Pat Benatar's polished mainstream pop/rock made her one of the more popular female vocalists of the early '80s. Although she came on like an arena rocker with her power chords, tough sexuality, and powerful vocals, her music was straight pop/rock underneath all the bluster. Born Patricia Andrzejewski on January 10, 1953, in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, the singer was raised in the nearby town of Lindenhurst on Long Island, NY. Benatar began singing regularly in the New York City area by the '70s, where she was discovered at the Catch a Rising Star club and signed by Chrysalis Records. Backed by a stellar band led by guitarist Neil Geraldo (who the singer would later marry) that provided the perfect accompaniment that was able to effortlessly alternate between rockers and ballads. Benatar quickly established herself as one of rock's top vocalists, scoring a hit right of the bat with her debut album, 1979's In the Heat of the Night, which spawned such radio favorites as "Heartbreaker" and "I Need a Lover" (the latter of which was written by a then-unknown John Mellencamp).
Benatar's sophomore effort, 1980's Crimes of Passion, more than delivered on the debut's promise and it's often considered to be the finest recording of her career. Spurred on by such classic rock radio standards as the top 10 hit "Hit Me With Your Best Shot," "Treat Me Right," and "You Better Run," the album was certified platinum shortly after its release and Benatarbecame a certified arena headliner in the U.S. Benatar also became one of the most-played artists during MTV's early days, received several Grammy Awards around this time, and continued to enjoy massive hits and sold-out tours throughout the early to mid-'80s, including such albums as 1981's Precious Time, 1982's Get Nervous, 1983's Live from Earth, 1984's Tropico, 1985's Seven the Hard Way, and 1988's Wide Awake in Dreamland, plus the singles "Fire & Ice," "Promises in the Dark," "Shadows of the Night," "Love Is a Battlefield," "We Belong," and "Invincible." But by the end of the decade, it appeared as though Benatar had fallen of the face of the Earth as the hits seemed to dry up.
Benatar opted to shift musical gears and issue an album of blues and R&B, 1991's True Love, which failed to return the singer back to the top of the charts. Benatar returned back to her patented arena rock sound with such further studio releases as 1993's Gravity's Rainbow and 1997'sInnamorata (although the latter of which was largely acoustic-based) and while the albums didn't exactly measure up to her earlier releases, both were solid efforts. The late '90s saw a pair of live archival releases hit record store shelves, 1998's 8-15-80 and 1999's The King Biscuit Flower Hour Live, in addition to countless hits collections (although the best of the bunch proved to be 1989's Best Shots, which remains a steady seller to this day). The singer began touring again by the middle of the decade (after taking a five-year hiatus from the road), co-headlining shows with REO Speedwagon, Fleetwood Mac, the Steve Miller Band, and Styx. She also continued to dabble in acting, appearing in the ABC Afterschool Special Torn Between Two Fathers and on various sitcoms. In August 2003, Benatar returned to recording with Go (Vanguard), her first studio LP since 1997's Innamorata. The LP revisited the arena rock/MOR sound that had defined Benatar's career, and was accompanied by an extensive tour.
Decision: The top female rock artist of the 80s, but she only had 4 top 10 hits. Not quite enough to make the Pop HOF.
Air Supply
With their heavily orchestrated, sweet ballads, the Australian soft rock group Air Supply became a staple of early-'80s radio, scoring a string of seven straight Top Five singles. Air Supply, for most intents and purposes, was the duo of vocalists Russell Hitchcock and Graham Russell; other members came through the group over the years, yet they only functioned as backing musicians and added little to the group's sound. Hitchcock and Russell met while performing in a Sydney, Australia, production of Jesus Christ Superstar in 1976. The two singers formed a partnership and with the addition of four supporting musicians -- keyboardist Frank Esler-Smith, guitarist David Moyse, bassist David Green, and drummerRalph Cooper -- Air Supply was born.
For several years, the group gained no attention outside of Australia, earning one significant hit single, "Love and Other Bruises." Their first international exposure came in the late '70s, when Rod Stewart had them as his opening act on a North American tour. Air Supply signed a record contract with Arista in 1979, releasing their first album by the end of the year. Lost in Love, their debut, was a major success in the U.S., selling over two million copies and spawning the hit singles "Lost in Love," "All Out of Love," and "Every Woman in the World." The following year they released their second album, The One That You Love. The title track became their only number one hit and it also featured two other Top Ten hits, "Here I Am (Just When I Thought I Was Over You)" and "Sweet Dreams." With their third album, 1982's Now and Forever, their popularity dipped slightly -- it only had one Top Ten hit, "Even the Nights Are Better," and the other two singles, "Young Love" and "Two Less Lonely People in the World," scraped the bottom of the Top 40. Air Supply released a Greatest Hits collection in 1983, featuring a new single, "Making Love Out of Nothing at All." The single spent two weeks at number two while the album peaked at number seven and eventually sold over four million copies.
Two years later, they released Air Supply, their fourth album. It featured the number 19 single "Just As I Am," but it was clear that their audience was shrinking -- the album was their first not to go platinum. Hearts in Motion (1986) was even less successful, peaking at number 84 and spending only nine weeks on the charts. After its disappointing performance, Air Supply broke up. Hitchcock and Russell reunited in 1991, releasing Earth Is..., but the album failed to make the charts as did 1993's Vanishing Race and 1995's News From Nowhere. The new millennium marked the band's first studio album in four years, and a summer tour in support of Yours Truly.
Three bands were the undisputed arena rock kings of the early '80s -- Styx, Journey, and REO Speedwagon -- yet all weren't overnight success stories (in fact, each group began pursuing different musical styles originally -- prog rock, fusion, and straight-ahead hard rock, respectively, before transforming slowly into chart-topping mainstream rockers). REO Speedwagon first formed in 1968, via a pair of University of Illinois students, keyboardist Neal Doughty and drummer Alan Gratzer. After graduation, the group signed on with then-unknown manager Irving Azoff (who would later guide the careers of such multi-platinum acts as the Eagles and Steely Dan), which led to the outfit building a devoted following in the Midwest due to nonstop touring. By the early '70s, Doughty and Gratzer had welcomed aboard guitarist Gary Richrath, who would soon prove to be the group's spark plug (and one of rock's more underrated players), in addition to bassist Gregg Philbin and singer Terry Luttrell. It was this lineup to be featured on the quintet's 1971 self-titled debut recording for Epic Records.
The debut failed to break REO through to the mainstream, as the band's future was thrust into uncertainty shortly thereafter, when Luttrell left the band. Newcomer Kevin Cronin got the gig, he was a folksinger/guitarist beforehand, with little to no experience fronting a loud rock & roll outfit. The Cronin-led lineup appeared to be headed in the right direction though, judging from 1972's R.E.O. T.W.O., but the other members grew impatient with their slow progress toward a commercial breakthrough, and gave Cronin his walking papers. Up next as REO's frontman was Mike Murphy, whose debut with the band, 1974's Ridin' the Storm Out, was their first album to chart on Billboard and spawned a concert standard with the rocking title track. Murphy stayed onboard for a couple of more releases -- 1974's Lost in a Dream and 1975's This Time We Mean It -- but neither managed to push REO to the next level.
Once more, a frontman change was required, and instead of searching for a fresh new face, REO welcomed back Cronin. The move paid off almost immediately, as REO found their niche by streamlining their sound and focusing on melodic rockers aimed at radio, as well as power ballads aimed at teenage girls' hearts. Released in 1976, R.E.O. signaled the beginning of the veteran group's winning streak, as both 1977's Live: You Get What You Play For and 1978's You Can Tune a Piano, But You Can't Tuna Fish were REO's first to earn gold and platinum certification. Another live album, Live Again, was also issued in 1978, followed up a year later by another gold-certified hit, Nine Lives. Although REO was slowly inching their way to big-time success, no one (not even the band) could have predicted the massive hit that their next album turned out to be, Hi Infidelity. Issued at the tail end of 1980, it became one of 1981's biggest albums -- spawning one of the best-known power ballads of all time, "Keep on Loving You," as well as such popular rock radio hits as "Don't Let Him Go" and "Take It on the Run." Hi Infidelity would eventually go on to sell more than nine million copies -- catapulting REO to arena-headlining status.
REO Speedwagon continued to score further hit albums (1982's Good Trouble, 1984's Wheels Are Turnin') and singles ("Keep the Fire Burnin'," the number one hit power ballad "Can't Fight This Feeling," etc.), but the hits dried up shortly thereafter. Issued in 1987, Life as We Know It managed to go gold, but their fans' sudden disinterest coupled with turmoil between certain bandmembers led to the exit of both Richrath and Gratzer by the end of the decade.REO opted to soldier on, however, with replacement members Dave Amato (ex-Ted Nugent, guitar) and Bryan Hitt(ex-Wang Chung, drums) in tow, as their 14-track 1988 compilation The Hits proved to be a steady seller over the years. Further underappreciated studio releases followed, such as 1990's The Earth, a Small Man, His Dog and a Chicken and 1996's Building the Bridge. With interest at an all-time low, REO was set to pack it up for good, until a sudden wave of renewed interest in classic rock bands of yesteryear began to sweep the U.S. during the late '90s, resulting in REO launching successful co-headlining tours alongside such acts as Styx, Fleetwood Mac, Pat Benatar, Foreigner, Peter Frampton, Journey, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and Bad Company, among others.
The '90s saw the emergence of countless REO compilations, including such titles as The Second Decade of Rock n' Roll: 1981 to 1991, Only the Strong Survive, The Ballads, and a specially priced three-disc set of Live: You Get What You Play For, You Can Tune a Piano, But You Can't Tuna Fish, and Hi Infidelity. Additionally, further in-concert releases cropped up -- Live: Plus, Extended Versions, and a 2001 live set, Arch Allies: Live at Riverport, split 50/50 between REO and touring mates Styx. In a 2001 episode of VH1's Behind the Music series that focused on REO Speedwagon, Cronin and Richrath cleared up any misconceptions of ill will existing between either camp and voiced approval of a possible reunion in the future. When REO returned to the studio later in the 2000s, however, it was without Richrath. Find Your Own Way Home, the band's first studio album of new songs in more than ten years, featured Cronin along with founding member Neal Doughty on keyboards, longtime bassist Bruce Hall, and '80s additions Amato and Hitt. This lineup also released an unabashed record of Christmas songs in 2009, titled Not So Silent Night.
Christopher Cross was far and away the biggest new star of 1980, virtually defining adult contemporary radio with a series of smoothly sophisticated ballads including the chart-topping "Sailing"; seemingly as quickly as he shot to fame, however, his star descended, although he continued recording and touring for years to come. Born Christopher Geppert in San Antonio, TX on May 3, 1951, Cross first surfaced in the Austin-based cover band Flash before signing a solo contract with Warner Bros. in the autumn of 1978. His self-titled debut LP appeared two years later, with the lead single "Ride Like the Wind" rocketing to the number two spot; the massive success of the second single, "Sailing," made Cross a superstar, and in the wake of two more Top 20 hits, "Never Be the Same" and "Say You'll Be Mine," he walked off with a record-setting five Grammys in 1981, including Best New Artist and Song of the Year for "Sailing." He soon scored a second number one as well as an Academy Award with "Arthur's Theme (Best That You Can Do)," which he co-wrote with Burt Bacharach, Carole Bayer Sager, and Peter Allen for the smash Dudley Moore film comedy Arthur.
Cross' much-anticipated sophomore effort, Another Page, arrived in 1983, but except for the Top Ten entry "Think of Laura" (popularized through its constant presence on the daytime soap phenomenon General Hospital) and the near top 10 hit "Alright", the album failed to repeat the success of its predecessor, and somewhat amazingly, he never returned to the Top 40 again. Every Turn of the World appeared to little notice in 1985, and when 1988's Back of My Mind failed to chart altogether, Cross was dropped by Warner. His next album, Rendezvous, did not appear until five years later on BMG. Window followed in 1995, and in 1998 he signed to CMC International for Walking in Avalon, a two-disc effort split between new studio material and live recordings of his past hits. Cross returned in the spring of 2000 with The Red Room. Two years later, Rhino released the comprehensive hit collection The Very Best of Christopher Cross. Cross closed out the decade with a Christmas album in 2007 and an acoustic album called The Cafe Carlyle Sessions in 2008. Dr. Faith, his first collection of new songs in ten years, appeared in the fall of 2010.
Air Supply
With their heavily orchestrated, sweet ballads, the Australian soft rock group Air Supply became a staple of early-'80s radio, scoring a string of seven straight Top Five singles. Air Supply, for most intents and purposes, was the duo of vocalists Russell Hitchcock and Graham Russell; other members came through the group over the years, yet they only functioned as backing musicians and added little to the group's sound. Hitchcock and Russell met while performing in a Sydney, Australia, production of Jesus Christ Superstar in 1976. The two singers formed a partnership and with the addition of four supporting musicians -- keyboardist Frank Esler-Smith, guitarist David Moyse, bassist David Green, and drummerRalph Cooper -- Air Supply was born.
For several years, the group gained no attention outside of Australia, earning one significant hit single, "Love and Other Bruises." Their first international exposure came in the late '70s, when Rod Stewart had them as his opening act on a North American tour. Air Supply signed a record contract with Arista in 1979, releasing their first album by the end of the year. Lost in Love, their debut, was a major success in the U.S., selling over two million copies and spawning the hit singles "Lost in Love," "All Out of Love," and "Every Woman in the World." The following year they released their second album, The One That You Love. The title track became their only number one hit and it also featured two other Top Ten hits, "Here I Am (Just When I Thought I Was Over You)" and "Sweet Dreams." With their third album, 1982's Now and Forever, their popularity dipped slightly -- it only had one Top Ten hit, "Even the Nights Are Better," and the other two singles, "Young Love" and "Two Less Lonely People in the World," scraped the bottom of the Top 40. Air Supply released a Greatest Hits collection in 1983, featuring a new single, "Making Love Out of Nothing at All." The single spent two weeks at number two while the album peaked at number seven and eventually sold over four million copies.Two years later, they released Air Supply, their fourth album. It featured the number 19 single "Just As I Am," but it was clear that their audience was shrinking -- the album was their first not to go platinum. Hearts in Motion (1986) was even less successful, peaking at number 84 and spending only nine weeks on the charts. After its disappointing performance, Air Supply broke up. Hitchcock and Russell reunited in 1991, releasing Earth Is..., but the album failed to make the charts as did 1993's Vanishing Race and 1995's News From Nowhere. The new millennium marked the band's first studio album in four years, and a summer tour in support of Yours Truly.
Decision: Is 8 top 5 Pop hits and 7 #1's on the Adult Contemporary chart from 1980-1983 enough to make the Pop Music Hall Of Fame? I think the answer is yes.
REO Speedwagon
Three bands were the undisputed arena rock kings of the early '80s -- Styx, Journey, and REO Speedwagon -- yet all weren't overnight success stories (in fact, each group began pursuing different musical styles originally -- prog rock, fusion, and straight-ahead hard rock, respectively, before transforming slowly into chart-topping mainstream rockers). REO Speedwagon first formed in 1968, via a pair of University of Illinois students, keyboardist Neal Doughty and drummer Alan Gratzer. After graduation, the group signed on with then-unknown manager Irving Azoff (who would later guide the careers of such multi-platinum acts as the Eagles and Steely Dan), which led to the outfit building a devoted following in the Midwest due to nonstop touring. By the early '70s, Doughty and Gratzer had welcomed aboard guitarist Gary Richrath, who would soon prove to be the group's spark plug (and one of rock's more underrated players), in addition to bassist Gregg Philbin and singer Terry Luttrell. It was this lineup to be featured on the quintet's 1971 self-titled debut recording for Epic Records.
The debut failed to break REO through to the mainstream, as the band's future was thrust into uncertainty shortly thereafter, when Luttrell left the band. Newcomer Kevin Cronin got the gig, he was a folksinger/guitarist beforehand, with little to no experience fronting a loud rock & roll outfit. The Cronin-led lineup appeared to be headed in the right direction though, judging from 1972's R.E.O. T.W.O., but the other members grew impatient with their slow progress toward a commercial breakthrough, and gave Cronin his walking papers. Up next as REO's frontman was Mike Murphy, whose debut with the band, 1974's Ridin' the Storm Out, was their first album to chart on Billboard and spawned a concert standard with the rocking title track. Murphy stayed onboard for a couple of more releases -- 1974's Lost in a Dream and 1975's This Time We Mean It -- but neither managed to push REO to the next level.Once more, a frontman change was required, and instead of searching for a fresh new face, REO welcomed back Cronin. The move paid off almost immediately, as REO found their niche by streamlining their sound and focusing on melodic rockers aimed at radio, as well as power ballads aimed at teenage girls' hearts. Released in 1976, R.E.O. signaled the beginning of the veteran group's winning streak, as both 1977's Live: You Get What You Play For and 1978's You Can Tune a Piano, But You Can't Tuna Fish were REO's first to earn gold and platinum certification. Another live album, Live Again, was also issued in 1978, followed up a year later by another gold-certified hit, Nine Lives. Although REO was slowly inching their way to big-time success, no one (not even the band) could have predicted the massive hit that their next album turned out to be, Hi Infidelity. Issued at the tail end of 1980, it became one of 1981's biggest albums -- spawning one of the best-known power ballads of all time, "Keep on Loving You," as well as such popular rock radio hits as "Don't Let Him Go" and "Take It on the Run." Hi Infidelity would eventually go on to sell more than nine million copies -- catapulting REO to arena-headlining status.REO Speedwagon continued to score further hit albums (1982's Good Trouble, 1984's Wheels Are Turnin') and singles ("Keep the Fire Burnin'," the number one hit power ballad "Can't Fight This Feeling," etc.), but the hits dried up shortly thereafter. Issued in 1987, Life as We Know It managed to go gold, but their fans' sudden disinterest coupled with turmoil between certain bandmembers led to the exit of both Richrath and Gratzer by the end of the decade.REO opted to soldier on, however, with replacement members Dave Amato (ex-Ted Nugent, guitar) and Bryan Hitt(ex-Wang Chung, drums) in tow, as their 14-track 1988 compilation The Hits proved to be a steady seller over the years. Further underappreciated studio releases followed, such as 1990's The Earth, a Small Man, His Dog and a Chicken and 1996's Building the Bridge. With interest at an all-time low, REO was set to pack it up for good, until a sudden wave of renewed interest in classic rock bands of yesteryear began to sweep the U.S. during the late '90s, resulting in REO launching successful co-headlining tours alongside such acts as Styx, Fleetwood Mac, Pat Benatar, Foreigner, Peter Frampton, Journey, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and Bad Company, among others.The '90s saw the emergence of countless REO compilations, including such titles as The Second Decade of Rock n' Roll: 1981 to 1991, Only the Strong Survive, The Ballads, and a specially priced three-disc set of Live: You Get What You Play For, You Can Tune a Piano, But You Can't Tuna Fish, and Hi Infidelity. Additionally, further in-concert releases cropped up -- Live: Plus, Extended Versions, and a 2001 live set, Arch Allies: Live at Riverport, split 50/50 between REO and touring mates Styx. In a 2001 episode of VH1's Behind the Music series that focused on REO Speedwagon, Cronin and Richrath cleared up any misconceptions of ill will existing between either camp and voiced approval of a possible reunion in the future. When REO returned to the studio later in the 2000s, however, it was without Richrath. Find Your Own Way Home, the band's first studio album of new songs in more than ten years, featured Cronin along with founding member Neal Doughty on keyboards, longtime bassist Bruce Hall, and '80s additions Amato and Hitt. This lineup also released an unabashed record of Christmas songs in 2009, titled Not So Silent Night.
Decision: One of the legendary bands of 80s AOR, but with only 4 top 10 hits, they fall short of the Pop Music HOF.
Christopher Cross
Christopher Cross was far and away the biggest new star of 1980, virtually defining adult contemporary radio with a series of smoothly sophisticated ballads including the chart-topping "Sailing"; seemingly as quickly as he shot to fame, however, his star descended, although he continued recording and touring for years to come. Born Christopher Geppert in San Antonio, TX on May 3, 1951, Cross first surfaced in the Austin-based cover band Flash before signing a solo contract with Warner Bros. in the autumn of 1978. His self-titled debut LP appeared two years later, with the lead single "Ride Like the Wind" rocketing to the number two spot; the massive success of the second single, "Sailing," made Cross a superstar, and in the wake of two more Top 20 hits, "Never Be the Same" and "Say You'll Be Mine," he walked off with a record-setting five Grammys in 1981, including Best New Artist and Song of the Year for "Sailing." He soon scored a second number one as well as an Academy Award with "Arthur's Theme (Best That You Can Do)," which he co-wrote with Burt Bacharach, Carole Bayer Sager, and Peter Allen for the smash Dudley Moore film comedy Arthur.
Cross' much-anticipated sophomore effort, Another Page, arrived in 1983, but except for the Top Ten entry "Think of Laura" (popularized through its constant presence on the daytime soap phenomenon General Hospital) and the near top 10 hit "Alright", the album failed to repeat the success of its predecessor, and somewhat amazingly, he never returned to the Top 40 again. Every Turn of the World appeared to little notice in 1985, and when 1988's Back of My Mind failed to chart altogether, Cross was dropped by Warner. His next album, Rendezvous, did not appear until five years later on BMG. Window followed in 1995, and in 1998 he signed to CMC International for Walking in Avalon, a two-disc effort split between new studio material and live recordings of his past hits. Cross returned in the spring of 2000 with The Red Room. Two years later, Rhino released the comprehensive hit collection The Very Best of Christopher Cross. Cross closed out the decade with a Christmas album in 2007 and an acoustic album called The Cafe Carlyle Sessions in 2008. Dr. Faith, his first collection of new songs in ten years, appeared in the fall of 2010.
Decision: Started out with 2 #1's and a #2 hit in 1980-81, but only had one more top 10 single. Not enough to qualify for the Pop HOF.
Next: 1981 Nominees: Phil Collins, Lionel Richie, Sheena Easton, Steve Winwood
Next: 1981 Nominees: Phil Collins, Lionel Richie, Sheena Easton, Steve Winwood
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