AOR Blog: Album Oriented Rock

Heart began as one of the few female-fronted hard rocking bands of the 1970s, and they had a lot of success on FM radio with such singles as “Barracuda”, “Magic Man”, and “Crazy on You”. Lead singer Ann Wilson’s powerful wail was similar to that of Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant, her idol.

In the early 80s, declining success led Heart to reconsider their sound and they opted for a more commercial, slick sound that emphasized keyboards. This approach led to their #1 self-titled album in 1985 featuring “What About Love”, “These Dreams”, and “Never”. In 1983, however, the transition from rockers to pop stars was still in progress as shown on the album “Passionworks”, produced by Keith Olsen (Starship, Bad Company, Whitesnake). The album did not fare well, only hitting #39, but it did produce a great AOR track, “How Can I Refuse (lyrics)”, which hit #1 on the Mainstream Rock chart (their final hit on this chart) and #44 on the Pop Singles chart.

Dutch rockers Golden Earring were first seen on the American charts in 1974, with the classic song Radar Love (later covered by White Lion). In 1983, they released their album Cut, and scored a major hit with “Twilight Zone” — Mainstream Rock #1 and Pop Singles #10. It’s an entertaining video for a great song. No other songs from the the album charted and Golden Earring was never heard from again, at least not in the U.S.

This hard-driving track was Canadian band Loverboy’s debut on the charts in 1980. Keyboards, headbands and red leather pants – the essence of Loverboy. Turn Me Loose hit #6 on the Mainstream Rock chart and climbed to #35 on the Pop Singles chart.

Country singer Juice Newton (“Queen of Hearts”, “Angel of the Morning”) made a bold overture to AOR radio in 1984 with this single, co-penned by Bryan Adams and Jim Vallance. “Can’t Wait All Night” didn’t hit on the Mainstream Rock charts, but it did climb to #66 on the Billboard Hot 100.