Who was the best and biggest and most consistent rock band of the 1980s?  That’s a question that was banging around my head.  I have a winner.  And you aren’t going to like it. Or maybe you will.   I was thinking about who truly, really was the kings of rock and roll bands of the 1980s and I can’t say no to u2.  Springsteen and the E St. Band Right are up there, but The River was 1979. Then it was Nebraska.  So Bruce is really one band album in the decade.  Petty?  Always solid.  Prince?  I mean, he had … Read more

It is the curious case of The Romantics. Detroit rockers worth another listen. 60s garage rock.  Pop punk.  Ear worms for those who like hard candy. Detroit attitude. The group’s debut was a 1978 single “Little White Lies on Spider Records,  followed that year by the Bomp! single “Tell It to Carrie”.  Here’s what you know for sure about the Romantics: “What I Like About You”. 
 Would seem like a strong start, right?  But the song wasn’t a hit when they released it.  Sort of, but not really.  #49 on the Hot 100 – didn’t crack the top 40. … Read more

In the years since Tom Petty’s passing, his music rings authentic and sounds just as it was meant to be – timeless. We uncover why he is, and they are, the band that has best represented American Rock music for 40 years – a deserved title for Petty and the Heartbreakers. And we choose the Essential 7  – the albums of Tom Petty. It’s a band with a long history, going back to the original Mudcrutch days. Giving them the nod as the quintessential American rock and roll band is no small honor. Petty and his boys owned the whole … Read more

The Rolling Stones spent much of the 1980s on the struggle bus.  After a couple of good early decade albums, they were fighting amongst themselves, Keith Richards didn’t want to be in the band. Mick Jagger made a solo record. So did Keith. The 1986 One Hit to the Body single was about all they did right. Harlem Shuffle was weak. The early decade live shows weren’t strong.  The Rolling Stones pretty much had fizzled out as a group. Then they made Steel Wheels. The final album they would make that really mattered. We take a listen to why that … Read more

How do you follow up the 70’s if you are Elton John? Can you successfully. The 1980’s Output of Elton John: How Was It? Rating his 80s singles. In 1970, Elton’s first hit single, “Your Song”, from his second album, Elton John, became his first top ten in both the UK and the US. His most commercially successful period was 1970–1976, with the albums Honky Château (1972), Don’t Shoot Me I’m Only the Piano Player (1973), Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (1973) and his first Greatest Hits compilation. In this episode, we talk about how Elton’s piano playing is integral to the … Read more

Kool & The Gang mastered the transition from funkmeisters to smooth pop R&B. A band since 1964, they are still tour ready. Top 40 radio dug them for the better part of ten years. I mean, really loved them.  The band’s first taste of pop  success came with the release of their fourth album Wild and Peaceful (1973), which contained the US top-ten singles “Jungle Boogie” (#4) and “Hollywood Swinging“ (#6). Disco didn’t really work for them.  Back in the 70’s, they had  more in common with Sly and the Family Stone than Donna Summer. We dig in to the 80’s Output … Read more

There’s always been bands that had some part of their success because they – a little or a lot- sounded like other bands.  The Beatles and Badfinger.  The Beatles and a band called the Knickerbockers with a 1965 hit song called “Lies”.   “Oh Sheila” was a hit for the band Ready For the World that had a sound like Prince. An R&B singer named Fontella Bass sounded a whole lot like Aretha Franklin with a 1965 hit called “Rescue Me” – Greta Van Fleet sounds eerily like Led Zeppelin. So did the 80s band Kingdom Come.  And I always … Read more

As big as Bob Seger is on the radio – arguably one of the top half dozen classic rock artists to still have a big footprint on rock radio – in his entire career, he actually only had seven top 40 hits that cracked the top 10. He spent a lifetime on the road. A classic rock mainstay.  But big top 40 hits?  Hardly. Bob Seger’s only #1 hit? – “Shakedown” from 1987 and the Beverly Hills Cop II soundtrack. His other top 10’s? “Night Moves” #4 in 76 “Still The Same” #4 in 78 “Against The Wind” #5 in … Read more

By 1982, and 1983, Brian Setzer’s group, The Stray Cats, had earned three top 10 hits: “Rock This Town”, “Stray Cat Strut”, and “She Sexy and 17”. And in late 1984? That was the year Setzer decided to break up Stray Cats in the midst of their success. Why? He told the Los Angeles Times in 1986 that he thought the band had run its course. “I didn’t want to make another rockabilly album.” Setzer made a couple album in the two years away from the Cats, including one that stands out as a forgotten but near classic take on … Read more

On this episode of Rock Pop and Roll, we focus on the peculiar history of Rod Stewart. Some Good and a Little Bit of the Bad: Rod Stewart In the 1980’s. Rod Stewart is nearing 60 years in the music business, right up there with the Rolling Stones and The Who.  He’s in the Rock and Roll Hall of fame, inducted in 1994. He released 32 solo albums, not counting live and greatest hits compilations. During the 1960s, Rod Stewart was a part of the Jeff Beck Group. In 1969, he joined The Faces.  If you don’t know The Faces, … Read more