CoronaVinyl Day 261 (B): Hold Out by Jackson Browne

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Today's CoronaVinyl category is "B," and my recent lot of records I obtained from my neighbor included a few Jackson Browne albums.  We're going to keep it in 1980 for a second day in a row, with Browne's sixth studio album, Hold Out.

I've always been pretty tepid on Jackson Browne.  For whatever reason, his music never really did it for me.  That's not to say I don't like some of his songs.  He's obviously a great songwriter.  That said, his stuff was always just a step above soft rock, but not quite hard enough for what I would consider "rock" music.  

Browne started off writing songs for other artists, including co-writing The Eagles' hit "Take It Easy," and then released his first solo album in 1972 and had success throughout the '70s and early '80s.  Hold Out was one of his most successful albums, and it was his only album to reach #1 on the Billboard album chart.  It also went double platinum in the U.S., making it his third consecutive multiplatinum album, and the sixth of seven consecutive platinum or multiplatinum albums for him.  Given its #1 status on the album chart, you would have expected it to have some huge hits, but it only yielded two Top 40 hits on the Billboard Hot 100, neither of which charted higher than #19 ("Boulevard" went to #19 and "That Girl Could Sing" went to #22).

Browne has continued to make music since then.  All told, he has had 11 Top 40 hits on the Billboard Hot 100, including two Top 10s.  He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004.

Favorite song on Side 1:  "Boulevard"
This is one of the harder rocking of Browne's songs, which is probably why I like it.

Favorite song on Side 2:  "Hold On Hold Out"
The last track on the album is just over 8 minutes, and it's kind of a Springsteen-esque extended jam with pianos, keyboards, and female backing vocals.

Hair Band Friday - 4/30/21

1.  "18 and Life" by Skid Row

2.  "You Got Me Runnin'" by Def Leppard

3.  "Tonight (We Need a Lover)" by Mötley Crüe

4.  "Hold Your Fire" by FireHouse

5.  "Bump the La La" by Kix

6.  "Goodbye and Good Riddance to Bad Luck" by AC/DC

7.  "Damn Yankees" by Damn Yankees

8.  "Mad Hatter" by Bonham

9.  "Falling in Love" by Scorpions

10.  "She's So Fine" by Thunder

CoronaVinyl Day 260 (A): Lost in Love by Air Supply

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Today's CoronaVinyl category is "A," and I'm going with one of the first vinyl records I ever bought, Air Supply's 1980 soft rock classic, Lost in Love, which I purchased at a Bloomington, Indiana Goodwill store sometime around 2001, when I didn't even have a working turntable.

Air Supply is one of my guilty pleasures.  My parents had their 1983 Greatest Hits album, so I used to listen to more Air Supply than most kindergarteners, or so I assume.  Formed in Melbourne in 1975, Air Supply was Aussie vocalist Russell Hitchcock and English vocalist/songwriter Graham Russell, backed by kind of a rotating group of musicians over the years.

Lost in Love was the group's fifth studio album, though only their second album released in the U.S.  Thanks to the work of legendary A&R man and record exec, Arista Records founder (and now Rock and Roll Hall of Famer) Clive Davis -- who signed the group to Arista prior to this album -- Lost in Love was the group's breakthrough in America.

The album only reached #22 on the Billboard album chart -- their first charting album in the U.S. -- but it spawned three Top 5 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 (the first three tracks on the album, no less).  The title track was originally recorded the year earlier, but they re-recorded it for this album, and it went to #3.  "All Out of Love" followed, going to #2.  Then "Every Woman in the World" went to #5.  They were the first three of an impressive seven Top 5 singles in a row in the U.S.

Lost in Love is pure early '80s soft rock.  Sure, it's a little cheesy, but that's it's allure.  Hitchcock and Graham's vocals play off each other smoothly, with Hitchcock every now and then showing off his pipes.  It has since gone double platinum in the U.S., making it their best-selling studio album in America.

As alluded to above, the group continued their success over the next several years, though their soft rock flame fizzled out in about 1985, as the soft genre in general fell prey to the other more peppy genres of the day.  But between 1980 and 1985, Air Supply had 11 Top 40 hits on the Billboard Hot 100, 8 of which were Top 5 songs -- and ten of those eleven songs were also Top 5 songs on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart.

Favorite song on Side 1:  "All Out of Love"
As schmaltzy as this song is, it's a lovely pop song that pulls at your heartstrings.  Sometimes, I wonder how many crestfallen lovers sang this to their ex-girlfriends and ex-boyfriends in the early '80s in an effort to patch things up.  

Favorite song on Side 2:  "I Can't Get Excited"
This song is as close to power pop as I imagine Air Supply ever got.  It's more punchy and features an electric guitar more prominently than most of the other songs on the album.

Retro Video of the Week: "Motownphilly" by Boyz II Men

In the latest edition of "damn, I feel old," this Friday will mark the 30th anniversary of the release of Boyz II Men's debut album, Cooleyhighharmony.  Though they were from Philadelphia, the group named the album after Cooley High, a now-closed Chicago public high school not too far from the now-closed infamous Cabrini-Green housing projects that boasted such diverse alums as legendary soul singer Jerry Butler and the hilariously effervescent clown-faced serial killer John Wayne Gacy. 

The album was a huge success, reaching #3 on the Billboard album chart and #1 on the Billboard R&B album chart.  It has gone on to sell 9 million copies in the U.S. alone, becoming the first of four consecutive multiplatinum albums in the U.S for the group.  All six of the singles released from the album charted on the Billboard Hot 100, with five in the Top 20 and four in the Top 3.  They were, in chart-topping order, "End of the Road" (#1), "It's So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday" (#2), "Motownphilly" (#3), "In The Still of the Nite (I'll Remember)" (#3), "Uhh Ahh" (#16), and "Please Don't Go" (#49).

Of those, my favorite -- and favorite Boyz II Men song, period -- is "Motownphilly," which was the group's first single, setting the course for their massive success in the '90s.  The title was a juxtaposition of their record label and their hometown -- where they were from, where they were, and a signal of where they were going.  The song is a new jack swing classic, with friend and Bell Biv DeVoe member Michael Bivins (who co-wrote the song) providing the rap bridge and making an appearance in the video.  After all, Boyz II Men, ABC, and BBD were the East Coast family.  I don't dance, but this is one of the few songs that can get me to do the cabbage patch and the running man without the aid of hard alcohol.

CoronaVinyl Day 259 (#): The Age of Aquarius by The 5th Dimension

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Today's CoronaVinyl category is "#," meaning artists whose name starts with a number, and not artists with sweet hashtags.  I had previously only had one -- .38 Special's Tour De Force, which I featured nearly a hundred albums ago, back in November -- but one of my recent acquisitions from my neighbor was The 5th Dimension's 1969 psychedelic soul classic, The Age of Aquarius.

The 5th Dimension was an LA-based vocal group that had a good bit of success in the late '60s and early '70s.  They blended soul, R&B, pop, and jazz, and their sound was pretty crisp.  Their original "classic" lineup (i.e., during their most successful years, 1966 to 1975) featured two women -- Florence LaRue and Marilyn McCoo, who I think should have branched out to have their own buddy detective TV show called LaRue and McCoo's Clues -- and three men, Billy Davis, Jr., LaMonte McLemore, and Ron Townson.  Of them, LaRue and Townson were Aquariuses.

They hit the ground running in 1966, with their first single, a cover of The Mamas & The Papas' "Go Where You Wanna Go," which reached #16 on the Billboard Hot 100.  Their success continued over the next several years, climaxing with The Age of Aquarius, their fourth album.  Backed by the famed session musicians The Wrecking Crew, with The Age of Aquarius, they delved further into the poppy psychedelic soul sound that they featured on their prior album, 1968's Stoned Soul Picnic, and it worked out quite well for the group.

The Age of Aquarius is a beautifully produced and performed album, showcasing the group's excellent vocal interplay, with a backdrop of music provided by some of the best session musicians there have ever been.  It went to #2 on both the regular Billboard album chart and the Billboard R&B album chart -- their best showing on either chart.  All four singles from the album were hits, with the "Aquarius/Let The Sunshine In" medley and "Wedding Bell Blues" both reaching #1 on the Billboard Hot 100, "Workin' On a Groovy Thing" reaching #20, and "Blowing Away" reaching #21.  There are also some covers of other artists' songs, like Cream's "Sunshine of Your Love," the aforementioned "Workin' On a Groovy Thing" (which was co-written by Neil Sedaka and originally recorded by Patti Drew), "Let It Be Me" (originally a French song that was later recorded by The Everly Brothers), and "Those Were The Days" (an English adaptation of a Russian song that was recorded by various artists, most popularly by Mark Hopkin in 1968).

The group would continue to have success into the early '70s, but then had various lineup changes beginning in 1975, when McCoo and Davis (who were married and still are!) left to pursue their own music (and had success as a duo).  McCoo went on to be the longtime host of the syndicated '80s music TV show Solid Gold.  LaRue is the only remaining original member of the group.

In total, between 1966 and 1973, The 5th Dimension had 19 Top 40 hits on the Billboard Hot 100, including 7 Top 10s and two #1s (both of which were on this album).

The Spotify version of the album features one bonus track.

Favorite song on Side 1:  "Aquarius/Let The Sunshine In"
"Aquarius/Let The Sunshine In" is an instantly recognizable classic that was originally featured in the famous '60s Broadway show Hair.  It spent 6 weeks at #1, was ranked #66 by Billboard on its Greatest Songs of All Time list, won two Grammy Awards (including Record of the Year), and has been featured in countless movies, TV shows, and commercials over the years.  It's kind of a beacon of '60s love and hope.  While the "Aquarius" part is great," I think the soulful jam of "Let The Sunshine In" makes the song.

Favorite song on Side 2:  "Let It Be Me"
Davis handles lead vocals on the group's soulful take on the song.

CoronaVinyl Day 258 (Various Artists): Looking For Mr. Goodbar Soundtrack by Various Artists

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Today's CoronaVinyl category is "Various Artists," and among my recent acquisitions from my neighbor is the soundtrack to the 1977 film Looking For Mr. Goodbar.

Based on the title and the album cover, I assumed it was a slapstick comedy about a woman's search for a candy bar with milk chocolate and peanuts.  Turns out, it's a little darker than that -- and I don't mean the chocolate!  The movie, which came out in theaters about a week and a half before I came out of my mother's wretched womb, starred Diane Keaton, Tuesday Weld, and William Atherton, as well as Richard Gere, LaVar Burton, and Tom Berenger in their first significant film roles.  It's based on a 1975 novel of the same name, which itself was inspired by a true crime -- the 1973 murder of a school teacher in her Manhattan apartment at the hands of a man she took home from a bar.  I'd venture to say he was not Mr. Goodbar!

Overall, it's a pretty impressive soundtrack, and it certainly captures the essence of night life in the late '70s (or so I assume).  It featured mainly disco, soul, and R&B songs from around that time period, including some big hits and some big names.  There are three songs by the Queen of Disco, Donna Summer, two songs by soul legend Bill Withers, and a song each by Diana Ross, The Commodores, Boz Scaggs, Thelma Houston, and The O'Jays, in addition to the film's scored theme song.  Here are the songs on the album that reached the Top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100 (to be clear, they all charted before they appeared in the film or on the soundtrack), with the peak chart position and the original year of release:
-"Don't Leave Me This Way" by Thelma Houston (#1, 1976)
-"Love Hangover" by Diana Ross (#1, 1976)
-"Lowdown" by Boz Scaggs (#3, 1976)
-"Back Stabbers" by The O'Jays (#3, 1972)
-"Machine Gun" by The Commodores (#22, 1974)

The album itself isn't on Spotify, but someone made a playlist with all the songs, though they're not necessarily in the same order as on the album.

Favorite song on Side 1:  "Machine Gun" by The Commodores
While Thelma Houston's "Don't Leave Me This Way" is one of my favorite disco songs, I couldn't pass up this space funk instrumental by The Commodores, from their 1974 debut album of the same name.

Favorite song on Side 2:  "Back Stabbers" by The O'Jays
I'll be damned if they didn't just go ahead and call out doublecrossers.

CoronaVinyl Day 257 (Y): Light Shine by Jesse Colin Young

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Things got away from my Friday afternoon, so I didn't get a chance to listen to any vinyl, but such is life in a house with two parents working from home and three kids schooling from home three days a week.  Anywho, today's CoronaVinyl category is "Y," and I only have a few "Y" albums left, once of which is Jesse Colin Young's 1974 album Light Shine, his fifth solo studio album.

Before I listened to this today, I knew nothing about JCY, as I'm now calling him, for the sake of brevity.  Based on the picture and the year of release, I assumed this would be kind of a folky, singer-songwriter type album, but it's not.  It's does have some singer-songwriter tendencies, but it's mostly mid '70s soft rock, and has some elements of soul, jazz, Caribbean music, and jam bands in it.  I also assumed he is Canadian.  He is not.

As I just learned, JCY (who is from Queens) was the lead singer and bassist for the '60s rock group The Youngbloods, who had a big hit in 1969 with "Get Together," which reached #5 on the Billboard Hot 100.  After The Youngbloods broke up, JCY embarked on a solo career (though he had released a couple solo albums before The Youngbloods formed).

JCY didn't have a ton of commercial success as a solo artist, and Light Shine topped out at #37 on the Billboard album chart, his second highest-charting album of his solo career.  The first side dubbed on the back of the album as "California Suite," and it has three songs that are part of the suite.  The second side is an eclectic mix of songs.

JCY has continued to make music for most of the nearly 50 years since then, though he took a hiatus for a few years starting in 2012, when he was diagnosed with Lyme disease. 

Favorite song on Side 1:  "California Child"
The first song on the album is poppy little number with almost a little bit of a Vaudeville-type feel to it in a couple parts.  It could be the theme song to a '70s sitcom.

Favorite song on Side 2:  "The Cuckoo"
"The Cuckoo" is a nearly seven-minute jazz-tinged jam.

Hair Band Friday - 4/23/21

1.  "Sweet Child O' Mine" by Guns N' Roses

2.  "Believe In Love" by Scorpions

3.  "Let Freedom Rock/Star-Spangled Banner" by Vinnie Vincent Invasion

4.  "One Man Woman" by Twisted Sister

5.  "Baby Be Mine" by White Lion

6.  "Reach For the Sky" by FireHouse

7.  "Atomic Punk" by Van Halen

8.  "Carr Jam 1981" by KISS

9.  "In The Room" by Sammy Hagar

10.  "Friday Night" by Vandenberg

CoronaVinyl Day 256 (W): Back In The High Life by Steve Winwood

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Today's CoronaVinyl category is "W," and I have a few Steve Winwood albums, so why not go with his 1986 hit album Back In The High Life?

Winwood had been a star for 20 years at this point, starting out as the lead singer of the Spencer Davis Group in his teens, then forming Traffic, then taking a little break to be in supergroup Blind Faith, then going back to Traffic, and then finally going solo in the late '70s, releasing his self-titled solo debut in 1977.

Back In The High Life was his fourth solo album, and arguably the most successful of his solo career.  Until then, he only had one Top 40 hit on the Billboard Hot 100, 1981's "When You See a Chance.  Back in the High Life changed all that, garnering him four Top 20 singles on the Billboard Hot 100 and earning him three Grammy Awards.  The album went to #3 on the Billboard album chart and #8 on the album chart in his native UK.  It also went triple platinum in the U.S., making it his best-selling solo album in America.  

The album is a solid example of polished, '80s pop, and every song could have been a hit in 1986 or 1987.  "Higher Love" -- with the inimitable Chaka Khan on backing vocals and Nile Rodgers on guitar -- was his first solo #1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100.  (His second would come two years later with "Roll With It," and I still hold that against him because it was #1 for four weeks in a row, keeping Def Leppard's "Pour Some Sugar On Me" stuck at #2 the whole time.)

In addition, "The Finer Things" (with James Ingram and Dan Hartman on backing vocals) went to #8, "Back In The High Life Again" (with James Taylor on backing vocals) went to #13," and "Freedom Overspill" (with Joe Walsh on slide guitar) went to #20.

Winwood's next album, 1988's Roll With It, kept up the momentum started with Back In The High Life, becoming Winwood's only #1 album as a solo artist and producing another three Top 15 hits on the Billboard Hot 100.

All in all, Winwood has had ten Top 40 songs on the Billboard Hot 100, and all of them reached the Top 20, six reached the Top 10, and the aforementioned two #1s.  He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004 as a member of Traffic.

Favorite song on Side 1:  "Higher Love"
There's good reason this song went to #1.  It's a great song, and it has a wonderful soulful feel, thanks in large part to Khan's backing vocals.

Favorite song on Side 2:  "Split Decision"
This one is probably the most rocking song on the album (at least the intro), and it also features Joe Walsh on guitar.  In parts, it reminds me of Traffic.

Retro Video of the Week: "Hunger Strike" by Temple of the Dog

Last Friday marked the 30th anniversary of the release of Temple of the Dog's only album, their self-titled release.  It was a bittersweet album, as it was a tribute to the late Andrew Wood, who had been the frontman of Seattle grunge band Mother Love Bone.  Wood died of a heroin overdose in March 1990.

Soundgarden lead singer Chris Cornell was Wood's former roommate, and Cornell approached former Mother Love Bone guitarist Stone Gossard and bassist Jeff Ament about doing an album in honor of Wood.  They recruited Soundgarden drummer Matt Cameron and then-unknown singer Eddie Vedder and guitarist Mike McCready.  At the time, the latter two were working with Ament and Gossard in what would become Pearl Jam.  The grunge supergroup chose the name Temple of the Dog from one of Wood's lyrics to a Mother Love Bone song.

They recorded the album in late 1990, and it was Vedder and McCready's first time recording music.  The result ended up being a beautiful grunge tribute to Wood that eventually went platinum in the U.S.

The Cornell-penned song "Hunger Strike" is, in my opinion, the brightest shining star on the album, and it's one of my favorite songs from the '90s.  The album was reissued in 1992, and "Hunger Strike" was released as a single that year as well (and the video was released), after Pearl Jam had hit it big with their debut album Ten and Soundgarden's Badmotorfinger was doing well too.  The album reached #5 on the Billboard album chart in 1992, and "Hunger Strike" went to #4 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock tracks chart and #7 on the Billboard Alternative Rock tracks chart.

The interplay between Cornell's soaring voice and Vedder's deeper baritone on "Hunger Strike" still gives me chills, perhaps even more since Cornell committed suicide a few years ago.  What an amazing song, especially that last part where Cornell just explodes and shows the world that he had one of the best voices in rock history.

CoronaVinyl Day 255 (V): By Request: The Best of Billy Vera & The Beaters by Billy Vera & The Beaters

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Sorry for the one-day hiatus.  I was trapped in a room without a turntable for most of the day yesterday, so I didn't have the chance to listen to any vinyl.  COVID problems.  Today's CoronaVinyl category is "V," and my options are limited, but one of my recent acquisitions from that stack or records I got from my neighbor is Billy Vera & The Beaters' 1987 "best of" album By Request.

Back in February, I listened to Billy Vera's Retro Nuevo album and told you all about him and the song "At This Moment," which wasn't on Retro Nuevo, but is on By Request.  I'm not going to rehash everything I said there, but I'll tell you a little bit about By Request.

As I told you in February, "At This Moment" was originally released in 1981 and didn't make much noise on the charts, but then became a #1 hit in 1987 after it was featured in several poignant episodes of Family Ties.  Due to the song's success, Rhino Records cobbled together an album, By Request, which features songs that were all recorded in 1981, most of which are from the Billy & The Beaters album, which was a live album recorded at the Roxy in LA and was originally released in 1981.  Two of the tracks are from the Billy Vera album that was released the following year.

The live songs are certain the bread and butter.  Vera and The Beaters had a legendary standing weekly midnight show at the Troubadour in LA in the early '80s, which is interesting to me because this type of music -- kind of a mix of blue-eyed soul, pop, R&B, and country -- was certainly not the type of music that was big at that time.  While the live songs on By Request were recorded a mile north at he Roxy, you still get the feeling.  Vera, of course, was the lead singer, and also played guitar.  Joining him were Doobie Brothers alum Jeff "Skunk" Baxter on pedal steel guitar, session keyboardist Jim Ehinger, future member of Bruce Hornsby's backing band The Range George Marinelli on guitar, four (!) sax players (Bryan Cumming, Jerry Peterson, Lon Price, and Ron Viola), session bassist Chuck Fiore, and session drummer Beau Segal.

Thanks to the success of "At This Moment," the album reached #17 on the Billboard album chart.  Vera has continued to make music since then, and as I mentioned in February, has also written and sung various TV theme songs -- and several of the songs on By Request have kind of a TV theme song feel to them -- acted in movies and on TV, done voiceover work, written a couple books, and written liner notes for over 200 reissued albums and box sets (and won a Grammy in 2013 for his liner notes for a Ray Charles box set).

By Request isn't on Spotify, so again, I'm just going to give you a different "best of" compilation that is on Spotify (and is a different one than I posted in February).

Favorite song on Side 1:  "Millie, Make Some Chili"
As Vera explains when introducing this song, it's about a woman at a late night diner who makes a mean chili dog.  It's kind of a country-tinged rockabilly song.

Favorite song on Side 2:  "At This Moment"
Like I was going to pick another song.  For my diatribe about the song, see my post from February.

CoronaVinyl Day 254 (T): Private Dancer by Tina Turner

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Today's CoronaVinyl category is "T," and we're going with one of the great comeback albums of all-time, Tina Turner's Private Dancer.

Of course, Tina Turner was famously married to Ike Turner, with whom she had a successful musical partnership, but a tumultuous personal relationship.  They stopped making music together in 1976, and then got divorced two years later.

Turner had released a couple solo albums prior to that, in 1974 and 1975, and then two more in 1978 and 1979.  Of those, only 1975's Acid Queen charted on the Billboard album chart, and it only reached #155.  And she only had one charting single on the Billboard Hot 100 from any of those albums, 1975's "Baby, Get It On" (a collaboration with Ike), which topped out at #80.

At the end of the '70s, Turner left her record label and signed with EMI/Capitol.  She teamed up with British electronic group B.E.F. in 1982 and released a cover of Al Green's "Let's Stay Together" in the UK.  It became a surprise Top 10 hit in the UK, prompting Capitol to release it in the U.S., where it went to #26 on the Billboard Hot 100 -- her first Top 40 hit in the U.S. since her and Ike's hit "Nutbush City Limits" in 1973 (which reached #22).

At 44 years old, she released Private Dancer in May 1984, and it was a huge success, both in the U.S. and across the world.  The album went to #3 on the Billboard album chart, #1 on the Billboard R&B album chart, #2 on the UK album chart, #1 on the album charts in Austria and Canada, and to the Top 10 on the charts in eight other countries.  Turner had some help from some great musicians and songwriters as well, with songwriting and/or backing musical contributions from several members of Dire Straits, Jeff Beck, and members of The Fixx, among others.

Including "Let's Stay Together," which was included on the album, Private Dancer produced five Top 40 singles on the Billboard Hot 100, three of which went to the Top 10, including her only #1 ("What's Love Got to Do With It?").  In addition to those two, "Better Be Good To Me" went to #5, the title track went to #7, and "Show Some Respect" went to #37.

The album revitalized her career, introducing Turner's talents to a whole new generation that, like me as a six-year-old at the time, had never known about Turner's successes in the '60s and early '70s.  She remained a chart success well into the '90s, particularly in the UK, where she became the first artist to have a Top 40 song on the UK pop chart in seven consecutive decades.

All in all, after her break with Ike, she has had 14 Top 40 hits on the Billboard Hot 100, including 6 Top 10s and the aforementioned #1.  In the UK, she has had 31 Top 40 hits on the UK pop chart, including 9 Top 10s.

The Spotify version of the album is the 30th anniversary deluxe edition with a bunch of extra tracks, and the order of the original songs isn't the same as the original version.

Favorite song on Side 1:  "Better Be Good To Me"
Even though this was a Top 5 song, I don't really remember it.  This is a solid mid '80s pop rock song with a much-deserved message of demanding some love.

Favorite song on Side 2:  "Steel Claw"
This one is an uptempo rocking song that seems like it cold have just as easily been at home on an '80s Springsteen album.  And Jeff Beck plays guitar on it!

Hair Band Friday - 4/16/21

1.  "Hello America" by Def Leppard

2.  "Wrecking Ball" by Vixen

3.  "The Green Manalishi (With the Two-Pronged Crown)" by Judas Priest

4.  "Shout at the Devil" (demo) by Mötley Crüe

5.  "Rattlesnake Shake" by Skid Row

6.  "She's So Lonely" by Britny Fox

7.  "Lonely Nights" by White Lion

8.  "Change of a Season" by Bonham

9.  "Inside" by Van Halen

10.  "And On the 8th Day" by KISS

CoronaVinyl Day 253 (S): Against The Wind by Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band

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Today's CoronaVinyl category is "S," and why not go with one of Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band's biggest album ever, 1980's Against The Wind.

Seger had released three albums in 1969 and 1970 with his band The Bob Seger System (their most well-known song being "Ramblin' Gamblin' Man"), then released five solo albums from 1971 to 1975 before forming The Silver Bullet Band, which released seven studio albums between 1976 and 1995.  Seger only had middling success as a solo artist, but pretty much immediate wide-scale success when he teamed up with The Silver Bullet Band.  Both of the band's first two albums -- 1976's Night Moves and 1978's Stranger in Town -- went to the Top 10 of the Billboard album chart and have been certified 6x platinum in the U.S.

Against The Wind was the band's third studio album, and it's arguably the band's most successful album.  It was the third of six consecutive Top 10 studio albums for the band, as well as their highest-charting album in the U.S.  It was their only #1 album on the Billboard album chart, and it topped the chart for six weeks in May and June 1980.  It sold 3.7 million copies in the U.S. in less than two years, and has since gone platinum five times in the U.S.  On top of that, it won the Grammy for Best Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group and for Best Recording Package.

It was the band's second album in a row to feature three Top 15 hits on the Billboard Hot 100, and their only album to have two Top 10 songs.  The title track (#5), "Fire Lake" (#6), "You'll Accomp'ny Me" (#14), and "Horizontal Bop/Her Strut" (#42) all charted.

The album is classic Seger, showing that he could both rock and have sensitive ballads -- something that few rock stars have done as well as he has over the years.  Against The Wind was recorded in several studios, but mostly at the famed Muscle Shoals Sound Studios in Alabama and at the famed Criteria Studios in Miami.  Helping the band out on the album on various tracks were The Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, Don Henley, Glenn Frey, and Timothy Schmit of The Eagles, Little Feat's Sam Clayton, and Dr. John.

Seger was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004 and the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2012.

Favorite song on Side 1:  "Her Strut"
This one is kind of a raunchy rocker with an edge and a nice guitar riff.  Allegedly inspired by Jane Fonda, though it's often thought to be misogynistic, Seger has said it's kind of the opposite, because, after all, "they do respect the butt."

Favorite song on Side 2:  "Betty Lou's Gettin' Out Tonight"
This is an uptempo honky tonk kind of rocker, a bit of a throwback to '50s rock that I would expect to be popular at the Double Deuce.

Retro Video of the Week: "When the Going Gets Tough, The Tough Get Going" by Billy Ocean

Friday marks the 35th anniversary of the release of British R&B singer Billy Ocean's sixth studio album, Love Zone.  It was Ocean's second Top 10 album in both his native UK and the U.S., reaching #2 on the UK album chart and #6 on the Billboard album chart, his highest-charting album ever on both charts.  It was eventually certified double platinum in the U.S.

Love Zone spawned two huge hits for Ocean.  The ballad "There'll Be Sad Songs (To Make You Cry)" was Ocean's second #1 song on the Billboard Hot 100, and the infectious "When The Going Gets Tough, The Tough Get Going" -- which was co-written and produced by legendary producer Mutt Lange and originally released the year before on the soundtrack to the Michael Douglas/Kathleen Turner/Danny DeVito vehicle Jewel of the Nile -- was a massive hit across the world, going to #2 on the Billboard Hot 100, #1 on the pop charts in the UK, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Ireland, The Netherlands, and Norway, and reaching the Top 10 on the pop charts in seven other countries.

The video features DeVito, Douglas, and Turner pretending to sing backing vocals in white tuxedos, and DeVito pretending to play the sax solo on a saxophone that is almost as big as he is.

CoronaVinyl Day 252 (R): Wedding Album by Leon & Mary Russell

For an explanation of CoronaVinyl, click here.

Today's CoronaVinyl category is "R," and in my recent vinyl acquisition from my neighbor, there were a few Leon Russell albums, including two from the mid '70s with his then-wife Mary McCreary.  The album I'm going with today is 1976's Wedding Album, their first album together.

Russell is one of those musicians that seemed to be everywhere and seemed to have played with just about everyone in the '60s and '70s.  He got his start as a teenager in the late '50s in his hometown of Tulsa, and then went to LA, where he was a member of the famed Wrecking Crew.  He played keyboards on my favorite Christmas album of all-time, Phil Spector's iconic 1963 A Christmas Gift for You from Phil Spector.  He was a session musician and backing musician for dozens of huge artists, like The Beach Boys, The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Frank Sinatra, Joe Cocker, George Harrison, Ray Charles, Elton John, Eric Clapton, The Byrds, Glen Campbell, B.B. King, Willie Nelson, Barbra Streisand, and many others.  He was also a great songwriter, writing or co-writing several hit songs for Gary Lewis & The Playboys, "Superstar" by The Carpenters, and others.  He also released dozens of solo albums and had a few Top 15 solo hits in the '70s -- 1972' "Tight Rope" (#11) and 1975's "Lady Blue" (#14).  He was eventually inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2011.

In 1975, Russell married Mary, who herself had a pretty solid musical background.  She was part of Little Sister, a group of three women that provided backing vocals for Sly & The Family Stone.

With both of them being musically inclined, it's not surprising they teamed up to make some music together.  Wedding Album is a nice pop/soft rock/soul album, and Leon and Mary share lead vocals on the album.  Most of the songs are duets.  Various musicians helped out on the album, but my favorite credit is Teddy Jack Eddy, which was a pseudonym for actor Gary Busey, who played drums and provided handclaps on the album.

Wedding Album reached #34 on the Billboard album chart, and the song "Rainbow In Your Eyes" reached #52 on the Billboard Hot 100.

They released another album the following year (Make Love to the Music), and had two kids together before divorcing in 1980.

Favorite song on Side 1:  "Fantasy"
This is the most soulful and sultry song on the first side.

Favorite song on Side 2:  "Lavender Blue (Dilly Dilly)"
This is another soulful one, and Russell has a nice piano riff.  Also, I just like the phrase "dilly dilly."