Back to double-shots of lost AOR hits this week. You know the drill.
Krokus - Midnite Maniac (1984)
Along with the AC/DC-like track "Long Stick Goes Boom", this track from the album
The Blitz was one of the biggest Rock Radio hits for this hard-rock band - I'm not sure I'd call them Metal - from Switzerland. A big Rock hit during my Junior H.S year in the Fall of '84.
Golden Earring - When The Lady Smiles (1984)
Yes, fellow Redzoners, the band Golden Earring - IMHO, totally underrated - impacted the AOR Radio World with tracks other than "Radar Love" and "Twilight Zone." While this track was a huge AOR hit in early '84, it was literally a here today, gone tomorrow situation. For further proof:
This track peaked at #9, but it's life on the Billboard Top Rock Tracks, which consisted of 60 tracks at the time, only spanned two weeks.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtQu2OdSO3I
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJ1h23iC-6s
Screaming Trees - All I Know (1996)
This band - a product of the Grunge era - produced three AOR hits from two CDs, which were released four years apart, killing the band's momentum. This lost AOR track from the CD
Dust proved to be the band's biggest hit, and also proved to be the last AOR hit for them. The band took forever to produce a follow up to
Dust and ultimately broke up.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6JC2jChudo
Gin Blossoms - Day Job (1996)
This was the follow-up on AOR radio to the Pop/AOR smash "Follow You Down" and is about as close to a straight-ahead rocker as the band would produce. Surprisingly, at their peak in popularity, the band broke up in the Spring of '97, but have since reunited.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5eIJQ73QxM
Kansas - Fight Fire With Fire (1983)
At least to me, it seems as if any Kansas material from beyond the 1970's is ignored on Rock radio today. This was a huge AOR hit, and I consider it to be the signature track of the era of vocalist John Elefante, who replaced longtime vocalist/keyboardist Steve Walsh. Walsh returned in '86 for two CDs. The band experienced a brief resurgence in popularity before becoming a footnote in Rock And Roll History, though they have been continually snubbed by the RRHOF.
FWIW, I prefer this harder-edged track to "Dust In The Wind" - which I consider overrated - any day.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajn_s6cxS64
Goanna - Solid Rock (1983)
This AOR one hit wonder is notable for two reasons.
* The band Goanna beat fellow Australian band Midnight Oil to the punch by about five years by addressing the plight of the Aborigines of Australia from the standpoint of Land rights in a song.
* It was the first Pop/AOR song to feature the use of a didgeridoo - A wind instrument developed by Indigenous Australians of northern Australia around 1,500 years ago and still in widespread use today both in Australia and around the world.
It was a ahead of it's time from the standpoint of being a bit heavy-handed in it's message, but if it indeed helped to pave the way for the band Midnight Oil, that's more than enough for me.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lf0_m5oZW7c
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lf0_m5oZW7c
As always, Rock on, Redszone!
Adieu from R4Blue.