AOR Blog: Album Oriented Rock

The progressive Canadian band Saga managed four rock hits in the 80s, along with some pretty sweet mullets, keytars, and interesting music videos. The band was formed in Ontario in 1971, and featured Michael Sadler on vocals and keyboards, Jim Crichton (guitar, synthesizer), Ian Crichton (guitar), Steve Negus (drums), Jim Gilmour (LEAD synthesizer and vocals). The band’s self-titled debut came out in 1978, but it took them a few years to get their first (and biggest) US hit, “On the Loose”. The song was from the band’s gold-certified fourth album Worlds Apart (1981) which hit #29 on the Billboard 200. “On the Loose” hit #3 on the Mainstream Rock charts, and #26 on the Hot 100:

The second hit from Worlds Apart was “Wind Him Up”, which hit #24 Mainstream Rock and #64 Hot 100:

The band’s follow-up to Worlds Apart was 1983’s Heads or Tails which hit #92 on the Billboard 200. The only single to chart from the album was “The Flyer”, which hit #19 on the Mainstream Rock chart and #79 on the Hot 100:

While still popular in their native Canada, Puerto Rico and Germany, Saga produced just one more US hit.  From their 1985 Behavior album, the decidedly wimpier “What Do I Know?” hit #24 on the Mainstream Rock chart:

Saga continues to make music and has released 14 more albums since Behavior, the most recent being 2009’s The Human Condition. Original vocalist Michael Sadler left the band in 2007, and was replaced by Rob Moratti. The band’s official website is http://www.sagaontour.ca/.

Not necessarily in the AOR genre, but here are a few bad album covers:

Don’t let that rose fool you — you can’t tell by looking at her, but Joyce is really into DeathCore… Click on the thumbs below for larger versions.

Like most people I am shocked by the fact that Michael Jackson has died at the age of 50. Although I really wasn’t a big fan, no one can deny the impact he made on pop music. The success of his massive 1982 album “Thriller” changed the course of music forever, becoming the biggest selling album of time (50 million copies), spawning seven top ten singles (including #1s “Beat It” and “Billie Jean”), and breaking the color barrier on MTV. The album crossed genres, from the funk of “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin”, to the R&B balladry of “Human Nature”, to the rock edge of “Beat it”. Jackson’s talent truly transcended race and musical styles and he will never be forgotten.

Michael Jackson had a few songs cross over to the Mainstream Rock chart, and one that surprisingly did not, even though it was designed to do so.

Beat It – #14 Mainstream Rock

The third single from “Thriller”, “Beat It” hit #14 Mainstream Rock, #1 Pop Singles, and #1 Black Singles in 1983. The track was fueled by a [Read the rest of this entry...]

In 1978, disco was on the rise, and the Bee Gees and Saturday Night Fever were taking over the pop landscape. It was a dark time for rock and roll fans. A bright ray of hope appeared when Van Halen exploded out of Pasadena, California with their self-titled debut album. Van Halen (#19 Pop Albums) is rightly considered a classic, with tracks such as “Runnin’ With the Devil”, “Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love”, “You Really Got Me (their cover of the Kinks song)”, and Eddie Van Halen’s blistering solo work in “Eruption”. It was an album that inspired a generation of guitar players, and continues to inspire to this day.

Van Halen II (#6 Pop Albums), came out the next year and repeated the party-album feel of the debut, though just not quite as well. The band did land its first big hit on the Pop Singles chart, however, as “Dance the Night Away”, climbed to #15.

Van Halen continued to churn out an album every year or so, getting heavier with Women and Children First (1980) and Fair Warning (1981), and loading up on covers for Diver Down (1982) before achieving massive success with 1984 (1984) and its #1 Pop single “Jump”. It was at this point that conflicts between Eddie and lead singer David Lee Roth boiled over and Roth left Van Halen for a solo career. Of course, Van Halen, the band, survived as they recruited Sammy Hagar to take over lead vocals and continued their rock and pop chart success throughout the 80s and 90s.

Call my a VH purist, but I prefer the party-hearty, showman style of the Roth era over the workman-like pop leanings of the Hagar era. I like Sammy’s stuff, just not as much. While Van Halen has had many hits throughout the years, this playlist is not about the hits, [Read the rest of this entry...]