Rocktober '80s Song #2: "Cold Blood" by Kix (1988)

As today is Friday, and all Fridays are Hair Band Fridays, for this year's Rocktober celebration of the '80s, you can sleep tight knowing that every Friday this month, I'll be featuring a hair band song.  Today, it's "Cold Blood" by Kix.

Maryland-based Kix was one of those bands that, every time I hear their music, I think that they should have been bigger than they were.  The songs are solid hard rock songs, and it's not like what they were doing was any different than a lot of other bands at the time -- maybe other than not wearing eye liner and makeup.  While I've never seen them live, they were apparently a fantastic live band to boot.  Though the band had been releasing albums since 1981, they are best known for their anti-suicide power ballad "Don't Close Your Eyes," which hit #11 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1989.  That was from the band's fourth studio album, Blow My Fuse, released in 1988.  It was the band's highest charting album, reaching #46 on the Billboard album chart.

Also from Blow My Fuse is "Cold Blood," a pretty straightforward hard rock song, with a great guitar riff and a chorus that's catchy as hell.  How this wasn't a hit is beyond me.  Seriously, listen to the song and try not to sing the chorus in your head the rest of the day.  I just watched the video three times in a row because once wasn't enough.  And is that Kirstie Alley's hotter younger sister in the video?

Sadly, as with most hair bands, the '90s spelled their demise, although they reformed in the early 2000s and have toured sporadically since then, as well a releasing an album in 2014 that went to #49 on the Billboard album chart.