"Show Me the Way" (Live)"
Artist - Peter Frampton
Peter Frampton emerged from the swinging English rock scene of the 1960s. He started studying classical guitar at the age of eight but spent more time playing rock and roll than practicing his scales. By his early teens he was playing with rock and rhythm and blues combos in his hometown of Beckenham, Kent; at age fourteen he appeared onstage with American blues artist Jimmy Reed. He dropped out of high school to join the up-and-coming mod/pop band, the Herd. The group had several Top Twenty hits in the United Kingdom and Frampton became a teen idol; but he wished to be taken more seriously as an artist, so he quit the band and began looking for a new opportunity. It came in 1969, when Steve Marriot asked him to join his band the Small Faces, a blues/mod/rock outfit poised on the brink of international stardom. Marriot, however, hadn't cleared the invitation with the rest of the Faces; when they vetoed Frampton he quit, and the two formed a new group, Humble Pie.
Conflicts within the band surfaced quickly, as Marriot, Frampton, and bassist Greg Ridley, each the front man of his previous group, jockeyed for position and artistic control. After several albums Marriot emerged as the lead singer and primary guitarist; rather than be relegated to a supporting role, Frampton decided to strike out on his own. His first solo album, Winds of Change, was completed with a little help from his friends Ringo Starr, Billy Preston, and Klaus Voorman, but it did not attract the kind of attention Frampton had hoped for. He threw himself into touring and over the next few years built a fan base and a catalogue of well-written songs like "Show Me the Way," and "Baby I Love Your Way." His career exploded in 1976 with the release of Frampton Comes Alive, a double live album recorded at the Winterland ballroom in San Francisco in 1975. The record spent ten weeks at number one and has sold (to date) sixteen million copies. Frampton thus became the first of a series of mega-platinum artists to emerge in the late 1970s.
Though his next album went triple platinum, it did not generate the same kind of excitement as his previous outing. His role as Billy Shears in the movie Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band—an appallingly tasteless concept that ranks as one of the biggest box office bombs in history—did not help his career; and a near-fatal car accident prevented him from capitalizing on whatever good will remained from Frampton Comes Alive.
Also see: The Beatles, Jeff Beck, Cliff Richard, Eric Clapto
Must Haves:
- "Do You Feel Like We Do?"
- "Baby I Love Your Way"
- "All I Want to Be (Is by Your Side)"
- "Butter Milk Boy" (with Humble Pie) "
Performers Influenced By This Artist:
- Eddie Money
- Journey
- Supertramp
"More Than A Feeling"
Artist - Boston
The rock band Boston was founded by Tom Scholz, a teenage rock fan who started writing songs while he was an engineering student at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. As his studies occupied most of his time he didn't join a band until after he had earned bachelor's and master's degrees in mechanical engineering; he formed a partnership with percussionist Jim Masdea, and after a brief stint as a duo they recruited Barry Goudreau and Brad Delp, veterans of several local bands. Scholz joined the band as a keyboardist. He started taking guitar lessons shortly thereafter and discovered an innate affinity for the instrument; he became proficient so quickly that by the time of the Boston debut album he was playing lead guitar. Scholz assumed control of the band and, as Boston's website puts it, became its "main creative force, producer, and engineer on all the Boston albums, and he plays lead and rhythm guitars (acoustic and electric), bass, piano, Hammond organ, and percussion."
Scholz knew nothing about sound engineering when he joined Boston, but he learned quickly (perhaps because of his engineering background) and built a twelve-track recording studio in his basement. Boston used the studio to record a demo album, which was then shopped around to record companies. They were signed to Epic records, but unlike most bands they were not called into the studio to re-record the songs in a professional studio, as is normally done; the company did some remastering and the band recorded vocal overdubs, but the demo's production was so expertly realized that only cosmetic changes were needed.
The band's eponymous first album became the fastest selling debut in history (though ultimately topped by Whitney Houston's first album in 1986); it quickly rose to the top of the charts and produced three hit singles. However, the album's runaway success created pressure to produce a worthy second effort. Though a second album was quickly recorded Scholz, a self-admitted perfectionist, worked on the production for two years, and Epic had to force him to release the master tapes. 1978s Don't Look Back was also certified platinum, but Scholz not satisfied; he resolved never again to release an album unless he was entirely pleased with the results. As a result, the third Boston album didn't appear until 1986, by which time nearly all of the other members had quit the band in frustration.
Also see: Led Zeppelin, Yes, Queen, Montrose, Free, James Gang
Must Haves:
- "Rock and Roll Band"
- "Peace of Mind"
- "Cool the Engines"
- "Amanda"
Performers Influenced By This Artist:
- Bon Jovi
- Def Leppard
- Night Ranger
- Damn Yankees
"Feels Like the First Time"
Artist - Foreigner
Mick Jones spent his early career working as a studio guitarist in London and played on records by George Harrison, Peter Frampton, and the band Spooky Tooth. He moved to New York to work in the recording industry but quickly decided he was more interested in forming a band that fused elements of progressive rock, pop, and rhythm and blues. He recruited two fellow Brits—instrumentalist Ian McDonald (who played with King Crimson on their debut album, Court of the Crimson King) and drummer Dennis Elliot (from Ian Hunter's band)—as well as several New York musicians: Al Greenwood (keyboards), Ed Gagliardi (bass), and Lou Gramm (vocals). They named the new group Foreigner because half the band was, in fact, foreign. Gramm and Jones quickly discovered they worked remarkably well as a songwriting team; the group's eponymous debut album produced several Top Ten hits in the United States and contained several more that would later become AOR favorites. Their rapid ascent on the charts established them as one of top "arena rock" bands of the late 1970s. Their sophomore effort was even more successful, as was their third, but the band members—especially Jones and Gramm—were unsatisfied. For their next effort they hired producer Mutt Lange, who had just produced the multi-platinum Back in Black for AC/DC. The resulting album, 4, was Foreigner's biggest to date and produced three hits that stayed on the charts for months in 1981.
A number of bands formed in the late 1970s had a difficult time adjusting to the new realities of the 1980s: MTV, the heavy use of electronic instruments, and the implosion of arena rock under the assault of punk and new wave. Foreigner successfully reinvented themselves, but perhaps did so too well. The band produced additional hits—the over-the-top gospel-influenced "I Want to Know What Love Is" (recorded with the Jersey Mass Choir) was their most successful single, but it also confused fans, many of whom were attracted by the hard rocking 4. Gramm and Jones disagreed about the future direction of the band; their songwriting partnership crumbled, and Gramm finally left the group in 1987. Jones established himself as a major producer in his own right—he helmed Van Halen's 5150 and Billy Joel's Storm Front—but neither he nor Gramm was satisfied with the music they made with their new bands. In 1991they reunited on the advice of executives at Atlantic records, Foreigner's label, and are still together.
Also see: The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, the Yardbirds, the Who, Spooky Tooth
Must Haves:
- "Cold as Ice"
- "Hot Blooded"
- "Juke Box Hero"
- "Urgent"
- "Waiting for a Girl like You"
Performers Influenced By This Artist:
- Survivor
- Night Ranger
- Def Leppard
- Pat Benatar
"Anarchy in the UK"
Artist - The Sex Pistols
Often regarded as the paragons of punk rock, the Sex Pistols were actually an English version of several American bands playing a minimalist version of rock and roll at CBGB OMFUG (Country, BlueGrass, Blues and Other Music for Urban Gormandizers) in New York. Malcolm McLaren, the owner of a fetish clothing boutique in London, had been to New York and had seen the Ramones and the New York Dolls in action, and he thought that a band playing in a similar style might be just the thing to generate publicity for his shop. Several of the young men who hung around the store were already in a band; all that McLaren needed was to find them a lead singer and some gigs. In recruiting other members, McLaren was interested in someone with the correct image; talent, he'd learned from the punk bands in New York, was optional. Thus, John Lydon's audition for the lead singer spot consisted of miming Alice Cooper's "Eighteen." He got the job and was renamed Johnny Rotten before anyone knew if he could actually sing. Likewise, when bassist Glenn Matlock quit the band (or was fired) Sid Vicious was hired because of his look, but he was so limited musically that his amplifier was usually turned all the way down.
The Sex Pistols began performing gigs around London, with immediate results. Punk was a minority reaction to overblown and overproduced rock shows in the United States; in the United Kingdom it tapped into something darker, a violent backlash against popular culture and false social optimism, and the band quickly attracted a large, disenfranchised audience. Several major record labels, still afraid to miss the next Beatles or Rolling Stones, bid for their services; the Sex Pistols were signed by EMI and released several singles that performed poorly. They were subsequently dropped after swearing in an appearance on a morning television program; however, the episode generated so much publicity that the startup Virgin Records picked up their contract. Their LP, Never Mind the Bollocks, Here Come the Sex Pistols, was nearly suppressed because of its title (which could be construed as obscene); ultimately, however, it was their first single, "God Save the Queen," strategically released to coincide with Queen Elizabeth's Silver Jubilee, that got them banned from the playlists of state-run BBC Radio. In the punk world this was the ultimate seal of quality, and the single leaped into the number two spot on the charts. However, many papers left the slot blank rather than print the name of the controversial song!
Also see: New York Dolls, MC5, Iggy Pop, the Ramones
Must Haves:
- "God Save the Queen"
- "Holidays in the Sun"
- "Seventeen"
Performers Influenced By This Artist:
- The Buzzcocks
- the Clash
- Siouxsie and the Banshees
- the Vibratorsm and virtually every punk rock-influenced group that has emerged since 1977
"My Best Friend’s Girl"
Artist - The Cars
The Cars were one of the most successful new wave bands to emerge in the post punk era of the late 1970s. Many new wave groups employed the stripped down textures of punk to produce "progressive" rock without the bombast and heavy production that at the time typified bands with musical, rather than commercial, aspirations. The Cars, on the other hand, were a straight-ahead rock and roll band. Baltimore native Ric Ocasek was raised on pop radio and enamored of early rockabilly but decided to become a songwriter after discovering Bob Dylan and the Incredible String Band in the mid 1960s. He met Ben Orr in high school; the duo formed their first band in Ann Arbor, where Ocasek had relocated to attend college. Instead of attending classes Ocasek and Orr basked in the garage rock scene and formed a proto punk duo, which Ocasek remembers as a "wreck your equipment kind of band," that played a handful of gigs with the legendary MC5. The pair became bored with the idiom and moved to Boston, where they played as a folk duo called Milkwood that was good enough to receive a record contract in 1973.
After several years they felt another format change was in order and recruited local musicians to fill out the lineup of the Cars. Their primary influences were the Velvet Underground, Roxy Music, and Lou Reed; thus, their music had a certain detached and ironic tone. However, under the surface there were good-natured references to earlier rock styles that never came off as pretentious. Ocasek had a natural sense for well-crafted pop hooks and wasn't afraid to use them. As a result the Cars were the most radio-friendly of the new wave bands, and their electric keyboard-driven sound and aloof vocal style became staples of the new 1980s pop. Ocasek was recognized for captivating turns of phrase that were often as engaging as his hooks; lines like "You always knew to wear it well/You look so fancy I can tell" were refreshing deviations from tired pop formulas.
Though their multi-platinum debut album was released in 1978, the Cars were truly a band of the 1980s in that they deftly employed unconventional media to promote their songs. "Moving in Stereo" was featured in the movie Fast Times at Ridgemont High and brought the band to an audience beyond pop radio (and many of them will forever connect the song to images of Phoebe Cates in a red bikini). They were also quick to explore the then-new format of the music video to ensure heavy rotation on MTV; the surrealistic video for "You Might Think" won the MTV Award for Best Video in 1984 and is still considered one of the best videos of all times.
Also see: Bob Dylan, Velvet Underground, Blondie, Iggy Pop, David Bowie
Must Haves:
- "You're All I've Got Tonight"
- "Just What I Needed"
- "Moving in Stereo"
- "You Might Think"
- "Shake It Up"
Performers Influenced By This Artist:
- The Foo Fighters
- the Killers
- the Strokes
- Tears for Fears
- Talking Heads