter Brian Gabriel (born 13 February 1950) is an English musician and songwriter who rose to fame as the lead vocalist and flautist of the progressive rock group Genesis. After leaving Genesis, Gabriel went on to a successful solo career. More recently he has focused on producing and promoting world music and pioneering digital distribution methods for music. He has also been involved in various humanitarian efforts. Gabriel was awarded the Polar Music Prize in 2009.Taylor Dayne - Tell it to my heartIgnazio Deddu2010-02-09 | 1987) The music video was very low budget but it displayed Taylor's aggressive and sexy style. In the video she follows pretty much the same look featured in the cover of the album.
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Dance-pop diva Taylor Dayne (born Leslie Wonderman) had a remarkably quick ascent to stardom in the late '80s, sailing into the Top Ten with her first single, "Tell It to My Heart." Dayne began singing professionally after graduating from high school, performing with the rock group Felony and a new wave outfit called Next; neither band had any success. Once Dayne finished college, she began singing solo. Her first effort was a dance interpretation of the ballad "Tell It to My Heart"; her version led to a contract with Arista Records, who released the song in the fall of 1987. It soon became a hit, propelling her to stardom.
Taylor Dayne's first album, also titled Tell It to My Heart and released in early 1988, was a continuation of her dance-pop formula: no matter if the song was an up-tempo number or a ballad, she belted out her vocals over the carefully constructed synthesized backing tracks. The formula led to three more Top Ten singles from her debut: "Prove Your Love," "I'll Always Love You," and the number two "Don't Rush Me"; the album eventually sold over two million copies. Can't Fight Fate, Dayne's second album, was nearly as successful, spawning the hit singles "With Every Beat of My Heart," "I'll Be Your Shelter," and the number one "Love Will Lead You Back," as well as selling over a million copies. However, Dayne's fall out of the Top Ten was nearly as quick as her rise; "Heart of Stone," the fourth single from Can't Fight Fate, stalled at number 12 and only one of the singles ("Can't Get Enough of Your Love") from her third album, Send Me a Lover, cracked the Top 40 and, even then, it only reached number 20. Despite her declining sales, Dayne remained a favorite of many dance music fans, returning in 1998 with Naked Without You. Save a couple of soundtrack appearances -- including a cover version of RuPaul's "Supermodel" for The Lizzie McGuire Movie -- acting kept her away from music for the next few years. Reoccurring roles in the TV series Rescue Me and Cold Case along with a starring role in the Elton John/Tim Rice Broadway musical +Aida led to Dayne landing her own VH1 reality series, Remaking: Taylor Dayne. In late 2007 the single "Beautiful" announced the coming of a new album titled Satisfied. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music GuideGo West - We Close Our EyesIgnazio Deddu2010-02-09 | 1985) Guitarist Richard Drummie and vocalist Peter Cox formed the duo Go West. Backed by the likes of Austrian keyboardist/producer Peter Wolf and a cast of West Coast studio musicians, they've produced several albums of high energy dance pop. Although their 1985 debut was a polished set that produced two Top 40 singles ("We Close Our Eyes" and "Don't Look Down"), their biggest hit was "King of Wishful Thinking" from the Pretty Woman soundtrack. ~ Scott Bultman, All Music GuideHeart - AloneIgnazio Deddu2010-02-09 | 1987) Along with debut albums from Foreigner and Boston, Heart's Dreamboat Annie ushered in the era of arena rock and Album Oriented Radio. The album sees the band's sister team of Nancy and Ann Wilson shrewdly pulling off a Led Zep role reversal. Lead singer Ann can shift from pop-thrush blandness to piercing shrieks with the stroke of a power chord, as she does on "Crazy on You" and "Magic Man." Little Queen ups the heavy quotient on hits like "Barracuda" with satisfying results, but murky folk-rock filler like "Dream of the Archer" cuts away at the record's overall power. The clunky Dog and Butterfly merely proves that some aspects of Led Zeppelin's legacy are better left alone. Magazine was a rush-job release of demo tapes, perpetrated when Heart skipped from the Canadian label Mushroom over to Epic.
Bebe Le' Strange shows strong signs of development: On "Even It Up," for example, Ann's vocals are bolstered by a snappy horn chart and firm beat. Greatest Hits -- Live kicks off well, pulling together the obvious high points -- and promptly falls apart, concluding with a turgid cover of Zeppelin's "Rock & Roll." Private Audition is a failed attempt at regaining Bebe's relatively adventurous spirit. Passionworks introduces the Wilsons' latter-day approach on cuts like "Allies" and "How Can I Refuse" -- supercharged bathos encased in a glossy production. Another label change, from Epic to Capitol, jump-started Heart's career a second time. Heart and Bad Animals are the repositories for half a dozen interchangeable power-ballad smashes, any one of which could break your heart or turn your stomach. Oddly enough, Rock the House "Live" is not the second-time-around summation fans might have expected. It's a realistic tour documentary, at best: a hodgepodge of minor album cuts and several resounding nonhits from the middling Brigade. Yet another live album, The Road Home, which collects the band's early hits, strips down the bombastic, arena-rock Heart of the '80s and reveals its sweet folkie soul. (M.C./A.B.)Heart - These DreamsIgnazio Deddu2010-02-09 | 1986) Along with debut albums from Foreigner and Boston, Heart's Dreamboat Annie ushered in the era of arena rock and Album Oriented Radio. The album sees the band's sister team of Nancy and Ann Wilson shrewdly pulling off a Led Zep role reversal. Lead singer Ann can shift from pop-thrush blandness to piercing shrieks with the stroke of a power chord, as she does on "Crazy on You" and "Magic Man." Little Queen ups the heavy quotient on hits like "Barracuda" with satisfying results, but murky folk-rock filler like "Dream of the Archer" cuts away at the record's overall power. The clunky Dog and Butterfly merely proves that some aspects of Led Zeppelin's legacy are better left alone. Magazine was a rush-job release of demo tapes, perpetrated when Heart skipped from the Canadian label Mushroom over to Epic.
Bebe Le' Strange shows strong signs of development: On "Even It Up," for example, Ann's vocals are bolstered by a snappy horn chart and firm beat. Greatest Hits -- Live kicks off well, pulling together the obvious high points -- and promptly falls apart, concluding with a turgid cover of Zeppelin's "Rock & Roll." Private Audition is a failed attempt at regaining Bebe's relatively adventurous spirit. Passionworks introduces the Wilsons' latter-day approach on cuts like "Allies" and "How Can I Refuse" -- supercharged bathos encased in a glossy production. Another label change, from Epic to Capitol, jump-started Heart's career a second time. Heart and Bad Animals are the repositories for half a dozen interchangeable power-ballad smashes, any one of which could break your heart or turn your stomach. Oddly enough, Rock the House "Live" is not the second-time-around summation fans might have expected. It's a realistic tour documentary, at best: a hodgepodge of minor album cuts and several resounding nonhits from the middling Brigade. Yet another live album, The Road Home, which collects the band's early hits, strips down the bombastic, arena-rock Heart of the '80s and reveals its sweet folkie soul. (M.C./A.B.)Dan Hartman - I Can Dream About YouIgnazio Deddu2010-02-09 | 1984) During the '70s, Dan Hartman was a member of the Edgar Winter Group and was also in Johnny Winter's band for a time. Hartman was also a session musician that supported artists as diverse as Ian Hunter, Stevie Wonder, Todd Rundgren, and Ronnie Montrose. After releasing one undistinguished solo pop/rock album in 1976, he hit the big time with the fine disco album, Instant Replay. Its follow-up, Relight My Fire, wasn't as successful and Hartman retreated to the studio, producing .38 Special, the Average White Band, and James Brown; he was behind the board for Brown's comeback hit, "Living in America," in 1986. Hartman had one more hit in 1985 with the pop-soul "I Can Dream About You." Again, his follow-ups weren't successful and he returned to producing. He was preparing a new album at the time of his death in March of 1994. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide