Album Oriented Rock (AOR)--A dying radio format.

[Revering4Blue]

I don't know how to post from YouTube, if I could I would do "I See You In Everyone."

Simply post the link to the Youtube video's web page. That's all there is to it. Great song. Vital Signs is an awesome CD, but I'm not telling you anything you don't already know.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtPWwTdHhoY

[Revering4Blue]

It's about time.

Rush and Deep Purple have finally been nominated for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Iconic British outfit Purple have been eligible for entry for 20 years while the Canadians have been eligible for 15. Both had been ignored up until 2013′s shortlist, with the subject a common one among fans and media alike.

They’re nominated alongside Heart, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, Procol Harum, the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Albert King, Kraftwerk, Randy Newman, Donna Summer, Public Enemy, NWA, Chic, the Marvelettes and the Meters.

http://www.classicrockmagazine.com/n...-hall-of-fame/

[Revering4Blue]

Iommi (Featuring Dave Grohl) - Goodbye Lament (2000)

The only AOR solo hit for the legendary Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi, who featured various vocalists/musicians on his 2000 CD "Iommi" in addition to Dave Grohl. I'm not as familiar with this CD as I should be, as this track was played heavily and then seemingly vanished from Rock Radio. But it (Iommi's solo work) sounds like a good candidate for discussion and song postings on the Heavy Metal thread. <shameless plug>

Speaking of Black Sabbath...

Black Sabbath - Children Of The Sea (1980)

This lost Rock hit from the "Heaven And Hell" album features the late Ronnie James Dio--another vocalist who belongs in any "best Rock vocalist" discussion-- on vocals. Just as he always did with Rainbow and later as a solo artist, RJD really delivers here with Black Sabbath.

Nothing against Ozzy Osbourne, but I'd really like to know why Commercial Rock stations today conveniently ignore the RJD and Ian Gillian eras of Black Sabbath, especially when you factor in the no fewer than four RJD era tracks, this one included, that received significant airplay at one time.

Speaking of Rainbow..

Rainbow - Stone Cold (1982)

The answer to the question of which track is considered to be the signiture track, not necessarily the best, for the band Rainbow--fronted by former Deep Purple members Richie Blackmore and Roger Glover--is likely going to depend upon the preference of the band's lead singer.

Fans of the Ronnie James Dio era will answer with "Man On The Silver Mountain". "Since You Been Gone", originally titled "Since You've Been Gone", with Graham Bonnet on vocals, is another fan favorite. But, IMHO, "Stone Cold" --which hit #1 on Billboard's Rock Tracks chart in June of '82 -- is unquestionably the signiture track of vocalist Joe Lynne Turner's era with Rainbow and it appears, at least to me, to receive far less Rock Radio airplay as the aforementioned two Rainbow tracks. And, if I have to pick a favorite Rainbow track, this is it, though I'm fairly certain that not all, if any, Redzoners agree with me. Oh, well.

Speaking of "Since You've Been Gone"..

Head East -- Since You've Been Gone (1978)

Best known for the AOR hit "Never Been Any Reason" -- which is still a staple of Classic Rock Radio playlists today-- Iowa band Head East covered this Russ Ballard penned track a full year before Rainbow followed suit.

Head East's version also gained quite a bit of AOR airplay over the years, and actually came closer to reaching the Pop Top 40 as a single than Rainbow's version. That stated, I prefer the Rainbow version, but, IMHO, this version is still very good and worth a listen.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebbRsps3p38

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJQQWbr4cXM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPwy9ToKHpo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJKZL1EKpdY

As always, rock on Redszone!

Adieu from R4Blue.

[gilpdawg]

For metalheads I think Stargazer is the definitive Rainbow track. That song basically influenced every Euro Power band that followed.

Sent from my Transformer TF101 using Tapatalk HD

[Revering4Blue]

D'oh!

I completely forgot about "Stargazer" -- another fine example of today's limited playlists, though I'm not sure it ever received anywhere near the amount of airplay as "Man On The Silver Mountain" (not that it matters when measuring the awesomeness of the song.) If I'm not mistaken, the late Cozy Powell and Tony Carey were both members of Rainbow in those days.

[cinredsfan2000]

If I'm not mistaken, the late Cozy Powell and Tony Carey were both members of Rainbow in those days.

No your not mistaken although carey only played on the Classic Rising album .Tony contributed a great keyboard intro on the album opener the song Tarot Woman.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkanocYiQ1Q

Speaking about Tony Carey i submit the video of his solo project Planet P-Why me
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svl1t4b1RD4

[Revering4Blue]

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.

[Revering4Blue]

Speaking about Tony Carey i submit the video of his solo project Planet P-Why me

Good call.

[camisadelgolf]

It's cool to see Screaming Trees mentioned as I just pulled them up on iPod yesterday. The Wurlitzer solo in "Sworn and Broken" by Benmont Tench (of Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers) is one of my favorite solos of all-time.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMNfTrLG380

[Revering4Blue]

This may be old news, but just in case..

Nirvana recently reunited for drummer Dave Grohl's new documentary, "Sound City." Grohl, bassist Krist Novoselic and guitarist Pat Smear teamed up with Paul McCartney to record a new song, "Cut Me Some Slack," for the project and its companion soundtrack.

Here's the track.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBd9330h9kI

More Nirvana news...

Nirvana Open To David Lee Roth Fronted Tour.

http://www.antimusic.com/news/12/Dec...ted_Tour.shtml


BTW, I'll post more Lost Rock Tracks whenever things -- I''ve been extremely busy -- start to slow down.

[marcshoe]

Wow. I love the idea of all of these different strands coming together.

[KronoRed]

Nirvana Open To David Lee Roth Fronted Tour.

http://www.antimusic.com/news/12/Dec...ted_Tour.shtml

AKA, Krist Novoselic is broke.

[Revering4Blue]

Rolling Stones - Too Tough (1983)

The first of two lost Rock hits honoring Birthday Boy Keith Richards, who turned 69 today. This track, an underrated one, IMO, was the third track from the Undercover LP to receive heavy AOR airplay -- "Undercover Of The Night" and "She Was Hot" were the others.


< < < < Caution >>>>

PG 13 Rated track ahead.





Rolling Stones - Little T & A (1981)

IMO, the best of the Rock hits from the Tattoo You album. It is also one of only two Rolling Stones rock hits, "Happy" the other, featuring Keith Richards singing lead. Along with the aforementioned "Too Tough", it remains one of my favorite Stones tracks of the 80's.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5c-PW2VNLGo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqD--BNBmtI


Robin Trower - Tear It Up (1988)

The last big AOR hit for former Procal Harum guitarist and songwriter Robin Trower, who is best known for several 70's AOR hits including "Bridge Of Sighs" and "Too Rolling Stoned". This track from the Take What You Need CD features Davey Patterson, formerly of the late Ronnie Montrose's band Gamma, singing lead.

Mr. Mister - Is It Love (1986)

The third -- and least likely to be remembered -- Pop/AOR hit from the Welcome To The Real World album. While "Broken Wings" and "Kyrie" received most of the attention, this track appealed to me more because it is a little more harder-edged sounding. The band never replicated their success and ultimately broke up in 1990.

Fun fact: When the first Mr. Mister album, I Wear the Face, was released by RCA Records in 1984, lead singer Richard Page was offered the chance to replace Bobby Kimball as lead singer of Toto, and later was offered Peter Cetera's place in Chicago; he refused both offers.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8jgzAIg2cg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XamLT4cNKv8


Cool For August - Don't Wanna Be Here (1997)

The first of only three AOR hits for this band -- all from the Grand World CD. Much like previous entry Screaming Trees, Cool For August suffered from lack of Record Label support/Commercial push and drifted out of the picture. As gilpdawg stated in an earlier post in this thread, many 90's bands suffered the same fate.

Sneaker - Don't Let Me In (1982)

This AOR one-hit-wonder of the week was written by Donald ***en and Walter Becker of Steely Dan, but never recorded as a Steely Dan track. It was/is catchy enough to make me wonder if wouldn't have been another hit for Steely Dan. The band Sneaker, interestingly enough, was named after the Steely Dan track "Bad Sneakers".

Sneaker was also a Pop one-hit-wonder, but not for this track. Their Pop hit "More Than Just The Two Of Us" -- IMO, really wimpy -- was custom written for Lite F.M Radio long before that format even existed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFpkggBQpO4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nJiipCGs3M

As always, Rock On, Redszone!

Adieu from R4Blue.

[texasdave]

As always love the memories that come flooding back when I revisit this thread.

I played the crap out of this album back in the day and always thought this was the signature Robin Trower song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYJp4qkSoOk

[Captain13]

I will try my own double shot.

Greg Lake-I Believe in Father Christmas

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXCEdrnaFlY

The Kinks-Father Christmas

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ni04_SF-HRQ

Merry AOR Christmas