Huey Lewis and the News is an American pop rock band based in San Francisco, California. They had a run of hit singles during the 1980s and early 1990s, eventually scoring a total of 19 top-ten singles across the Billboard Hot 100, Adult Contemporary and Mainstream Rock charts.
Their greatest success was in the 1980s with the number-one album, Sports, coupled with a series of highly successful MTV videos. Their worldwide fame expanded when the song "The Power of Love" was featured as a key track in the film Back to the Future (in which Lewis had a cameo appearance), became a number-one hit, and was nominated for an Academy Award.
The News combined a rock (and sometimes, a "blues-rock") backing with soul and doo-wop-influenced harmony vocals and Lewis' voice.
In 1972, singer/harmonica player Huey Lewis and keyboardist Sean Hopper joined the Bay Area jazz-funk band Clover. Clover recorded several albums in the 1970s, and in the middle of the decade transplanted themselves to England to become part of the UK pub rock scene for a time. Without Lewis (but with Hopper), they eventually became the original backing band for Elvis Costello's first album My Aim Is True. Lewis also worked with Irish band Thin Lizzy, contributing harmonica to the song "Baby Drives Me Crazy," recorded onstage for the Live and Dangerous album. Lizzy bassist/vocalist Phil Lynott introduces Lewis by name during the song. The band returned to the Bay Area by the end of the 1970s.
Clover's main competition in the Bay Area jazz-funk scene was a band called Soundhole, whose members included drummer Bill Gibson, saxophonist/guitarist Johnny Colla, and bassist Mario Cipollina (younger brother of John Cipollina). Like Clover, Soundhole had spent time backing a famous singer, Van Morrison. After getting a singles contract from Phonogram Records in 1978, Huey Lewis united his former bandmate and three of his former rivals to form a new group, Huey Lewis & The American Express. In 1979 they recorded and released a single, "Exo-Disco" (a disco version of the theme from the film Exodus), that was largely ignored. The B-side of this record, "Kick Back", was a song that had previously been performed live by Lewis and his former band, Clover. In 1979, the band wooed guitarist Chris Hayes and moved to Chrysalis Records. After the credit card organization American Express complained, in January 1980 they changed their name to Huey Lewis and the News.
Later in 1980, the band issued their first studio album, a self-titled LP, Huey Lewis and the News. It went largely unnoticed. In 1982, the band released their second studio album, the self-produced Picture This. The album turned gold, fueled by the breakout success of the hit single "Do You Believe in Love", written by former Clover producer Mutt Lange. Largely because of the single, the album remained on the Billboard 200 album chart for 35 weeks and peaked at No. 13. The follow-up singles from Picture This, "Hope You Love Me Like You Say You Do" and "Workin' for a Livin'", followed with limited success, though the video for "Workin' for a Livin'" received considerable airplay on MTV and HBO's Video Jukebox.
Due to record label delays on the release of their third studio album, Sports, Huey Lewis and the News was back to square one in late 1983, touring small clubs in a bus to promote the record (eventually known as the "Workin' for a Livin'" tour). The new album initially hit No. 6 in the U.S. when first released. However, Sports slowly became a number-one hit in 1984 and multi-platinum success in 1985, thanks to the band's frequent touring and a series of videos that received heavy MTV airplay. Four singles from the album reached the top ten of the Billboard Hot 100: "Heart and Soul" reached No. 8, while "I Want a New Drug," "The Heart of Rock & Roll," and "If This Is It" all reached No. 6. The album has sold over 10 million copies in the U.S. alone.
Their song "The Power of Love" was a number-one U.S. hit and featured in the 1985 film Back to the Future, for which they also recorded the song, "Back in Time". Lewis has a cameo appearance in the film as a faculty member who rejects Marty McFly's band's audition for the school's "Battle of the Bands" contest. As an inside joke, the piece the band plays is an instrumental heavy metal version of "The Power of Love" (Lewis's response: "Sorry, fellas ... I'm afraid you're just too darn loud"). "The Power of Love" was nominated for an Academy Award.
Following the success of "The Power of Love" and Back to the Future, Huey Lewis and the News released their fourth studio album, Fore! in 1986. Fore! followed the success of Sports and reached number-one on the Billboard 200. The album spawned the number-one singles, "Stuck with You" and "Jacob's Ladder" as well as the mainstream rock hit "Hip to Be Square". In all, the album had five top-ten singles on the Billboard Hot 100 and was certified triple platinum.
The band continued to tour throughout 1987, and released Small World in 1988. After two hit, multi-platinum albums, Small World was considered a commercial disappointment, peaking at No. 11 and only going platinum. The album, which was more jazz and less rock than their previous albums, had one top ten single, "Perfect World", which reached No. 3 on the pop chart.
At the end of the Small World tour in 1989, the band took a break from recording and heavy touring and parted ways with Chrysalis Records. In 1991, they released Hard at Play on the EMI label, which went back to the R&B/rock sound of their earlier albums, and released the hit singles, "Couple Days Off" (No. 11) and "It Hit Me Like a Hammer" (No. 21). The album was certified Gold (eventually hitting the one million sales mark) and the band headlined another world tour in support of the release, which would be their last album of new material for a decade.
The band once again changed labels, this time signing with Elektra Records, releasing a cover album in 1994 called Four Chords & Several Years Ago featuring doo-wop and rock songs from the 1950s and 1960s. This was the last album released with bassist Mario Cipollina, who left the band after the Four Chords & Several Years Ago world tour ended. The album charted on the Billboard 200 and had two hits on adult contemporary radio. In early 1997, the band released their first greatest hits album, Time Flies, which focused primarily on the releases from Picture This, Sports, and Fore!, and included four new tracks.
The band playing at Brighton Beach in August 2008
The band's lineup has changed significantly since its heyday. Bassist Mario Cipollina left the band in early 1995 shortly after completing the first leg of the tour for 1994's Four Chords and Several Years Ago album. His replacement since that time has been bassist John Pierce. The Tower of Power, which often served as the band's horn section in the 1980s, ceased their work with the band in 1994. Horn players Marvin McFadden, Ron Stallings and Rob Sudduth joined the group in their place. In early 2000, Chris Hayes left the News to spend more time with his family, though he performed on their 2001 album Plan B. Stef Burns replaced Hayes, although guitarists Tal Morris and James Harrah have also filled in when Burns has had other commitments. On April 13, 2009, Stallings died from a hard-fought battle with multiple myeloma.
After Lewis's co-starring role in the 2000 film Duets, with Gwyneth Paltrow (in which they performed their hit cover of "Cruisin'"), the News released their first album of new material, Plan B, on Jive Records in 2001. It only briefly made the charts, while the lead single, "Let Her Go & Start Over", became a minor adult- contemporary hit.
The band continues to tour regularly, playing around 70 dates a year. In December 2004, Huey Lewis and the News recorded the live album, Live at 25, at the Sierra Nevada Brewing Company in Chico, California, which celebrated their 25th anniversary as a band. In the summer of 2006, the band co-headlined a U.S. tour with Chicago. Highlights of the tour included Chicago's Bill Champlin playing with the band, and members of Huey Lewis and the News playing on Chicago's percussion-laden hit "I'm a Man". Huey Lewis also sang the lead on Chicago's "Colour My World". On August 21, 2007, the band played a show at the California State Fair and were joined on stage by Cipollina during a four-song encore, his first on-stage performance with the group in over 10 years. Huey Lewis and the News performed at the 28th annual presentation of A Capitol Fourth in Washington, D.C., on Friday, July 4, 2008.
In 2008, Huey Lewis and the News recorded the theme song to the action-comedy film Pineapple Express. The song is played over the end credits of the film and appears on the film's soundtrack album.
The band returned to the studio in 2010, recording their first album of new material in nearly a decade. The album, entitled Soulsville, is a Stax Records tribute album recorded at the legendary Ardent Studios. As of February 2013, the band is in the studio to record an album of all new material; in the meantime, the group is planning a tour to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the release of Sports. A 30th Anniversary Edition of Sports was released in May 2013 which included a second disc that featured live tracks.
Decision: With 3 #1 hits, and 11 top 10 singles, Huey Lewis & The News are in the Pop Music HOF.
Duran Duran
Duran Duran are an English New Wave/rock band, formed in Birmingham in 1978. They were one of the most successful bands of the 1980s and a leading band in the MTV-driven "Second British Invasion" of the United States. Since the 1980s, they have placed 14 singles in the Top 10 of the UK Singles Chart and 21 in the Billboard Hot 100, and according to the Sunday Mercury, they have sold more than 100 million records.
While they were generally considered part of the New Romantic scene along with bands such as Spandau Ballet when they first emerged, they later shed this image. The band worked with fashion designers to build a sharp and elegant image that earned them the nickname "the prettiest boys in rock." The band has won a number of awards throughout their career, including two Grammy Awards, two Brit Awards—receiving the award for Outstanding Contribution to Music, an MTV Video Music Award—the Lifetime Achievement Award, and were awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
The band's controversial videos, which included partial nudity and suggestions of sexuality, became popular in the early 1980s on the then-new music video channel MTV. Duran Duran were among the first bands to have their videos shot by professional directors with 35 mm film movie cameras, which gave their videos a much more polished look. In 1984, the band were early innovators with video technology in their live stadium shows.
The group was formed by Nick Rhodes and John Taylor, with the later addition of Roger Taylor, and after numerous personnel changes, Andy Taylor and Simon Le Bon.
The group has never disbanded, but the line-up has changed to include American guitarist Warren Cuccurullo from 1986 to 2001 and American drummer Sterling Campbell from 1987 to 1991. The reunion of the original five members in the early 2000s created a stir among the band's fans and music media. Andy Taylor left the band once again in mid-2006, and London guitarist Dom Brown has since been working with the band as a session player and touring member.
John Taylor and Nick Rhodes formed Duran Duran in Birmingham in 1978, where they became the resident band at the city's Rum Runner nightclub. At the club they were doing jobs such as John working the door and with Nick deejaying for £10 a night. They began rehearsing and regularly playing at the venue. There were many nearby nightclubs, and the one "significant" one, where bands such as The Sex Pistols and The Clash played gigs, was called Barbarella's. They would go on to name the band after the villain from Barbarella, Roger Vadim's French science-fiction film. The villain, played by Milo O'Shea, is named "Dr. Durand Durand".
The band's first singer was Stephen Duffy. Simon Colley soon joined Taylor, Rhodes and Duffy. Colley was the band's original bass player, as John Taylor was the guitarist at this point. This was the first complete line-up of the band that played live shows. For drums and percussion, an electronic drum machine belonging to Rhodes was used. Colley left the band prior to the addition of Andy Taylor. A few guitarists were subsequently auditioned (for the most part, unsuccessfully) as well as handful of vocalists after Duffy left Duran Duran early in 1979. Among the handful of vocalists they had prior to Simon Le Bon was Andy Wickett, who had a major part in the writing of "Girls on Film" during his tenure with the band, according to Andy Taylor's autobiography. (Wickett is also featured on some of the demos that were presented to EMI.) According to both Wickett's and John Taylor's websites, Wickett co-wrote an early version of the song that came to be known as "Rio". Upon Colley and Wickett's departures, the band enlisted singer Jeff Thomas and guitarist Alan Curtis, each for only a relatively brief period, before finally settling on Andy Taylor for lead guitar and Le Bon for vocals in 1980.
The meeting of drummer Roger Taylor in 1979 with John Taylor, Rhodes and Wickett at a party, as well as the departure of Colley, led John Taylor to switch to bass. Roger Taylor then became their original (human) drummer. It was this line-up (John Taylor on bass and guitar along with Rhodes, Wickett and Roger Taylor) that made the first-ever Duran Duran studio demo tapes. In April 1980, guitarist Andy Taylor came from Newcastle to audition after responding to an advertisement in Melody Maker. In May 1980, London vocalist Simon Le Bon was recommended to the band by an ex-girlfriend who worked at the Rum Runner. The owners of the club, brothers Paul and Michael Berrow, became the band's management, paying them to work as doormen, disc jockeys and busboys when they were not rehearsing.
The group were generally considered part of the New Romantic scene, with other style-and-dance bands such as Spandau Ballet, Japan and ABC. In 1980, they recorded two demo tapes and performed in clubs around Birmingham and London. In late 1980, when touring as an opening act for Hazel O'Connor, the band attracted critical attention, resulting in a bidding war between the record companies EMI and Phonogram Records. "A certain patriotism" toward the label of The Beatles led them to sign with EMI in December;
Duran Duran were amongst the earliest bands to work on their own remixes. Before the days of digital synthesisers and easy audio sampling, they created multi-layered arrangements of their singles, sometimes recording entirely different extended performances of the songs in the studio. These "night versions" were generally available only on vinyl as b-sides to 45-rpm singles or on 12-inch club singles until the release of the compilation Night Versions: The Essential Duran Duran in 1999.
From the very beginning of their career together, all the band members had a keen sense of visual style. They worked with stylist Perry Haines and fashion designers such as Kahn & Bell and Antony Price to build a sharp and elegant image, soon outgrowing the ruffles and sashes of the pirate-flavoured early New Romantic look that had been popularised by Adam and the Ants during 1980–81. They have continued to present fashion as part of their package throughout their career. In the 1990s they worked with Vivienne Westwood, and in the 2000s with Giorgio Armani. The band retained creative control of their visual presentation and worked closely with graphic designer Malcolm Garrett and many others over the years to create album covers, tour programs and other materials.
All five members of the band were photogenic and were labelled "the prettiest boys in rock" by People magazine. Teen and music magazines in the UK latched onto their good looks quickly, and the US soon followed. It was a rare month in the early 1980s when there was not at least one picture of the band members in teen magazines such as Smash Hits or Tiger Beat. John Taylor once remarked that the band was "like a box of Quality Street [chocolates]; everyone is someone's favourite" Duran Duran later came to regret this early pin-up exposure, but at the time it helped attract national attention. In an interview with Rock Fever Superstars Magazine in early 1988, John Taylor stated:
We used to be a very chi-chi name to drop in '79, but then the Fab Five hype started and something went wrong. Something went really wrong. That wasn't what I wanted. [...] Not that I didn't like being screamed at. At one point I really did."
Duran Duran in 1981. Top line: Nick Rhodes (keyboards), Simon Le Bon (vocals); Middle: John Taylor (bass); Bottom line: Roger Taylor (drums), Andy Taylor (guitar)
The band's first album, Duran Duran was released on the EMI label in 1981. The first single, "Planet Earth", reached the United Kingdom's Top 20 at Number 12. A follow-up, "Careless Memories", stalled at Number 37. However, it was their third single, "Girls On Film", that attracted the most attention. The song went to Number 5 in the UK. The video, featuring topless women mud wrestling, pillow fighting and stylised depictions of other sexual fetishes, was made with directing duo Godley & Creme in August. The video was filmed just two weeks after MTV was launched in the United States. The band expected the "Girls On Film" video to be played in the newer nightclubs that had video screens or on pay TV channels like the Playboy Channel. Kevin Godley explained the thinking behind it:
We were very explicitly told by Duran Duran's management to make a very sensational and erotic piece that would be for clubs, where it would get shown uncensored just to make people take notice and talk about it.
The video was heavily edited for MTV. The album peaked in the UK Top Twenty at Number 3. Later in 1981 the band embarked on their first United States club tour followed by more dates in Germany and the UK. This second tour of Britain coincided with a wave of riots sparked by unemployment and racial tension, including those of Moss Side and Toxteth. The band played an eerily quiet Birmingham the day after the Handsworth riots. Duran Duran began to achieve worldwide recognition in 1982. In May they released their second album, Rio, which scored four UK Top Twenty singles with "My Own Way", "Hungry Like The Wolf", "Save A Prayer", and the title song "Rio". A headlining tour of Australia, Japan, and the US was followed by a stint supporting Blondie during that band's final American tour. Diana, Princess of Wales declared Duran Duran her favourite band, and the band were dubbed "The Fab Five" by the British press, comparing them to the Beatles whose nickname was The Fab Four.
At first, the Rio album did not do well in the United States. EMI in the UK had promoted Duran Duran as a New Romantic band but that genre was barely known in the US, and EMI's American subsidiary Capitol Records was at a loss about how to sell them. After Carnival, an EP of Rio's dance remixes became popular with DJs in the fall, the band arranged to have most of the album remixed by David Kershenbaum. In June 1982, Duran Duran appeared for the first time on American television. They energetically performed "Hungry Like The Wolf" and "Rio" on Dancin' On Air, the forerunner to the national hit show Dance Party USA. Michael Nise, executive producer of both shows, recalls how shy the "boys" were and how they kidded each other about how bad they looked on TV.
Only after it was re-released in the US in November, with heavy promotion as a dance album, did Rio begin to climb the American charts six months after its European success. MTV placed "Hungry Like The Wolf" and several other Duran Duran videos into heavy rotation, pushing it, and "Rio," into the top twenty on the US charts in early 1983. The seduction ballad "Save A Prayer" also did well."The band was a natural for music television," noted Rolling Stone magazine. "They may be the first rock group to ride in on a video wave." In the end, the album peaked at number 6 in the US and remained on the charts there for 129 weeks — almost two and a half years. In 2003 Rio was listed at number 65 in the NME 100 Greatest Albums of All Time.
The band began 1983 by playing the MTV New Year's Eve Rock 'n' Roll Ball with "Hungry Like The Wolf" still climbing the charts in the US, and the American reissue of the "Rio" single to follow in March. To satisfy America's appetite for their music, the band re-released their eponymous first album in the US in the middle of the year with the addition of the new single "Is There Something I Should Know?". Upon its release, this song entered the chart at Number 1 in the UK (a rarity then and their first chart-topper in their home country) and reached Number 4 on the American charts. During the promotion of this album, Rhodes and Le Bon were MTV guest VJs for a show, during which artist and admirer Andy Warhol dropped by to greet them. "Our first gigs in the United States were crazy and culty,” Rhodes said later, “But when we came back after 'Hungry' was a hit, it was mayhem. It was Beatlemania. We were doing a signing of the 'Girls on Film' video at a store in Times Square. We couldn’t get out of the store. The cops sealed off the streets." Also in 1983, keyboardist Nick Rhodes produced the UK number 1 and US number 5 hit "Too Shy" for the English band Kajagoogoo and Andy Taylor became the first member of Duran Duran to get married. The band's main pop rivals were now Culture Club and Wham!. But Duran Duran's explosive popularity easily surpassed these competing bands globally.
The band spent the next year as tax exiles, writing songs at a chateau in France where The Tube with Jools Holland filmed a documentary with the band in May 1983 before they flew to Montserrat and then Sydney to record and mix their third album. During the summer, they returned to the UK to perform two concerts, the first on 20 July in front of the Prince and Princess of Wales at the Dominion Theatre, and the second, a charity concert at Aston Villa's home ground. The band were under pressure to follow up the success of Rio, and the recording process took over six months as different band members went through bouts of perfectionism and insecurity. A newly decadent lifestyle and substance abuse issues for some members added complications. In the documentary film Extraordinary World, filmed a decade later, Rhodes described the effect on their sound as "barely controlled hysteria, scratching beneath the surface".
The new album, Seven and the Ragged Tiger, included the late 1983 hit "Union of the Snake" (with the soprano sax solo by Andy Hamilton). With "Hungry Like the Wolf", "Rio", "Save A Prayer" and "Is There Something I Should Know", Duran Duran now had five US Top Twenty hits from three different albums in a single year. The band made music headlines by deciding to release the "Union of the Snake" video to MTV a full week before the single was released to radio at a time when the industry feared video really might kill the radio star. They followed up with "New Moon on Monday", which reached Number 9 in the UK. Their next single "The Reflex", taken from Seven and the Ragged Tiger and given a significant remix overhaul by Nile Rodgers of Chic fame, became their first number one hit in the United States. "The Reflex" was also their second and final UK number one and was successful in numerous other countries around the world.
The band embarked on a global tour that continued throughout the first four months of 1984 including their first major stadium dates in America. A film crew led by director Russell Mulcahy followed the band closely, leading to the documentary film Sing Blue Silver and the accompanying concert film Arena. The live album Arena was also recorded during the tour and was released with the new studio single "The Wild Boys", which went to Number 2 on both sides of the Atlantic. In February 1984, the band appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine and won two Grammy awards in the brand-new Long Form and Short Form music video categories. The Live version of "Save A Prayer" gained momentum in North America, and the song became a single for the second time in January 1985 reaching No. 16 on the Billboard Hot 100 on 16 March 1985. A live version of the video was used, taken from the concert video footage for Arena / As The Lights Go Down.
During this period, all of the band members became heartthrobs for many of their young teenage fans. After the tour, Roger Taylor was married in Naples, Italy, and Nick Rhodes wed in London, wearing a pink velvet tuxedo and top hat. At the end of 1984, the group were featured on the Band Aid benefit single "Do They Know It's Christmas?" along with other popular British musical acts. Simon Le Bon sang between contributions from George Michael and Sting.
Even with Duran Duran on hold, band members were soon anxious to record new music, leading to a supposedly temporary split into two side projects. John and Andy Taylor wanted to break away from the Duran Duran sound and pursue hard rock material; they collaborated with Robert Palmer and Tony Thompson to form the rock/funk supergroup The Power Station, which released two Top 10 singles. Simon Le Bon and Nick Rhodes, on the other hand, wanted to further explore Duran Duran's atmospheric aspect and formed Arcadia, who released one LP from which the single "Election Day" was released. Roger Taylor was primarily the drummer for Arcadia, but also contributed percussion to the Power Station album. Duran Duran were never the same after this break. According to Rhodes, the two side projects "were commercial suicide... But we’ve always been good at that." The band were still off balance when they regrouped to contribute A View to a Kill to the 1985 James Bond movie of the same name. This single was the first Bond theme to go to Number 1 on the US charts, and was at the time the joint highest-placed Bond theme on the UK chart where it reached Number 2. It was the last single the band recorded as the original five-piece close to twenty years.
As a follow-up to the Christmas 1984 Band Aid single, Duran Duran performed in front of 90,000 people (and an estimated 1.5 billion TV viewers) at the Live Aid charity concert at John F. Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on 13 July 1985 while their Bond song held the top spot on the American charts. It was not intended to be a farewell performance—the band planned only to take a break after four years of non-stop touring and public appearances—but the original five did not play live together again until July 2003. Their Live Aid set became infamous for Le Bon inadvertently hitting a falsetto note in the chorus of A View to a Kill, which he later described as the most humiliating moment of his career.
After releasing three studio albums and one live album in five years, each accompanied by heavy media promotion and lengthy concert tours, the band lost two of its core members to fatigue and tension in 1986. After Live Aid and Arcadia, drummer Roger Taylor retired to the English countryside, suffering from exhaustion. This was originally announced as a one year sabbatical, but it soon became clear that he would not be returning to the band. An official press release was issued in April 1986 confirming his departure. In a 2004 interview with Live Daily, Roger confirmed his reasons for leaving: "I was burned out. I think I was just exhausted. It was a very intense five years. We didn't stop. It was constant touring, constant writing, recording. We broke internationally, as well—instantly, pretty well. It's a nonstop schedule, really. I had lost myself somewhere".
Guitarist Andy Taylor, on the other hand, led the remaining members to believe he would return to work on a new Duran Duran album even as he was signing a solo recording contract in Los Angeles (he eventually released a solo album in 1986, Thunder). The band resorted to legal measures to get him into the studio, but after numerous delays, they let him go at last. He played on only a few songs on the next album while the disagreements were being settled.
Without a guitarist or a drummer, the three remaining members, Le Bon, Rhodes, and John Taylor had producer (and former Chic guitarist) Nile Rodgers play a few tracks on guitar, and hired Steve Ferrone to play drums while they searched for replacements. Finally in September 1986, Warren Cuccurullo (formerly of Missing Persons and Frank Zappa's touring band) was hired as a session guitarist. With Le Bon, Rhodes, and Taylor, he recorded the rest of the Notorious album, which was released in October 1986. The black-and-white documentary film Three To Get Ready chronicled the recording of the album, legal tensions, and preparations for the tour.
Although the song "Notorious" went to Number 2 in the US, Number 7 in the UK, and album sales were strong, the band found they had lost much of the momentum and hysteria they had left behind in 1985. In the three years between the release of Seven and the Ragged Tiger and Notorious, many of their teenage fans had grown up, and the music was funkier, more mature, and less "pop", given the added experience of their work on Arcadia and Power Station and with other musicians. "Skin Trade" and "Meet El Presidente", the two subsequent singles, made the charts but fared poorly compared to the band's earlier successes. Finally in late 1987, Sterling Campbell was hired as a session drummer.
Subsequently, Duran Duran struggled to escape the teen idol image and gain respect among critics with more complex music. The new serious image was not accepted at first and their popularity began to wane. Rolling Stone said, "In their search for musical maturity, the surviving Durans have lost a good deal of their identity." Another factor was the band's dismissal of early managers the Berrow brothers. There was no announcement of the reasons for the decision, but disagreements over money, and the brothers’ involvement in Le Bon's yachting adventures (they were co-owners of Drum) were thought to have played a part. Whatever the reason, Duran Duran switched managers frequently and undertook periods of self-management in the later stages of their career. In addition, EMI (which fired its president and went through a major corporate restructuring that summer) seemed to have lost interest in promoting the band.
The next album Big Thing (1988) yielded the singles "I Don't Want Your Love" (Number 4 in the US), "Do You Believe in Shame?" and "All She Wants Is" (the last top ten hit in the UK until 1993). The record was experimental, mixing influences from house music and rave music with Duran's atmospheric synthpop and the creative guitar work of Cuccurullo (now a full band member), as well as more mature lyrics.
By the end of 1989 and at the start of the 1990s, the popularity of synthpop was fading a bit and losing fans to other momentum-gaining music genres at the time, such as hip hop, techno and alternative rock. After touring for the album finished, the band regained a five-man membership as guitarist Warren Cuccurullo and tour drummer Sterling Campbell were made full members of Duran Duran.
The compilation album Decade: Greatest Hits was released late in 1989, along with the megamix single "Burning The Ground", which consisted of woven snippets of the band's hits from the previous ten years. The single came and went with little fanfare, but the album became another major seller for the band. However, the tepid 1990 release Liberty (a retreat from the experimentation of Big Thing) failed to capitalise on any regained momentum. The album entered the UK album chart in the top ten, but faded away quickly. The singles "Violence of Summer (Love's Taking Over)" and "Serious" were only mildly successful, and the album's soft rock did not fare well against contemporaries like Alice in Chains and Jane's Addiction, while Nirvana, Pearl Jam and the grunge revolution were just around the corner. For the first time, Duran Duran did not tour in support of an album, performing on only a handful of club dates and TV shows. Sterling Campbell left the band early in 1991, going on to work with Soul Asylum and David Bowie. The quartet of Le Bon, Rhodes, Taylor, and Cuccurullo would remain intact for six more years. In December 1991, John Taylor (then 31) married 19-year-old model/actress Amanda De Cadenet, and she gave birth to his daughter in March 1992.
In 1993, the band released a second self-titled album: this Duran Duran album is known as The Wedding Album (for Nick Egan's cover art featuring the wedding photos of the band members' parents) to distinguish it from the 1981 release. The release of this first "comeback" album was delayed, with then manager at Left Bank, Tommy Manzi, later telling Hit Quarters that this was due to industry resistance to the revival of the band, whom he said would rather focus on "the next hip band". Listener demand for leaked single "Ordinary World" forced it onto radio playlists months earlier than planned; it reached Number 3 on the US chart and Number 6 in the UK and won a prestigious Ivor Novello Award award for song writing. "Come Undone", a slinky number primarily written by Cuccurullo, with lyrics by Le Bon, made Number 7 in the US and Number 13 in the UK. Both the band and the record label seemed to be caught by surprise by the album's critical and commercial success (No. 4 in the UK, No. 7 in the U.S.). Bassist John Taylor had been considering leaving the band but changed his mind. The band's largest tour ever, which included stops in the Middle East, the then recently de-embargoed South Africa, and South America, was halted after seven months when Le Bon suffered from strained vocal cords. After six weeks' recuperation, the band performed intermittently for another five months, including appearances in Israel, Thailand, and Indonesia.
In 1995, the band released the cover album Thank You. Songs from Thank You included covers of Lou Reed's "Perfect Day" and Melle Mel's "White Lines (Don't Don't Do It)" (with backing vocals from the original artists). The album also marked the temporary return of former drummer Roger Taylor, who joined the band in studio to play drums on "Watching The Detectives" and "Perfect Day" (as well as a cover of "Jeepster" by T. Rex that did not appear on the album). In a video interview provided with the album's electronic press kit, Reed said he considered Duran Duran's version the best cover ever done of one of his songs, and they received praise from Robert Plant and Jimmy Page for their cover of Led Zeppelin's "Thank You."
After the promo tour for Thank You was completed, John Taylor co-founded the B5 Records label and recorded a solo album, founded and toured with the supergroup Neurotic Outsiders, and reunited the Power Station, though the project proceeded without him when he had to withdraw to deal with his divorce from De Cadenet. Finally, after struggling for months to record the next album, Medazzaland, in January 1997, Taylor announced at the DuranCon fan convention that he was leaving the band "for good". His departure reduced the band to two original members (Le Bon and Rhodes) and Cuccurullo, who decided to continue recording under the name Duran Duran.
Duran Duran parted ways with Capitol/EMI in 1999, although the label has since used Duran Duran's back catalogue to release several compilations of remixes and rare vinyl-only b-sides. The band then signed what was intended to be a three-album contract with Disney's Hollywood Records, but it lasted only through the poorly received 2000 album Pop Trash. This slow-paced and heavy album seemed out-of-keeping with earlier band material. Rhodes' intricate production and Cuccurullo's songwriting and experimentation with guitar sounds and time signatures were not enough to hook the public, and the album did not perform well. The dreamy single "Someone Else Not Me" lasted barely two weeks on the radio, although its video was noted as the first to be produced entirely with Flash animation. While supporting Medazzaland and Pop Trash, Duran Duran toured with bassist Wes Wehmiller and drummer Joe Travers.
In 2000, Le Bon approached John Taylor with a proposal to reform Duran Duran's classic line-up. They agreed, and after completing the Pop Trash to part company with Cuccurullo. Cuccurullo then announced on his website that he was leaving Duran Duran to resume work with his 1980s band Missing Persons. This announcement was confirmed the next day by Duran Duran's website, followed a day later by the news that John, Roger, and Andy Taylor had rejoined. To fulfill contractual obligations, Cuccurullo played three Duran Duran concerts in Japan in June 2001, ending his tenure in the band.
Throughout 2001, 2002 and 2003, the band worked on writing new material, initially renting a house in St. Tropez where sound engineer Mark Tinley built a recording studio for their first serious writing session. They then returned to London to do some self-financed work with various producers (including old friend Nile Rodgers) and search for a new record deal. It proved difficult to find a record label willing to gamble on the band's comeback, so Duran Duran went on tour to prove the drawing power of the reunited band. The response of the fans and the media exceeded expectations.[8] The band played a handful of 25th-anniversary dates across 2003, starting with two arena dates in Tokyo filled to capacity. Tickets sold out for each show within minutes, and celebrities turned out en masse for reunion dates. Amongst these were a number of shows at smaller venues that the band had played on both sides of the pond when they first got together in the early 80s. In August, the band were booked as presenters at the 2003 MTV Video Music Awards, only to be surprised with a Lifetime Achievement Award. They also received a Lifetime Achievement award from Q Magazine in October, and the equivalent Outstanding Contribution award at the BRIT Awards in February 2004.
The pace picked up with a sold-out tour of America, Australia and New Zealand. The band played a full concert at a private tailgate party at Super Bowl XXXVIII, their performance of "The Wild Boys" broadcast to millions during the pre-game show. A remix of the new track "(Reach Up for the) Sunrise" was released on many TV shows in February while magazines hailed (the modern "Fab Five") Duran Duran as one of the greatest bands of all time. Duran Duran then celebrated their homecoming to the UK with fourteen stadium dates in April 2004, including five sold-out nights at Wembley Arena. The British press, traditionally hostile to the band, accorded the shows some very warm reviews. Duran Duran brought along band Goldfrapp and the Scissor Sisters as alternating opening acts for this tour.The last two shows were filmed, resulting in the concert DVD Duran Duran: Live From London which was released in November.
Finally, with more than thirty-five songs completed, the band signed a two-album contract with Epic Records in June, and completed the new album, now entitled Astronaut. The album was released in October 2004 and entered the UK charts at Number 3 and the US charts at Number 17. The first single was "(Reach Up for the) Sunrise", which reached Number 1 on the Billboard US. Dance Chart in November and peaked at number 5 on the UK singles chart, Duran Duran's highest chart position since "A View To a Kill" in 1985. A second single, "What Happens Tomorrow", debuted at No. 11 on the UK charts in February. A 5.1 mix of Astronaut was created by Jeremy Wheatley for the dual-disc release of Astronaut. The CD side contains the album as-is and the DVD side contains the 5.1 mix of the album in DVD Audio format along with some DVD footage and videos.
After a world tour in early 2005, Duran Duran were presented with The PRS Outstanding Contribution to British Music at the 2005 Ivor Novello Awards. The Performing Right Society and the British Academy of Composers and Songwriters take great pleasure with presenting Duran Duran with the PRS Outstanding Contribution to British Music Award at the 50th Ivor Novello Awards Ceremony in London. Later that summer, the band headlined the massive Live 8 concert, Rome on 2 July 2005 in the Circus Maximus.
On 25 October 2006, Duran Duran parted company with Andy Taylor once again. In an official announcement on their website A Message To Our Fans, Duran Duran stated that an "unworkable gulf" had developed between them and Taylor and that "we can no longer effectively function together". It was noted by Andy Taylor in his book "Wild Boy" that tensions had arisen between the group's management and himself, and he was also diagnosed with clinical depression connected with the death of his father. Dom Brown, who had previously toured with the band, took over guitar duties and has been performing with them since. After Taylor's departure, the band scrapped the Reportage album and wrote and recorded a new album which included the Timbaland tracks. Dom Brown is the featured guitarist.
In July 2007, the band performed twice at Wembley Stadium, at the Concert for Diana and at Live Earth concert, London. On 25 September, the Timberlake collaboration "Falling Down" was released as a download single on iTunes, and the band announced that they would play nine shows at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre on Broadway to launch the album Red Carpet Massacre. The album launch was later extended to incorporate a show in London on 3 December 2007 and one in Dublin on 5 December 2007.
In May 2008, they toured the US leg of their 2008 world tour and were supported by fellow British quintet Your Vegas. In June 2008, they played the Louvre in Paris in a fundraising effort that contributed to the restoration of a magnificent Louis XV drawing room. Guests dined, privately viewed some of the museum’s artworks, then attended a performance by the band in the I.M. Pei-designed Pyramid du Louvre. The group’s performance marked a first for both the band members and the 18th century museum (which had never before allowed a rock concert to occur anywhere within the grounds or buildings).
On 2 July in Paris, Mark Ronson performed a unique live set with Duran Duran for an exclusive, invitation-only performance. Together, they showcased specially re-worked versions of some of Duran Duran's classic hits re-created by Ronson, along with tracks from the band's new album, Red Carpet Massacre. Simon Le Bon also performed songs from Ronson's latest album, Version, as one of Ronson's featured guest vocalists. Unlike the band's previous album Astronaut, Red Carpet Massacre sold poorly and received mixed responses from the music press. In 2008, Rio was included in the Classic Albums series.
The band departed from Epic Records in 2009, after releasing just two albums. In early 2010, it was revealed that the band would be contributing a cover of "Boys Keep Swinging" to a tribute/charity record for David Bowie called We Were So Turned On from which all profits go to War Child. Other contributing artists included Carla Bruni, Devendra Banhart, Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros, and Warpaint. The album was released on 14 September 2010 on Manimal Vinyl Records. A limited edition split 7" single with Duran Duran and Carla Bruni was also released on Manimal Vinyl in December 2010.
On 1 May 2012, it was announced that the band would be headlining the London Summer Olympics 2012 Opening Ceremony celebration in Hyde Park, which took place on 27 July. They represented England, along with Snow Patrol for Northern Ireland, Stereophonics for Wales, and Paolo Nutini for Scotland.
On 4 March 2013, the band returned to the studio to work on their 14th studio album, and are again working with producer Mark Ronson.
Decision: With 2 #1s, 8 top 5s, and several platinum albums, Duran Duran is in the Pop Music HOF.
Culture Club
Culture Club are an English pop band that was part of the 1980s New Romantic movement. The original band comprised Boy George (lead vocals), Mikey Craig (bass guitar), Roy Hay (guitar and keyboards) and Jon Moss (drums and percussion). Their second album, Colour by Numbers, has sold more than 10 million copies worldwide, and they had several international hits with songs such as "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me", "Time (Clock of the Heart)", "Church of the Poison Mind" and "Karma Chameleon". Boy George's androgynous style of dressing caught the attention of the public and the media.
Culture Club's music combines British New Wave and American soul with Jamaican reggae and also other styles such as calypso, salsa or country. From the time of the band's first album release in 1981 to its dissolution in 1986, Culture Club had amassed hits in several countries around the world, including ten Top 40 hits in the US, most of which went Top 10.
In 1984, Culture Club won the Grammy Award for Best New Artist, and Brit Award for Best British Group. They went on to have subsequent hits in the UK during a reunion period of 1998–2002, where they scored a No. 4 single and a No. 25 single. In America they are associated with the Second British Invasion of British New Wave groups that became popular in the United States due to the cable music channel MTV.
In 1981, Boy George occasionally sang with the group Bow Wow Wow under the stage name Lieutenant Lush. However, his success and popularity in this role caused friction with the group's actual lead singer, Annabella Lwin. After his tenure with the group ended, George decided to start his own band and enlisted bassist Mikey Craig. Next came drummer Jon Moss, and finally guitarist Roy Hay.
Realising they had an Irish transvestite as the lead singer, a black Briton on bass, an Anglo-Saxon on guitar and keyboards, and a Jewish drummer, they eventually decided to call themselves Culture Club. The group recorded demos, which were paid for by EMI Records, but the label was unimpressed and decided not to sign the group. Virgin Records heard the demos and signed the group in the UK, releasing their albums in Europe, while Epic Records released their albums in the United States and much of the rest of the world since Virgin did not have a US presence at the time.
With their first album, Kissing to Be Clever (UK No. 5, US No. 14) (1982), the band released two singles in May and June 1982, "White Boy" and "I'm Afraid of Me". Both failed to chart. But in September of that year, the group released their third single, "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me", a reggae-influenced number, which became one of their biggest hits. The song went to No. 1 in the UK in late 1982 and became an international smash, peaking at No. 1 in over a dozen countries (No. 2 in the US).
The band's 1982 debut on Top of the Pops caused tabloid headlines, which focused on George's androgynous style of dress and sexual ambiguity. Magazines began to feature George prominently on their covers. Pete Burns, lead singer of the New Wave band Dead or Alive, would later claim he was the first to wear braids, big hats, and colourful costumes, but George would cut back with a sharp-tongued remark, "It's not who did it first, it's who did it better."
The follow-up single, "Time (Clock of the Heart)", featuring George's soulful vocals over an R&B groove, became another Top 10 hit in the US (Number 2) and UK (Number 3). "I'll Tumble 4 Ya" also became a Top Ten hit in the US (Number 9) and in Canada. This gave Culture Club the distinction of being the first group since The Beatles to have three Top Ten hits in America from a debut album. Kissing to Be Clever sold approximately 1.5 million copies in the US, being certified platinum, and sold another two million worldwide at the time of its release, propelling George to international stardom.
The band's second album, Colour by Numbers (UK No. 1, US No. 2) was released in 1983. The first single "Church of the Poison Mind", featuring backing vocalist Helen Terry, reached the UK and US Top 10, continuing the group's success. The second single "Karma Chameleon" gave the band its biggest hit, peaking at No. 1 in the UK (its second chart-topper there), where it sold 1.470.000 copies to become the best-selling single of 1983 in that country. It also peaked at No. 1 in the US for three consecutive weeks, and would ultimately hit No. 1 in sixteen countries, thus becoming one of the top twenty best-selling singles of the 1980s.
The album Colour by Numbers would spawn more hits including "Miss Me Blind" (Number 5 US), "It's a Miracle" (Number 4 UK, Number 13 US), and "Victims" (Number 3 UK), and sell four million copies in the US and another five million worldwide at its time of release. With that album, Culture Club was the first group in music history to have an album certified diamond in Canada (sales of one million copies in that country). The band also won the 1984 Grammy Award for Best New Artist, where George gave a speech via satellite stating, "Thanks America, you've got style, you've got taste, and you know a good drag queen when you see one."
The group's back-up singer, Helen Terry, began work on her solo album, for which George and Hay wrote the song "Love Lies Lost". The pair also wrote "Passing Friend" for the Beach Boys' album. Culture Club was asked to write two songs for the soundtrack to the movie Electric Dreams. George and Hay wrote "The Dream" and "Love Is Love", with the latter being released as a single in Canada and Japan, the E.P "Love is Love" became a major hit in Japan. George also collaborated on the song "Electric Dreams", sung by P. P. Arnold. The song was written with Phil Pickett (former member of the 1970s band Sailor) who had also co-written "Karma Chameleon" and frequently played keyboards for the group.
Despite all this success, trouble was brewing within Culture Club. First, George was occasionally using drugs with money from his new-found fame. Second, George and Moss were romantically involved with each other, which was unknown to the public and the media. Their relationship lasted for over four years and was often turbulent, with both physical and verbal abuse. Their constant arguments and the pressure to hide the relationship from the public started to take its toll on the band.
In 1984, the group released its third album, Waking Up with the House on Fire (UK No. 2, US No. 26). It was a commercial and critical disappointment compared to their first two releases. "Waking Up..." sold approximately 2.7 million copies worldwide, with one million of those sold in America, earning platinum certification there.
The album had one hit single in "The War Song", which went top ten and top twenty in the UK and US, respectively. Other singles like "Mistake No. 3" (US No. 33) and "The Medal Song" (UK No. 32) would become modest hits. George later stated he felt the album experienced a lukewarm reception because of half-hearted material he felt they released due to pressure from Virgin and Epic to quickly release a follow-up to Colour by Numbers. According to him, the band had just come off an exhausting world tour in 1984, and as a result the fatigue ended up coming off on the album.
At the end of 1984, Boy George was recruited by Bob Geldof to attend the Band Aid recording, consisting of mostly internationally-known UK and Irish recording stars. George was in New York City when Geldof called him, but managed to catch the final Concorde of the day to London and was the last singer to record a lead vocal track for the song "Do They Know It's Christmas?". The song would become an international hit, raising millions for famine victims in several African nations, particularly Ethiopia.
By this time, George had been abusing drugs for several years, and by 1986 he became seriously addicted to cocaine, which then evolved into a heroin addiction. As a result, the band continued to lose its place musically. The recording of their fourth studio album, 1986's From Luxury to Heartache (UK No. 10, US No. 32) dragged on for so long that producer Arif Mardin had to abandon the sessions due to prior commitments and leave it to engineer Lew Hahn to record the final vocals. Songs like "Gusto Blusto" and "Reasons" took days for the addicted singer to finish. Nevertheless, the first single "Move Away" became a hit, peaking at UK No. 7 and US No. 12, and the album seemed capable of returning Culture Club back to hit-making status. But by the time of the release of the second single "God Thank You Woman", news of George's drug addiction began to circulate in British and American tabloids, which were denied by the singer, and the second single stalled on the charts.
George and Jon Moss also no longer wanted to be around each other due to constant relationship battles and, coupled with George's drug addiction, a forthcoming American tour had to be cancelled. From Luxury to Heartache began to fade from the charts as well and the album ultimately sold one million copies worldwide. By the summer of 1986, George admitted that he was indeed addicted to drugs. In July of that year, he was arrested by the British police for possession of heroin. The band broke up and George pursued a solo career, having several European hits and a couple of US Top 40 hits. George would continue to struggle with his drug addiction for several years.
The band first tried to reunite in 1989, after many requests from Tony Gordon, the group's former manager and Boy George's manager at that time. Boy George agreed to try some songs with the band again, resulting in recording sessions that went quite well and producing more than a dozen songs that are still unreleased to this day. Boy George, however, was more excited about his future projects like his record label, More Protein, and his dance-oriented music he was looking to release. The reunion would end up being cancelled.
In 1998, George and Jon Moss put their differences aside and the band actually reunited to do a reunion tour, kicking off with a performance on VH1 Storytellers. George said about the reunion, "Culture Club's reunion couldn't have come at a better time for rock", adding that, "It's a nostalgia trip, there's no way of avoiding that". The tour was a major success. A compilation album based around the Storytellers performance was released, and went platinum in UK, which included new songs such as "I Just Wanna Be Loved", which hit UK No. 4. Their 1999 studio album Don't Mind If I Do peaked at No. 64 in the UK. It included moderate UK hits in "Your Kisses Are Charity" (UK No. 25) and "Cold Shoulder" (UK No. 43).
The band went on to tour, then reunited again for a 20th anniversary concert in 2002 at the Royal Albert Hall, London. This performance was released on DVD the following year. Culture Club then became inactive again, largely due to Boy George's successful DJ career.
In 2006, two original members of Culture Club (Craig and Moss), tried to launch a new tour with another lead singer, as George and Roy Hay had declined to tour. Early that year, the band's record company placed an ad for a lead singer to "...take part in a 2007 World Tour and TV Series." The new singer, Sam Butcher was selected because of his own personality, "not a Boy George lookalike." George expressed his displeasure in the press, even though Culture Club's MySpace page says otherwise. A tour was announced for December 2006 in the UK, but was postponed to give the new line-up time to finish recording their album. Without official press statements, in 2007, band manager Tony Gordon, said that the project was "on hold", while drummer Jon Moss stated that the project was shelved.
Boy George announced on 27 January 2011 to the BBC that there would be a 30th anniversary Culture Club reunion tour sometime later in the year and that they would be releasing a new album in 2012. Although the 2011 tour never took place, Culture Club did play two live concerts, in Dubai and Sydney, the latter being a New Year's Eve concert, although drummer Jon Moss did not appear due to a back injury.In interviews given shortly before the concerts, the group confirmed that they were indeed recording new material. However, recently there have been rumours that the reunion project has been shelved for unknown reasons.Boy George, however, did mention in an interview with Danny Baker aired on BBC Radio 5 on 31 March 2012 that a new album would be released in 2013, although he did not mention a date for the tour.
Decision: They were huge in 1983-1984, with 1 #1 hit and 2 #2 hits, along with 3 other top 10 hits, but faded in popularity quickly after that. Not Pop HOFers...
Don Henley
Donald Hugh "Don" Henley (born July 22, 1947) is an American singer, songwriter and drummer, best known as a founding member of the Eagles before launching a successful solo career. Henley was the drummer and lead vocalist for the Eagles from 1971–1980, when the band broke up. Henley sings lead vocals on Eagles hits such as "Witchy Woman", "Desperado", "Best of My Love", "One of These Nights", "Hotel California", "Life in the Fast Lane", and "The Long Run".
After the Eagles broke up in 1980, Henley pursued a solo career and released his debut album in 1982. He has released four studio albums, two compilation albums, and one live DVD. His solo hits include "Dirty Laundry", "The Boys of Summer", "All She Wants to Do Is Dance", "The Heart of the Matter", "The Last Worthless Evening", "Sunset Grill", "Not Enough Love in the World", "New York Minute" and "The End of the Innocence".
The Eagles have sold over 120 million albums worldwide, won six Grammy Awards, had five #1 singles, 17 Top 40 singles, and six #1 albums. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998 and are the biggest selling American band in history. As a solo artist, Henley has sold over 10 million albums worldwide, had eight Top 40 singles, won two Grammys and five MTV Video Music Awards. Combined with the Eagles and as a solo artist, Henley has released 25 Top 40 singles on the Billboard Hot 100. He has released seven studio albums with the Eagles and four as a solo artist. In 2008, he was ranked the 87th greatest singer of all time by Rolling Stone magazine.
Henley was born in Gilmer, Texas, and grew up in the small northeast Texas town of Linden. He is the son of Hughlene (McWhorter) and C. J. Henley. He initially attended college at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Texas. He then attended North Texas State University (renamed in 1988 as University of North Texas) in Denton, Texas, from 1967 to 1969. Henley left school to spend time with his father, who was dying from heart and arterial disease.
In 1970, he moved to Los Angeles to record an album with his early band, Shiloh. Shiloh's album was produced by fellow Texan Kenny Rogers. Shortly thereafter, Henley met Glenn Frey. They both became members of Linda Ronstadt's backup band. Touring with her was the catalyst for forming the group. As a result, two months later they, along with Bernie Leadon and Randy Meisner, became their own act, Eagles.
Don Henley performing with The Eagles in 2008.
The Eagles were formed in September 1971, and released their first album in 1972, which contained the hit song "Take It Easy", written by Frey and Jackson Browne. During the band's run, Henley co-wrote (usually with Frey) most of the band's best-known songs.
Henley sang lead vocals on many of the band's popular songs, including "Desperado", "Witchy Woman", "Best of My Love", "One of These Nights", "Hotel California", "The Long Run", "Life in the Fast Lane" and "Wasted Time". The Eagles won numerous Grammy Awards during the 1970s and became one of the most successful rock bands of all time. They are also among the top 5 overall best-selling bands of all time in America and the highest selling American band in U.S. history.
The band broke up in 1980, following a difficult tour and personal tensions that arose during the recording of The Long Run. The Eagles subsequently reunited in 1994. Henley continues to tour and record with the Eagles. Their latest album, Long Road Out of Eden, was released in 2007.."
Following the breakup of the Eagles, Henley embarked on a solo career. He and Stevie Nicks (his girlfriend at the time) had duetted on her Top 10 Pop and Adult Contemporary hit "Leather and Lace", written by Nicks for Waylon Jennings and his wife Jessie Colter, in late 1981. Henley's first solo album, 1982's I Can't Stand Still, was a moderate seller. The single "Dirty Laundry" reached #3 on Billboard Hot 100 at the beginning of 1983 and earned a Gold-certified single for sales of over a million copies in the US. It was Henley's all-time biggest solo hit and was nominated for a Grammy. Henley also contributed "Love Rules" to the 1982 Fast Times at Ridgemont High soundtrack.
This was followed in 1984 by Building the Perfect Beast. A single release, "The Boys of Summer", reached No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100. The music video for the song was directed by Jean-Baptiste Mondino and won several MTV Video Music Awards including Best Video of the Year. Henley also won the Grammy Award for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance for the song. Several other songs on the album, "All She Wants to Do Is Dance" (No. 9 on Hot 100), "Not Enough Love in the World" (#34) and "Sunset Grill" (#22) also received considerable airplay. He then had a #3 album rock chart hit with "Who Owns This Place?" from 1986's The Color of Money soundtrack.
Henley's next album, 1989's The End of the Innocence, was even more successful. The song "The End of the Innocence", a collaboration with Bruce Hornsby reached No. 8 as a single. "The Heart of the Matter", "The Last Worthless Evening" and "New York Minute" were among other songs that gained radio airplay. Henley again won the Best Male Rock Vocal Performance Grammy in 1990 for the album. Also in 1989, Henley made a brief appearance on MTV's Unplugged series.
In 1995 Henley released the single "The Garden of Allah" to promote his greatest hits solo album Actual Miles: Henley's Greatest Hits.
In live shows, Henley would play drums and sing simultaneously only on certain Eagles songs. On his solo songs he would either play electric guitar and sing or just sing. Occasionally Eagles songs would get drastic rearrangements, such as "Hotel California" with four trombones.
Don Henley spent many years in legal entanglements with record company Geffen Records. Following years of tension between Henley and the label, the dispute went public and the record company filed a $30-million breach-of-contract suit in Superior Court after receiving a notice from Henley saying he was terminating his contract even though he reportedly owed the company two more studio albums and a greatest-hits collection. Henley wanted to sign a publishing deal with EMI that would have been worth a few million dollars. Geffen Records stopped this from happening, which in turn upset Henley.
Geffen Records claimed that Henley was in breach of contract and Henley attempted to get out of his contract in 1993 based on an old statute. Under the statute, a California law enacted over 50 years ago to free actors from long-term studio deals, entertainers cannot be forced to work for any company for more than seven years. Geffen Records did not want Henley signing with any other label, and had an agreement from Sony and EMI that they would not sign Henley. Henley counter-sued Geffen Records claiming he was "blackballed" by David Geffen, who made agreements with other record labels not to sign him. Henley eventually became an outspoken advocate for musicians' rights, taking a stand against music labels whom he feels refuse to pay bands their due royalties. Henley came to terms with Geffen Records when the Eagles reunion took off and the company eventually took a large chunk of the profit from the reunion album. Glenn Frey was also in legal entanglements with his label, MCA Records (whose parent company had also acquired Geffen). Before the Eagles reunion tour could begin, the band had to file suit against Elektra Records, who had planned to release a new Eagles Greatest Hits album. The band won that battle.
Don Henley and Courtney Love testified at a California Senate hearing on that state's contractual laws in Sacramento on September 5, 2001. In 2002 Henley became the head of the Recording Artist's Coalition. The coalition's primary aim was to raise money to mount a legal and political battle against the major record labels. Henley says the group seeks to change the fundamental rules that govern most recording contracts, including copyright ownership, long-term control of intellectual property and unfair accounting practices. This group filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the Napster case, urging District Judge Marilyn Hall Patel not to accept the industry's broad claims of works made for hire authorship.
A long period without a new recording followed, as Henley waited out a dispute with his record company while also participating in a 1994 Eagles reunion tour and live album. During the hiatus, Henley recorded a cover of "Sit Down, You're Rockin' the Boat" for the film Leap of Faith, provided background vocals for country star Trisha Yearwood's hit single "Walkaway Joe", and duetted with Patty Smyth on "Sometimes Love Just Ain't Enough" and Roger Waters on "Watching TV" on Waters' Amused to Death album, in 1992. Henley provided the voice of Henry Faust in Randy Newman's Faust, a 1993 musical which was released on compact disc that year.
In 2000, after 11 years, Henley released another solo studio recording, Inside Job, containing the single "Taking You Home". He performed songs from the album in a VH1 Storytellers episode in 2000. In 2002 a live DVD entitled Don Henley: Live Inside Job was released. In 2005 Henley opened 10 of Stevie Nicks' concerts on her Two Voices Tour.
Henley performed duets with Kenny Rogers on Rogers' 2006 release Water & Bridges titled "Calling Me" and on Reba McEntire's 2007 album, Reba: Duets, performing "Break Each Other's Hearts Again".
In a 2007 interview with CNN, while discussing the future of the Eagles, Henley indicated he still has plans for more records: "But we all have some solo plans still. I still have a contract with a major label [Warner] for a couple of solo albums."
In January 2011, Henley commenced work on a solo album of country covers featuring special guests. Ronnie Dunn from Brooks & Dunn and Alison Krauss have recorded a song with Henley for the album.
Decision: Don Henley is already a Pop HOFer with the Eagles, and had 6 top 10 hits, not quite enough to be a Pop HOFer as a solo artist.
Survivor
Survivor is an American rock band formed in Chicago in 1978. The band achieved its greatest success in the 1980s with its arena rock sound, which garnered many charting singles, especially in the United States.
In 1982 Survivor's breakthrough arrived when actor Sylvester Stallone asked them to provide the theme song for his movie Rocky III. Stallone had heard their single "Poor Man's Son" and wanted a song similar to it. The band agreed to write him a song and soon released "Eye of the Tiger". The new song featured a faster tempo while still incorporating the stylish, nearly identical power chords. It had an enormous impact on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, peaking at #1 and remaining there for a total of six weeks. It also topped the British charts. It was in the Top 40 for a total of 18 weeks and was Australia's #1 single for four weeks. The song won the band a Grammy Award, was voted Best New Song by the People's Choice Awards, and also received an Academy Award nomination.The album of the same title, Eye of the Tiger, was released by the band later in 1982 and contained another Top 40 hit in the United States, "American Heartbeat" (#17 US). The album went on to chart at #2 in the United States.
In 1983 Survivor tried to duplicate the success of Eye Of The Tiger with their next release Caught in the Game. The album turned out to be a commercial disappointment, stalling at #82 on the Billboard 200 in the United States. The album's only single, the title track, peaked at #77. The band suffered another setback in late 1983 when lead singer Dave Bickler suffered voice problems and was forced to leave. In early 1984 he was replaced by Jimi Jamison of the bands Target and Cobra.
Survivor had a streak of hit singles afterwards like "Burning Heart" from Rocky IV (US #2), "The Search Is Over" (US #4), "High on You" (US #8), "Is This Love" (US #9) and "I Can't Hold Back" (US #13) through the mid-1980s.
The band tweaked its musical direction in 1988 with the release of the slightly heavier Too Hot to Sleep, but the album barely reached the Billboard 200 in the United States. Because of this, the band split. Singer Jimi Jamison later toured as 'Survivor' in the mid-1990s, to the chagrin of the rest of the band. Jamison reunited with the band's other members in 2000 and the band released Reach in 2006, but Jamison left the band after its release and was replaced by Robin McAuley. The band continued to tour with McAuley into 2011.
An announcement on November 13, 2011 by Robin McAuley on his Facebook page revealed that he had left Survivor. A subsequent announcement on November 18, 2011 confirmed that Jimi Jamison had rejoined the band, and a tour was to take place in 2012.
In April of 2013, it was announced on the band's official media sources that guitarist Frankie Sullivan has reunited the current Survivor line-up with singer Dave Bickler, with the band now having their two vocalists together for the next tour, Dave Bickler and Jimi Jamison.
Decision: Though "Eye Of The Tiger" was a huge hit in the Summer of '82, and they had 4 other top 10 hits, they are not Pop Music HOFers.
Next: 1983 Nominees: Madonna, Bryan Adams, INXS, Def Leppard
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