Thunder - "Dirty Love"

OK, this week's song is a bit more well known, and while it's still a bit on the poppy side (most music covered on this blog will be) it absolutely rocks! Let's get into it, shall we? As usual, any words in yellow are links to click on!

 Artist - Thunder

 Song - "Dirty Love"

 Album - Backstreet Symphony, originally released on the Capitol label in 1990, but
              re-released the following year on the Geffen label.


 Thunder was an extremely underrated hard rock band that hailed from London,
 England. According to Allmusic.com, schoolmates Danny Bowes (vocals) and
 Luke Morley (lead guitar) had been playing together since the age of 15. In the early
 80's, they formed the band Terraplane. They released an independent single, "I Survive",
 in 1984, which became quite popular locally. They were signed to the Epic label later
 that year. Once they were signed, Epic wanted the band to follow a more glossy and
 radio-friendly sound, similar to Bon Jovi and Survivor. The band agreed, and their
 first album, the keyboard-laden Black & White, was released in 1985. Their first
 single, "I Can't Live Without Your Love" didn't do much, but the album did decently
 in England (UK Albums chart #74, according to the band's Wikipedia.com entry).
 Their second album, Moving Target, was released in 1987. The album did poorly,
 and Terraplane disbanded. Taking along Terraplane's drummer, Gary "Harry"  
 James, Bowes and Morley formed Thunder with guitarist/keyboardist Ben Matthews
 and bass player Mark "Snake" Luckhurst in early 1989.

 According to the band's website, demos were recorded in January of 1989, and they
 were signed to the EMI label in April of the same year. The band recorded their
 first album, Backstreet Symphony (produced by Duran Duran guitarist Andy Taylor),
 in August of 1989, and it was released in the UK in March of 1990. The original video
 for "Dirty Love" was shot in December of 1989, but the single wasn't released here in
 the U.S. until March of 1991. They shot a new version of the video for MTV (that's a
 young Pamela Anderson in the shower in the video!), and it went into rotation immediately!
 EMI had allowed Capitol to release the album in 1990,  but the band signed with Geffen
 for their U.S. releases in 1991, at which time Geffen decided to re-release the album.
 "Dirty Love" was actually the very first U.S. single issued on the then-new Geffen label.

 Thunder continued on with huge success in both England and Japan, but "Dirty Love"
 was really the only song to do anything here in the States, mainly due to the change in
 musical climate issued in by bands like Nirvana and Pearl Jam. "Dirty Love" peaked at
 #10 on the U.S. Mainstream Rock chart. Another single from Backstreet Symphony,
 the power ballad "Love Walked In", peaked at #31 later that year, and that was it.
 Even though the band continued on with albums that did well in the UK, they never
 charted another single or album in America. Quite sad, too, because some of their best
 work was released on the next three albums; Laughing on Judgement Day, which was
 released in 1992, followed by Behind Closed Doors in 1995, and The Thrill of It All in
 1996.

 If you're a fan of good, hard-rockin' music, give these guys a listen! They've released
 some pretty great music over the years that was criminally ignored here in the States.

Danny Spanos - "Hot Cherie"

OK.....after all this talk about "Hard rock, heavy metal, in-your-face blah blah blah" on the opening blog post, I've decided to go a tad poppy (but still rockin') for my first entry. Let's get to the details (words in yellow are links to click on):

Artist - Danny Spanos                                         

Song - "Hot Cherie"

Album - Actually an EP, Passion In The Dark, released on the Epic label in 1983.

There's not a ton of information on Mr. Spanos on the internet. Danny was actually born George Spanos, and according to his Wikipedia.com entry, he was born and raised not too far from home here, in South Lyon, Michigan. He got his start in music as a drummer, landing a spot in the 70's group Redbone, whose claim to fame was the million-selling hit song "Come and Get Your Love" in 1974. According to some music info sites, he was also credited as the percussionist on the theme song to the "Starsky and Hutch" television series. According to the interview on this site, he also worked with Sly Stone and, later on, the 3 surviving members of The Doors. Sometime after all of this, around 1979, Spanos decided to trade in George for Danny and hit the solo trail. He released his first solo album on Windsong Records - the self-titled Danny Spanos - in 1980. Although it didn't set the world on fire, he was picked up by Epic Records (Redbone's label at the time when he was in the group), who released the Passion In The Dark EP in 1983. The EP produced a video, for the track "Excuse Me", that was played on MTV in the early part of 1983, and he had 2 tracks that landed on movie soundtracks - the first one, "This Could Be Our Last Chance" was in the Tom Cruise movie All The Right Moves in 1983, and the track "One Track Heart (Passion In The Dark)" was on the soundtrack to the movie Up The Creek in 1984. Although there are a few web sites that say "Hot Cherie" was a Top 40 hit in 1983, I can't find any evidence to back up this claim, including research on Billboard.com and the Whitburn's Collectors List, a highly popular list used by collectors to find and catalog songs on the internet.

"Hot Cherie" was actually a cover song, first recorded by Canadian band, Streetheart.....the band directly responsible for giving us Loverboy, more or less. Even though the original version is listenable and wasn't released until after Spanos' version appeared (that's Loverboy's guitarist Paul Dean and drummer Matt Frenette on the original track), Spanos' version just hit the mark much more squarely, in my opinion. The band Hardline did a version of "Hot Cherie" on their Double Eclipse album in 1992, featuring the talents of  Mr. Neal Schon, former guitarist of Santana, Journey and Bad English. I'm a big Neal Schon fan, but even with him on board, I'm not a fan of this version.

Spanos had one more release on Epic, the full album Looks Like Trouble, in 1984, and that was it. Kind of sad, because I thought he was a pretty good vocalist.

As far as I can tell, both albums and the EP remain unavailable in CD format. However, Spanos' version of "Hot Cherie" was included in a compilation CD from Renaissance Records, entitled Heard It On The Radio, Vol. 2, in 1999.

I don't know what it is about this song, but it's always been one of my "long lost" favorites. I hope you enjoy it as well!

"Please allow me to introduce myself....."

Hello to all of you music lovers and blog readers everywhere! My name is Matt, I'm 47 years old and I've been living in the suburbs of Detroit, Michigan since birth. I am currently unemployed from the automotive industry (aren't we all, Detroit?), and I am attending school at Schoolcraft College in Livonia, working my way towards an Associate's Degree in computer programming, with more schooling to follow after I've completed that degree.

The reasons I've decided to start this blog are many. For starters, I'm a big music fan. I grew up playing music in the school band, starting in 6th grade with a little black plastic recorder, and ending a couple of years after high school graduation, playing drums in an all-school city band. I have a ton of great memories of playing music, both at school and at home, especially after my mom & dad bought me my first guitar for Christmas in 1979. That was quite possibly the best gift I have ever received. I still find time to plug in and play occasionally.

Playing music was just part of the equation for me. Listening to music was actually more important than playing it. Like most kids back in those days, I've always leaned towards one style of music......rock & roll. And the harder it rocked, the better it was, in my opinion. But as I've gotten older, I've had the opportunity to go back and listen to some of the things I used to ignore....disco, new wave, and pop music being the 3 genres I used to "slander" the most while I was growing up. I've actually learned to appreciate and even enjoy a lot of music that I had ignored during those "rock only" years, and some of those songs have become absolute favorites of mine.

But let's not wander down that path quite yet......my number one favorite style of music from back then is the same as it is today.....rock & roll. Hard rock, heavy metal, straight-up, in-your-face rock music with an attitude, THAT is my passion. And THAT is going to be the main focus of this blog.

This blog will focus on music that was produced between the British Invasion-era 60's all the way to the early 90's, leaning heavily on music from the 80's. Why? Because it's what I know the most about, and it is the music that I've enjoyed the most in my life. Will there be cheesy music included here, or songs from hardly-known singers or groups? Absolutely! Everything will be thrown into the mix eventually, including some of the most cringe-inducing acts you can think of. This blog will always attempt to be about the music, NOT the image. Even though early MTV was a big influence on me (back when they actually played music videos), I still did most of my listening with my ears, not my eyes. Sure, there are always going to be images running through your head when you think about some songs, and I'll even have those YouTube video links where you can click to relive those memories whenever they're available, but for the most part, I'm going to attempt to concentrate solely on the song itself, no matter who the artist is. I'll try to give you a small history of the artist and the song - when it was released, highest chart position, etc. - but I'll try not to beat you over the head with it. But be forewarned.....I have a lot of infinitely useless musical information stuck inside my head, and I have finally discovered a place to use it. So just duck occasionally and you won't get hit too hard! I'm not intending to be the "absolute authority" on anything here, but I will share what I know and give credit where it is due.

I really hope you'll enjoy reading this blog! Your feedback is definitely welcomed and encouraged.....feel free to share your memories about any of the songs or artists, and suggestions are welcomed as well ! But please be gentle with me....this is my first attempt at this, and I know I'll need room for improvement.....thanks!