Hair Band Friday - 9/27/24

1.  "Dirty Love" by Thunder

2.  "Want to Be Wanted" by Mr. Big

3.  "American Dream" by Vixen

4.  "Black Widow" by Rough Cutt

5.  "House of Fire" by Alice Cooper

6.  "In 'N' Out" (live) by Van Halen

7.  "Media Overkill" by Scorpions

8.  "Dancing on the Edge" by Lita Ford

9.  "Get in Touch" by FireHouse

10.  "Heartache" by Kix

Retro Video of the Week: "Turn Up the Radio" by Autograph

Friday will mark the 40th anniversary of the release of American rockers Autograph's debut album, Sign In Please.  The album was the band's most successful, reaching #29 on the Billboard album chart and #87 on the Billboard year-end album chart for 1985, eventually going gold in the U.S. in 1985.

The success of the album can be attributed to the band's biggest hit -- and their only single to make it onto the Billboard Hot 100 -- "Turn Up the Radio."  Interestingly, the band didn't record the song until late in the sessions for Sign In Please, and the record company didn't want to include it on the record.  Thankfully, the band insisted that it make the album, and both the band and label were eventually quite happy with that decision, as the song was a Top 40 hit in the U.S., getting to #29 on the Billboard Hot 100, as well as #17 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks chart.

In the still-blossoming Hair Band Era, this song, with it's hooky sing-along chorus, was an important because the video got a good amount of airplay on MTV and helped bring the genre to the masses.  The video is also notable for its product placement, prominently featuring a PaperMate Sharpwriter mechanical pencil in the beginning of the video -- a nod to the album title -- and PaperMate helped fund the video, so that the band could have a higher production budget than an unknown band filming a video for their first-ever single would usually get.

Hair Band Friday - 9/13/24

1.  "Superstitious" by Europe

2.  "Never" by Ozzy Osbourne

3.  "Do What You Wanna Do" by Black 'N Blue

4.  "Heading for a Storm" by Vandenberg

5.  "The Story of Jonathan" by W.A.S.P.

6.  "I Wanna Be Her Slave" by Thunder

7.  "City" by Y&T

8.  "Stranger Than Paradise" by Sleeze Beez

9.  "Falling In and Out of Love" by Femme Fatale

10.  "Jump" (live) by Van Halen

Retro Video of the Week: "Just Got Lucky" by Dokken

Saturday will mark the 40th anniversary of glam rockers Dokken's second studio album, Tooth and Nail.  It was the first album with bassist Jeff Pilson -- who holds a special place in my heart because he played Steel Dragon bassist Jorgen in the movie Rock Star -- after prior bassist Juan Croucier left to join Ratt.  Pilson's impact was felt immediately, as he co-wrote all but one of the ten songs on the album.  The album reached #49 on the Billboard album chart and eventually went platinum in the U.S., despite the lack of a Top 40 hit on the Billboard Hot 100.  The album did feature the band's highest-charting single in the U.S., "Alone Again," which topped out at #64 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #20 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks chart.  The other singles off the album were "Into the Fire" and "Just Got Lucky," which respectively went to #21 and #27 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks chart.

I decided to go with "Just Got Lucky," which was co-written by Pilson and guitarist George Lynch.  The video has a pretty cool backstory.  Most of it is the band on a stage or in a hall of mirrors, but Lynch's guitar solo was filmed on top of a volcano in Hawaii.  The issue was that it was beginning to emit steam and smoke, enough so that Lynch had issues breathing and his feet began to get hot through his shoes.  After park rangers told them they needed to evacuate, the volcano blew while they were on the plane leaving.  Rock and roll!

Hair Band Friday - 9/6/24

1.  "Cryin'" by Vixen

2.  "Mr. Tinkertrain" by Ozzy Osbourne

3.  "Wasted Time" by Europe

4.  "Standing in the Shadows" by Dokken

5.  "Give a Little" by L.A. Guns

6.  "Heart the Hunter" by Great White

7.  "A Million to One" by KISS

8.  "Take a Walk" by Mr. Big

9.  "Spit It Out" by Whitesnake

10.  "Boys' Night Out" by Sammy Hagar

Retro Video of the Week: "Feel the Pain" by Dinosaur Jr.

This Friday, my string of insanely great concerts continues, as I'll be seeing Weezer, Flaming Lips, and Dinosaur Jr. at Allstate Arena in suburban Rosemont.  While Weezer will be playing the Blue Album in its entirety, I've already featured all three videos from that album on Retro Video of the Week, and I've also done a Flaming Lips video, but never a Dinosaur Jr. video.  So there's no time like the present!

A couple weeks ago marked the 30th anniversary of the release of Dinosaur Jr.'s sixth studio album, without a sound.  It proved to be the band's most commercially successful album in the U.S., reaching #44 on the Billboard album chart.  It also got to #7 on the Swedish album chart, #13 on the Australian album chart, #17 on the New Zealand album chart, and #24 on the UK album chart.

"Feel the Pain" was the first single off of the album, and it was their only single that charted on the Billboard Hot 100, topping out at #62.  The song also became the band's second single to reach the Top 5 of the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart (going to #4), and it was a Top 40 hit in the UK (#25) and Scotland (#21).  And there a more '90s alt/grunge line than "I feel the pain of everyone / Then I feel nothing"?

The video is pretty great.  Directed by Spike Jonze, it shows the only two band members at the time -- J Mascis and Mike Johnson -- playing golf throughout New York City, occasionally using their golf clubs to knock out guys in suits.  Suck on that, Wall Street!