Tuesday Top Ten: Hair Band Songs That Charted Outside the Top 40

Back in May, I did a Tuesday Top Ten with hair band one hit wonders.  One of the things that surprised me when I was doing my research for that post (to make sure that certain bands were, in fact, one hit wonders) was that there were a lot of great hair band songs that never cracked the Top 40. So, I decided to do a Tuesday Top Ten of hair band songs that charted outside the Top 40.

Here are the criteria:

1.  The song has to have been released as a single by a hair band.  My definition of "hair band" is relatively loose, since there are some bands who are not traditionally thought of as hair bands who released albums in the '80s that very much had the hair band sound.

2.  The song has to have been released during the Hair Band Era (essentially 1980-1992).  Thus, a song by Bon Jovi in the early 2000s would not count -– not that it would necessarily make the list anyway.

2.  The song has to have appeared on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

3.  The song's highest-charting position on the Billboard Hot 100 must have been between #41 and #100.

As with many of my musically related Tuesday Top Tens, because of the plethora of great songs, it was tough to narrow this down to ten songs, but I did (kind of).  Here are my choices, as well as the other songs I considered.  Both lists are alphabetical by artist, and the number after the song is its peak chart position.

Other songs considered:  "In and Out of Love" by Bon Jovi (#69); "Girlschool" by Britny Fox (#89); "Heartbreak Station" by Cinderella (#44); "House of Fire" by Alice Cooper (#56); "Bringing on the Heartbreak" (remix) by Def Leppard (#61) (note that this is not the original version of the song, or else it would definitely be in my top 10); "Burning Like a Flame" by Dokken (#72); "In My Dreams" by Dokken (#77); "Cherokee" by Europe; "Rock Me" by Great White (#60); "Yesterdays" by Guns N' Roses (#72); "You've Got Another Thing Comin'" by Judas Priest (#67); "Lick It Up" by KISS (#66); "Home Sweet Home" by Mötley Crüe (#89); "Primal Scream" by Mötley Crüe (#63); "Looks That Kill" by Mötley Crüe (#54); "Too Young To Fall In Love" by Mötley Crüe (#90); "Shot in the Dark" by Ozzy Osbourne (#68); "No More Tears" by Ozzy Osbourne (#71); "Mama Weer All Crazee Now" by Quiet Riot (#51); "Wanted Man" by Ratt (#87); "You're In Love" by Ratt (#89); "Rhythm of Love" by The Scorpions (#75); "Wasted Time" by Skid Row (#88); "The Way It Is" by Tesla (#55); "Little Suzi" by Tesla (#91); "Give It To Me Good" by Trixter (#65); "I Wanna Rock" by Twisted Sister (#68); "And The Cradle Will Rock..." by Van Halen (#55); "Right Now" by Van Halen (#55); "Big Talk" by Warrant (#93); "Blind Faith" by Warrant (#88); "Little Fighter" by While Lion (#52); "Summertime Girls" by Y&T (#55)

1.  "Smooth Up In Ya" by BulletBoys (#71)

BulletBoys were popular for about a minute in the late '80s, thanks in large part to this sultry rocker that has about as much subtlety as a jackhammer fucking Mothra.  Lead singer Marq (yes, he spells his name "Marq") Torien delivers some gritty, wailing vocals, and it's a shame the song wasn't more popular.

2.  "Gypsy Road" by Cinderella (#51)

Cinderella is a very underrated band, in my opinion.  They had a ton of great songs, including five Top 40 hits.  "Gypsy Road" is one of their great songs that didn't crack the Top 40, off of their 1987 album Long Cold Winter, which should be the official soundtrack of last winter here in Chicago.

3.  "Women" by Def Leppard (#80)

"Women" -– which is the first track on Def Leppard's 1987 mega-album, Hysteria -- is the only one of the seven singles released off of the Hysteria album that didn't crack the Billboard Top 20.  It's a brooding homage to, well, women.

4.  "Nightrain" by Guns N' Roses (#96)

This is a catchy, rocking ode to a shitty cheap wine that the band wrote while walking down the street and sharing a bottle of said shitty cheap wine.  Of course, as an innocent adolescent, I thought the song was about a train that ran after dusk.  Regardless, I loved it then, and I love it now.

5.  "Same Ol' Situation (S.O.S.)" by Mötley Crüe (#78)

This is my favorite Mötley Crüe song.  I frankly can't believe it didn't crack the Top 40 because it's just so damn catchy.

6.  "I Want Action" by Poison (#50)

This is one of the first Poison songs I remember hearing, probably because it was one of their first singles and I listened to the radio a lot when I was a kid.  It's a solid song about going out at night and trying to get any kind of pussy you can.

7.  "I Want a Woman" by Ratt (#75)

I have always liked this song.  It's one of those songs that evokes memories of being a teenager in the '80s, which is weird, since I wasn't a teenager in the '80s.

8.  "No One Like You" by The Scorpions (#65)

The Scorpions are awesome, and this is one of my favorite songs by the band.  I was definitely surprised to see that this song didn't crack the Top 40, since it's one of the band's signature songs.

9.  "Youth Gone Wild" by Skid Row (#99)

Skid Row's first single apparently made more of an impression on kids like me than it did on the charts.  It was (and still is) a ballsy, powerful rocker that served as a great anthem for reckless youth.

10. "Hot For Teacher" by Van Halen (#56)

This is one that really surprised me.  I would have thought for sure that "Hot For Teacher" was a Top 40 song.  It's a classic.

11. "Uncle Tom's Cabin" by Warrant (#78)

Before the song "Cherry Pie" had been conceived, Warrant's second album was supposed to be titled Uncle Tom's Cabin.  Then record execs pushed the band to make a song for the radio, and the band came up with "Cherry Pie," which meant the name of the album changed to Cherry Pie and Warrant, for better or worse, was forced to deal with a megahit.  Late lead singer Jani Lane said that he wished he had never written "Cherry Pie," and perhaps that's because the original title track, "Uncle Tom's Cabin" was a pretty damn good song that got kind of got lost in the shuffle during "Cherry Pie" mania.

12. "Still of the Night" by Whitesnake (#79)

I've always thought this song was Whitesnake's impression of Led Zeppelin, and I mean that as a compliment.  The song kicks ass.