AOR Blog: Album Oriented Rock

Rainbow, the band formed by legendary Deep Purple guitarist Ritchie Blackmore had a big hit in 1983 with “Street of Dreams”, from the album “Bent Out of Shape”. In the 1970s, Rainbow’s songs were characterized by medieval imagery (“The Man on the Silver Mountain”) and powered by pint-sized vocalist Ronnie James Dio. Tensions between Blackmore and Dio led to Dio jumping ship to go solo in 1979, and Rainbow went in a decidedly more AOR direction. Joe Lynn Turner added his soulful vocal skills to several early-80s albums that were geared to the Mainstream Rock charts before Rainbow disbanded. Hits included “I Surrender”, “Stone Cold”, and “Street of Dreams”, which hit #2 on the Mainstream Rock chart and #60 on the Pop Singles chart.

Not having much success on the charts up to that point, Journey’s management suggested getting a more rock-oriented vocalist to improve the band’s commercial prospects. Exit Robert Fleishman, enter the smooth tenor of Steve Perry. Keyboardist Gregg Rolie was still sharing vocal duties at this point, but Steve was adding his chops as well. Back in the day, you only ever heard the two songs in tandem on rock radio. “Anytime” actually hit #83 on the Pop Singles chart without being paired with “Feeling that Way”. They are meant to be heard together, with Rolie’s vocals on “Feeling that Way” and Perry’s on “Anytime”.

BOC continued their rock resurgence that began in 1981 with 1983′s The Revolution By Night. The band tapped future AOR producer extraordinaire Bruce Fairbairn of Loverboy fame. Take Me Away was a big hit for BOC, climbing up to #11 on the Mainstream Rock Chart. Check out the Apple II gaming in the beginning of the video – I believe he’s playing Star Blazer.

70s prog rockers Kansas amped up the guitars in 1983 with the anthemic “Everybody’s My Friend” from their album Drastic Measures. The song was an ode to the perils of fame, which didn’t sit well with singer John Elefante. The album was the Kansas’ least successful up to that point and led to the break up of the band. “Everybody’s My Friend” hit #34 on the Mainstream Rock chart.