You ask me what is the greatest rock/pop guitar album of the 1980s and I say Reckless from Bryan Adams.  Lyrically, it’s mostly sophomoric.  No deep thoughts.  But that was never the strength of Bryan Adams.  His reason for being was that he made straight-ahead rock and roll music that never ventured into pop-metal – though his 1991 album Can’t Stop This Thing We Started – produced by Mutt Lange – did make him sound like Def Leppard.  Bryan Adams was radio rock for the 80s. Other than “Heaven”, it was guitar and drums, shouts and rasps, stops and starts. … Read more

Sports isn’t fancy. It’s rock music played tightly and with enthusiasm by the band, recorded cleanly. The songs are first-listen friendly and held up after the set became a monster hit, spending more than a year all over Top 40 and rock radio.  It ultimately ranks as one of the great pop-rock band albums of the 80s. Huey Lewis and The News earned themselves lots of hits singles, with a couple really good album tracks.  It is bar band rock and roll with a shine, as they made a radio-ready album with really great harmonies, and big, fat sugar smack hooks … Read more

This episode is “Friday 45” and features Tommy Conwell and the Young Rumblers. The band released Rumble in 1988, followed by Guitar Trouble in 1990. Conwell ended up in Philadelphia and The Hooters’ producer Rick Chertoff got Conwell and the Rumblers signed to Columbia and he produced “Rumble” After the band released their first album on their own “Walkin’ on the Water” in 1986, which was produced by Conwell and The Hooters’ bassist Andy King. They had two radio hits in addition to the featured 45, with “If We Never Meet Again”, and “I’m Seventeen”. In 2019, Tommy Conwell and the Young Rumblers finally … Read more

The thing – one of the things – I can’t stand about classic rock radio stations, and why they have become unlistenable,  is the playlist that has stagnated. It’s not that the bands are at fault. Led Zeppelin, Aerosmith, AC/DC, Foreigner, Def Leppard, Van Halen, Bob Seger, Journey, Pink Floyd – they all rock, right?  But when the typical classic rock and roll station in the US plays the same 3 or 4 songs from each band and has played those same songs since 1990, how can you stop me from hating what the stations sound like? My point of … Read more

Did Hair Metal change the world?  Well, some of the songs and the bands were part of the continuum that is rock music.  It was really a flash – a bomb of hairspray rock and roll that hung around for about five years. We always like to offer a bit of an explanation.  A Definition.  A clarification of what we are searching for. What is Hair Metal? Pop Metal? Glam Metal? How is it different than hard rock?  What makes it what it is? Sugary background vocals. That 80s era snare drum – the gated reverb- that keeps the 4/4 beat. Guitars … Read more

This episode is a look at four bands that had a big hit and then tried to capitalize on it with something called a “momentum hit” in the 80s. Or at least most had the followup hit. What’s that even mean? Here’s how we define it: Sometimes a band would have a hit single, getting significant radio play on rock or top 40 stations, and then follow it up with a song was usually not as good, but was still a hit, because the fans of that big hit single wanted more of that same sound.  Superstars have benefitted from … Read more

It’s our Friday series that takes a look at, and a listen to, one great single of the 80s that deserves another spin. There once was a band called Red Rider. The lead singer, Tom Cochrane, joined that Canadian rock band in 1978 and served as their lead singer and main songwriter for more than ten years. He recorded six studio albums with Red Rider. By 1986, the band was billed as “Tom Cochrane & Red Rider”. It’s a band never had a song in the Top 40 in the United States, although you might remember a rock and roll oddity – an atmospheric … Read more

In this special presentation of RockPopand Roll, host Rob Nichols remembers the songs and what made Little Richard a legend – and architect – in the making of rock and roll.  Little Richard passed away at age 87 on May 9, 2020.  Of all the patriarchs of rock and roll music, Little Richard may have been the most outrageous, had the most hits in the shortest period of time, and could arguably be ahead of Elvis in his early takeover of the rock and roll libido of millions rock and roll fans. He was a screaming, inspired, piano playing black … Read more