East coast vs. west coast. Cool indifference vs. standard cool. The Cars and Van Halen are classic bands that released six albums in their original incarnations. Although these two American bands have little in common, such as musical style, flamboyance, and influences, they DO have a lot of similarities, including humorous and ironic lyrics “Can I talk you out of staying here tonight?” vs. “You’re semi good-looking,” iconic videos on MTV, and both bands were local favorites before breaking out, along with, stellar, but radically different lead guitarists. Most importantly, in the big picture ..read more

The good old days where a bunch of hairy goons can become the biggest rock band of the year. Bad Company, arguably the fourth British supergroup (after Cream, Blind Faith and Emerson, Lake and Palmer) ruled the charts and concert halls for much of the 1970s. Unlike those Clapton-based groups, the band released multiple albums. (Six in total.) Hooking up with Led Zeppelin’s manager, Peter Grant, the band was a hit from the word go, scoring a Billboard #1 album their first album. Unfortunately, like ELP, their albums grew weaker as time passed. In fact, the original incarnation of the band (Paul ..read more

Billy Squier – a mainstay of AOR radio in the first half of the 1980s. A stellar guitarist in his own right, and more heavyweight than contemporaries like Rick Springfield, Squier was able to balance rock cred, stylish looks and great music seemingly effortlessly. Although he was over thirty when he hit the big time, he had a five-year winning streak that netted platinum albums, sold-out arenas and soundtrack contributions to some of the most iconic 1980s movies. An ill-conceived video, changing musical tastes and, let’s face it, plain bad luck ended his golden age, but despite all that, he st ..read more

Billboard Top 40: The toppermost of the poppermost. Back in the day when singles ruled the world, there was something called “Top 40 Radio” – a place where the most popular songs in the nation were played. But not ALL the songs – only the most popular forty (both past and present).  Why forty was the number that the powers that be settled on as the number is beyond the scope of most normal people. And out of my paygrade as well. (Though I’m sure the mighty Wikipedia has the answer.) One old rumor is that jukeboxes could only hold 40 singles – so that’s a reasonable answer. Or maybe the m ..read more

Remember these things? Rock n’ roll, which has been around a hell of a lot longer than I have, was based on the 7” 45 RPM single. Yup, in those days, you put a record on (don’t forget to switch the record player from 33 1/3 RPM to 45 RPM), something that only had one song per side on it, and just like the time you lost your virginity, in less than three minutes, it was all over. The prime real estate was the “A-side” of the single. That’s where the hit lived, and anything else was the low rent district. Nobody cared what was on the other side of the record, it was all about the hit single. Unl ..read more

The good old days where a bunch of hairy goons can become the biggest rock band of the year. Bad Company, arguably the fourth British supergroup (after Cream, Blind Faith and Emerson, Lake and Palmer) ruled the charts and concert halls for much of the 1970s. Unlike those Clapton-based groups, the band released multiple albums. (Six in total.) Hooking up with Led Zeppelin’s manager, Peter Grant, the band was a hit from the word go, scoring a Billboard #1 album their first album. Unfortunately, like ELP, their albums grew weaker as time passed. In fact, the original incarnation of the band (Paul ..read more

Rainbow live in all its glory in the Dio era. Some say Ronnie is the only vocalist that mattered. According to the Chinese zodiac, 1983 was the year of the pig. It was also the year of a lot of other things as well; the end of a much-loved (but dragged out too long) sitcom; a TV movie about nuclear war; and most notably, the release of Bent Out Of Shape, the seventh (and final for quite a while) album from Rainbow, the band ex-Deep Purple guitarist Ritchie Blackmore founded in 1975. Rainbow went through three singers, four bassists, four drummers and five keyboard players between 1975 and 1983 ..read more

Yesterday, when we were young… ABBA is back! I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing, but in any case, it’s been 40 years since the last album (The Visitors, November 1981). And except for a couple of new tracks for a 2-LP (remember those??!?) career retrospective the following year, there has been no new music released in nearly four decades. And even though ABBA is a name-band in America, the really big sales numbers are overseas. Although the group enjoyed big hit singles over here that are still fondly remembered today, a mid-level rock band like Survivor has had far more succes ..read more

In 1984, these were the coolest guys EVER! Huey Lewis and The News were one of the most successful artists of the 1980s, on both the singles and albums charts as well as the concert circuit. Not to mention huge in popular culture as well. Although tagged as an overnight sensation by the casual observer, nothing could further from the truth. The band – made up of three members of Soundhole (drummer Bill Gibson, bassist Mario Cippolina and guitarist/saxophonist Johnny Colla), a local Marin County band, two members of Clover (keyboardist Sean Hopper and vocalist Huey), an outfit whose commercial ..read more

Rock and pop acts usually have some sort of shelf life – a period of time when things are good and their records climb the chart. (Good things happen to musicians when their records chart.) Then, of course, stuff happens. Certain styles of music go out of favor, bands lose members or break up, or simply didn’t get the lucky breaks anymore.  But once in a while, a group that had a number of hits gets lucky and gets that “one last hit” – a record that charts years after their previous hit single. Kansas – All I Wanted (1986) Kansas, a kinda-prog band from middle America (well, Kansas, actu ..read more