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.