The Music Of The 80s - Favorites, Classics And Rarities

[hitman531ph]

GENERAL PUBLIC

 

Considered by many as nothing more than an offshoot of the better-known '80s British outfit the English Beat, General Public still enjoyed several substantial hits on their own during their short career. Immediately after the split of the ska-pop outfit the English Beat in 1983, former members Dave Wakeling (vocals, born February 19, 1956) and Ranking Roger ("toaster," born February 21, 1961) formed General Public, which turned out to be more pop-based than its predecessor, with elements of classic Motown soul thrown in for good measure. Once former Dexy's Midnight Runners keyboardist Mickey Billingham, former Specials bassist Horace Panter, and a drummer known simply as Stoker were all enlisted, General Public was officially up and running. Signing on with the IRS label, General Public's debut album, 1984's All the Rage, was a commercial success back home, as it featured a guest appearance by former Clash guitarist Mick Jones and scored a Top 40 single with the track "Tenderness." 1986 saw the release of General Public's sophomore effort, Hand to Mouth, which failed to match expectations set by its predecessor despite spawning a pair of popular singles, "Too Much or Nothing" and "Come Again."

With both Wakeling and Roger unable to agree on a musical direction, General Public split up shortly thereafter. Roger issued a solo debut in 1988, the more ska-based Radical Departure, while Wakeling contributed the title track to John Hughes' 1988 film She's Having a Baby and issued a solo album as well, 1991's General Public-esque No Warning. Roger would go on to form another outfit, Special Beat, which included musicians from the late-'70s English ska scene, but in 1994, Roger and Wakeling were asked to reunite General Public for a track on the Threesome motion picture soundtrack. A UB40-like interpretation of the Staple Singers' "I'll Take You There" was offered and became a surprise Top 40 hit. The duo remained together for a third General Public studio album, 1995's Rub It Better (produced by former Talking Heads keyboardist/guitarist Jerry Harrison), but when it sunk from sight upon release, the band split up once more. 2002 saw the release of the duo's first best-of collection, the 12-track Classic Masters.

Edited August 10, 2005 by hitman531ph

[hitman531ph]

THE THOMPSON TWINS

 

The Thompson Twins -- who were neither a duo nor related, but simply named after the Tin Tin cartoon -- were one of the more popular synth-pop groups of the early MTV era, scoring a handful of hits before fading away into lite-funk obscurity. While many of their contemporaries indulged in stylish variations on Roxy Music or robotic electronic funk, the Thompson Twins were more pop-oriented, even when they strayed into dance-pop. Despite their success -- "Hold Me Now," "Lay Your Hands on Me," "King for a Day" all reached the U.S. Top Ten -- the group was unable to successfully expand their synth-pop sound and, consequently, their audience had virtually disappeared by the late '80s.

Founding member Tom Bailey was attending a teacher's college in Cheshire, England and harboring dreams of becoming a classical pianist when he met Joe Leeway, a fledgling actor, in 1977. The pair hit it off, yet Leeway wasn't part of the original incarnation of the Thompson Twins, which featured Bailey (vocals, keyboards), guitarist Pete Dodd, guitarist John Roog and drummer Chris Bell. During the late '70s and early '80s, the band released a handful of independent singles and became fixtures on the burgeoning New Romantic scene in London before signing with Arista Records in 1981. That year, they released their debut album, A Product Of..., to little attention.

 

Not long after the release of A Product Of..., Bailey added his girlfriend Alannah Currie (percussion, saxophone, vocals), Joe Leeway (percussion, vocal) and former Soft Boys bassist Matthew Seligman to the group. The Thompson Twins recorded one album in this seven-piece incarnation, 1982's Set, which was released in America as In the Name of Love. The record was a bomb, and following its release, the group was trimmed to a trio -- Bailey, Currie and Leeway. The revamped Thompson Twins released Quick Step and Side Kick in 1983, and the album became a major hit in the U.K., climbing all the way to number two, as the singles "Love on Your Side" and "We Are Detective" reached the Top Ten. In America, the record was released under the truncated title Side Kicks and earned a cult following.

 

The Thompson Twins had their American commercial breakthrough in 1984 with Into the Gap. "Hold Me Now," the first single from the album, became a bigger hit in the U.S. than it did in the U.K., peaking at number three; it reached number four in England. Into the Gap also featured the hits "Doctor Doctor" and "You Take Me Up," and the Thompson Twins quickly followed the record in 1985 with Here's to Future Days. "Lay Your Hands On Me" became an American Top Ten hit, as did "King for a Day," but none of the singles from the record became major hits in the U.K., signaling that the group's popularity was beginning to decline. Leeway left the group in 1986, and the Thompson Twins remained a duo, releasing Close to the Bone the following year. Bailey and Currie made their romance public in 1988, when the couple had a child. That same year, they released the remix album The Best of Thompson Twins: Greatest Mixes, which was generally ignored.

 

By the late '80s, the Thompson Twins' audience had decreased substantially. Big Trash, their 1989 debut for Warner, produced the minor U.S. hit "Sugar Daddy," but it was overlooked in England. In 1991, they released Queer, which was ignored in both the U.S. and the U.K. In 1994, Bailey and Currie decided to form a new band, Babble, in order to explore newer electronic musics such as ambient. Working with programmer Keith Fernley, Babble released The Stone in 1994 on Reprise to little notice

[hitman531ph]

RAY PARKER JR

 

His first LP, Raydio, went gold, peaking at number eight R&B in spring 1978. The LP included the gold, number five R&B hit single "Jack and Jill" (lead vocal by Jerry Knight), "Is This a Love Thing," and the charting single "Honey I'm Rich." The hits continued with Ray Parker Jr. and Raydio's gold, number four Rock On (the single "You Can't Change That" was number three R&B, number nine pop in the spring of 1979); the gold, number six R&B Two Places at the Same Time from spring 1980 ("Two Places at the Same Time" was number six R&B in spring 1980); and the number one gold record A Woman Needs Love from 1981 ("A Woman Needs Love [Just Like You Do]" -- the first song Parker sung all the way through without trading vocals -- held the number one R&B spot for two weeks and went number four pop in spring 1981). Then, as Ray Parker Jr., The Other Woman held the number one R&B, number 11 pop spot in spring 1982 ("The Other Woman" was number two R&B for four weeks).

 

One of Parker's biggest hits and best loved songs, "Ghostbusters" was initially submitted for the background score of the Dan Aykroyd/Harold Ramis/Bill Murray/Ernie Hudson comedy. Director Ivan Reitman thought that the song should be released as a single.The "Ghostbusters" music video is one of the funniest and star-studded videos ever made (breakdancing Bill Murray style). "Ghostbusters" parked at the number one R&B spot for two weeks and the number one pop for three weeks on Billboard's charts in summer 1984. Around this time, Parker was sued by Huey Lewis for copyright infringement claiming that "Ghostbusters" was a rip-off of his recent hit, "I Want a New Drug." Lewis received an out-of-court settlement. Some others at the time thought that if anyone's attorney should have been contacting both Parker and/or Lewis, it should have been Robin Scott who recorded as M and had a 1979 number one pop smash with "Pop Muzik," which both "...Drug" and "Ghostbusters" sounded similar to.

 

Parker also wrote and produced hits for New Edition ("Mr. Telephone Man" -- Parker originally recorded this with Jr. Tucker for his 1983 self-titled Geffen album), Randy Hall ("I've Been Watching You [Jamie's Girl]," the refreshing "Gentleman"), Cheryl Lynn ("Shake It Up Tonight" from In the Night), Deniece Williams (the 1979 ARC/Columbia LP When Love Comes Calling, the 1981 Bang LP Brick, Summer Heat), and Diana Ross ("Upfront" from her 1983 RCA LP Ross).

 

Parker left Arista for Geffen then MCA before returning to Arista because of his relationship with Arista president Clive Davis.

Edited August 8, 2005 by hitman531ph

[hitman531ph]

THE MOTELS

 

Led by the charismatic Martha Davis, the Motels were one of the most successful and acclaimed bands to emerge from the fertile Los Angeles new wave scene, reaching the Top Ten in 1982 with their biggest hit, "Only the Lonely." Davis formed the group in 1972 while living in Berkeley, CA, recruiting guitarist Dean Chamberlain and bassist Richard D'Andrea; originally dubbed the Warfield Foxes, they became the Motels upon relocating to L.A., but despite interest from a number of record labels the group suffered through endless lineup changes, finally disbanding in 1976. Davis soon formed a new Motels roster with guitarist Jeff Jourard, his saxophonist/keyboardist brother Marty, bassist Michael Goodroe, and drummer Brian Glascock; signing to Capitol, in 1979 the group issued their self-titled debut LP, scoring a minor hit with the ballad "Total Control." Guitarist Tim McGovern, formerly of the Pop!, replaced Jeff Jourard prior to the release of the 1980 sophomore effort Careful. After Capitol rejected the Motels' third album, All Four One, McGovern exited, and the group re-recorded the album with guitarist Guy Perry and assorted session musicians. This time the label relented, releasing All Four One in 1982; the album eventually went gold on the strength of the atmospheric "Only the Lonely," which ascended to the number nine spot. The evocative "Suddenly Last Summer," the lead single from the Motels' 1983 follow-up, Little Robbers, reached number nine as well a year later, yielding the Top 40 entry "Remember the Nights." 1985's Shock generated the band's final hit, "Shame." A cancer scare prompted Davis to dissolve the Motels in 1987, the year she made her solo debut with Policy. In mid-1998 she reformed the group, touring under the name the Motels Featuring Martha Davis. A collection entitled Anthologyland followed in early 2001

Edited August 8, 2005 by hitman531ph

[cruesome]

mga kabuhok, baka gusto nyo share/trades ng glam materials natin. cds dvds. wala na sa record bars nito.

[Guest Dobermaxx]

me alam ba kayong local outlets with glam releases for sale? tsinatsagaan ko lang pre-owned section ng tower records

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I used to be able to get stuff from CD Warehouse in the old greenbelt plaza, not sure if they're still tere though.

[cruesome]

I used to be able to get stuff from CD Warehouse in the old greenbelt plaza, not sure if they're still tere though. 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

ako din noong college ako, pero panay newwave hanap ko dun kasi marami pa glam sa stores. last na gawi ko sa basement ng greenbelt (pre-greenbelt 2) wala na cd warehouse. sa robinsons galleria lam ko nagbukas sila ng branch.

 

nagkaletseletse lang record bars nung nawala octo arts, dyna records, wea. then redistribute sa ibang labels, kaso older catalogs were not reissued,

[caeli]

weee!!! poison, steelheart, def leppard, white lion, bon jovi!!!

[hitman531ph]

DEF LEPPARD

 

Def Leppard, in many ways, was the definitive hard rock band of the '80s. There were many bands that rocked harder, and were more dangerous, than the Sheffield quintet, but few others captured the spirit of the times quite as well. Emerging in the late '70s as part of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, the group actually owed more to the glam rock and metal of the early '70s -- their sound was equal parts T. Rex, Mott the Hoople, Queen, and Led Zeppelin. By toning down their heavy riffs and emphasizing melody, Def Leppard were poised for crossover success by 1983's Pyromania, but skillfully used the fledgling MTV network to their advantage. The group was already blessed with photogenic good looks, but they also crafted a series of innovative, exciting videos, which made them into stars. They intended to follow Pyromania quickly but were derailed when their drummer lost an arm in a car accident, the first of many problems that plagued the group's career. Def Leppard managed to pull through such tragedies, and they even expanded their large audience with 1987's blockbuster Hysteria. As the '90s began, mainstream hard rock shifted away from Leppard's signature pop-metal and toward edgier, louder bands, yet the group maintained a sizable audience into the late '90s and were one of only a handful of '80s metal groups to survive the decade more or less intact.

Def Leppard had its origins in a Sheffield-based group Rick Savage (bass) and Pete Willis (guitar) formed in their late teens in 1977. A few months later, vocalist Joe Elliott, a fanatic follower of Mott the Hoople and T. Rex, joined the band, bringing the name Deaf Leopard. After a spelling change, the trio, augmented by a now-forgotten drummer, began playing local Sheffield pubs, and within a year they had added guitarist Steve Clark, as well as a new drummer. Later in 1978, the recorded their debut EP, Getcha Rocks Off, and released it on their own label, Bludgeon Riffola. The EP became a word-of-mouth success, earning airplay on the BBC. The group members were still in their teens.

 

Following the release of Getcha Rocks Off, Rick Allen was added as the band's permanent drummer, and Def Leppard quickly became the subject of the British music weeklies. Soon, they signed with AC/DC's manager, Petter Mensch, who helped them secure a contract with Mercury. On Through the Night, the band's full-length debut, was released in 1980 and instantly became a hit in the U.K., also earning significant airplay in the U.S., where it reached number 51 on the charts. Over the course of the year, Def Leppard relentlessly toured Britain and America, including opening slots for Ozzy Osbourne, Sammy Hagar, and Judas Priest. High 'n' Dry followed in 1981, and it became the group's first platinum album in the U.S., thanks to MTV's strong rotation of "Bringin' on the Heartbreak." MTV would be vital to the band's success in the '80s.

 

As the band recorded the follow-up to High 'n' Dry with producer Mutt Lange, Pete Willis was fired from the band for alcoholism, and Phil Collen, a former guitarist for Girl, was hired to replace him. The resulting album, 1983's Pyromania, became an unexpected blockbuster, due not only to Def Leppard's skillful, melodic metal, but also to MTV's relentless airing of "Photograph" and "Rock of Ages." Pyromania went on to sell ten million copies, establishing Def Leppard as one of the most popular bands in the world. Despite their success, the band was about to enter a trying time for their career. Following an extensive international tour, the group re-entered the studio to record the follow-up, but producer Lange was unavailable, so they began sessions with Jim Steinman, the man responsible for Meat Loaf's Bat out of Hell. The pairing turned out to be ill-advised, so the group turned to its former engineer, Nigel Green. One month into recording, Allen lost his left arm in a New Year's Eve car accident. The arm was reattached, but it had to be amp*tated once an infection set in.

 

Without a drummer, Def Leppard's future looked cloudy, but by the spring of 1985 -- just a few months after his accident -- Allen began learning to play a custom-made electronic kit assembled for him by Simmons. Soon, the band resumed recording, and within a few months Lange was back on board, but once he joined the team, he judged the existing tapes inferior and had the band begin work all over again. The recording continued throughout 1986, and that summer, the group returned to the stage for the European Monsters of Rock tour. Def Leppard finally completed its fourth album, now titled Hysteria, early in 1987, releasing it that spring to lukewarm reviews; many critics felt that the album compromised Leppard's metal roots for sweet pop flourishes. The record was slow out of the starting gates -- "Women," the first single, failed to really take hold. But with the second single, "Animal," Hysteria began to take off. It became the group's first Top 40 hit in the U.K., but more importantly, it began a string of six straight Top 20 hits in the U.S., which also included "Hysteria," "Pour Some Sugar on Me," "Love Bites," "Armageddon It," and "Rocket," the latter of which arrived in 1989, a full two years after the release of Hysteria. During those two years, Def Leppard were unavoidable -- they were the kings of high-school metal, ruling the pop charts and MTV, and teenagers and bands alike replicated their teased hair and ripped jeans, even when the grimy hard rock of Guns N' Roses took hold in 1988.

 

Hysteria proved to be the peak of Leppard's popularity, yet their follow-up remained eagerly awaited in the early '90s as the band set to work on the record. During the recording, Steve Clark died from an overdose of alcohol and drugs. Clark had long had a problem with alcohol, and following the Hysteria heyday, the band forced him to take a sabbatical; he did enter rehab, but to no apparent effect. In fact, his abuse was so crippling that Collen had to play the majority of the guitar leads on Hysteria. Following Clark's death, Def Leppard resolved to finish their forthcoming album as a quartet, releasing Adrenalize in the spring of 1992. Adrenalize was greeted with mixed reviews, and even though the album debuted at number one and contained several hit singles, including "Let's Get Rocked," "Have You Ever Needed Someone So Bad," and "Make Love Like a Man," the record was a commercial disappointment in the wake of Pyromania and Hysteria. After the release of Adrenalize, the group added former Whitesnake guitarist Vivian Campbell.

 

In 1993, Def Leppard released the rarities collection Retro Active, featuring the singles "Two Steps Behind" which made the Top 20 and "Miss You in a Heartbeat," which scraped the lower reaches of the Top 40. Two years later, the group released the greatest-hits collection Vault while preparing their sixth album. Slang arrived in the spring of 1996, and while it was more adventurous than its predecessor, it was greeted with indifference, proving that Leppard's heyday had indeed passed, and they were now simply a very popular cult band. Undaunted, Leppard soldiered on, returning to their patented pop-metal sound for Euphoria, which was released in June of 1999

Edited August 8, 2005 by hitman531ph

[Agent_mulder]

these bands used more hairspray than madonna back then......

[hitman531ph]

I dunno if any one of you were fans of Menudo during their heyday, but you already probably know that Latino singer/actor Robbie Rosa and Latino singer Ricky Martin were once member of this defunct Latino teeny singing quintet.

 

Things really went bad for the group when in 1986, they were caught red-handed smoking pot... The group went pffftt afterward

[kulisap_skip]

it always makes me break into a grin pag nakakarinig ako ng ganitong music....memories come rushing back....hehehehe

[Dr.Love]

I used to be able to get stuff from CD Warehouse in the old greenbelt plaza, not sure if they're still tere though. 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

They're closing na the last time I went there. Too bad yung stocks na naunang napull-out yung pop/rock titles. Dami pa namang glam albums dun.

[malaccastrait]

They're closing na the last time I went there. Too bad yung stocks na naunang napull-out yung pop/rock titles. Dami pa namang glam albums dun.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Yup. Confirmed closed. Though you should try the first stall on the right when you go in frm the Yellow Cab entrance of Makati Cinema Square.

 

Great collection of Concert DVD's of Floyd, Queen and the Doors.

[hitman531ph]

Synth pop's first international superstars, the Human League were among the earliest and most innovative bands to break into the pop mainstream on a wave of synthesizers and electronic rhythms, their marriage of infectious melodies and state-of-the-art technology proving enormously influential on countless acts following in their wake. The group was formed in Sheffield, England, in 1977 by synth players Martyn Ware and Ian Marsh, who'd previously teamed as the duo Dead Daughters; following a brief tenure as the Future, they rechristened themselves the Human League after enlisting vocalist Philip Oakey. The trio soon recorded a demo, and played their first live dates; they soon tapped Adrian Wright as their "Director of Visuals," and his slide shows quickly became a key component of their performances.

Signing with the indie label Fast, in 1978 the Human League issued their first single, "Being Boiled"; a minor underground hit, it was followed by a tour in support of Siouxsie & the Banshees. After a 1979 EP, The Dignity of Labour, the group released its first full-length effort, Reproduction, a dark, dense work influenced largely by Kraftwerk. Travelogue followed the next year and reached the U.K. Top 20; still, internal tensions forced Ware and Marsh to quit the group in late 1980, at which time they formed the British Electronic Foundation. Their departure forced Wright to begin learning to play the synthesizer; at the same time, Oakey recruited bassist Ian Burden as well as a pair of schoolgirls, Susanne Sulley and Joanne Catherall, to handle additional vocal duties.

 

The first single from the revamped Human League, 1981's "Boys and Girls," reached the British Top 50; recorded with producer Martin Rushent, the follow-up "Sound of the Crowd" fell just shy of the Top Ten. Their next single, "Love Action," reached number three, and after adding ex-Rezillo Jo Callis the League issued "Open Your Heart," another hit. Still, their true breakthrough was the classic single "Don't You Want Me," from the album Dare!; both topped their respective charts in England, and went on to become major hits in the U.S. as well. A tour of the States followed, but new music was extremely slow in forthcoming; after a remix disc, Love and Dancing, the Human League finally issued 1983's Fascination! EP, scoring a pair of hits with "Mirror Man" and "(Keep Feeling) Fascination."

 

The much-anticipated full-length Hysteria finally surfaced in mid-1984, heralding a more forceful sound than earlier Human League releases; the record failed to match the massive success of Dare!, however, with the single "The Lebanon" earning insignificant airplay. The group soon went on indefinite hiatus, and Oakey recorded a 1985 solo LP with famed producer Giorgio Moroder titled simply Philip Oakey & Giorgio Moroder. To the surprise of many, the Human League resurfaced in 1986 with Crash, produced by the duo of Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis; the plaintive lead single "Human" soon topped the U.S. charts, and a second single "I Need Your Lovin'" scraped the bottom of the US Top 40. The group failed to capitalize on its comeback success, disappearing from the charts for the remainder of the decade.

 

When the Human League finally returned in 1990 with Romantic?, their chart momentum had again dissipated, and the single "Heart Like a Wheel" barely managed to rise into the Top 40. The record was the band's last with longtime label Virgin; now a trio consisting of Oakey, Sulley, and Catherall, they ultimately signed with the EastWest label, teaming with producer Ian Stanley for 1995's Octopus. The album went largely unnoticed both at home and overseas, with the single "Stay With Me Tonight" issued solely in the U.K. A resurgent interest in synth pop and post-punk during the early 2000s enabled the group's 2001 album Secrets considerable press coverage, which saw the group update its early sound