So my formative years listening to music were definitely the late 70s until roughly the mid 80s. For every dose of the classic artists of the period there were other bands that had great songs but either remained cult favorites, were one hit wonders, or never had a sustained career. With this post I wanted to highlight 25 songs and artists that you may have forgotten about that occasionally make the odd appearance on classic rock radio today (listed in alphabetical order).
- Angel City, “Fashion & Fame”
- April Wine, “All Over Town”
- Axe, “Rock And Roll Party In The Streets”
- Billy Thorpe, “Children Of The Sun”
- Box Of Frogs, “Back Where I Started”
- Donnie Iris, “Ah Leah”
- Frank Marino, “Strange Dreams”
- Gary Myrick, “Party”
- Greg Kihn, “The Breakup Song”
- John Hall Band, “Crazy”
- The Kings, “This Beat Goes On/Switchin’ To Glide”
- Martin Briley, “The Salt In My Tears”
- Orion The Hunter, “So You Ran”
- Phantom, Rocker, & Slick, “Men Without Shame”
- Planet P, “Why Me?”
- The Plimsouls, “A Million Miles Away”
- The Producers, “What’s He Got?”
- Red Rider, “Lunatic Fringe”
- Robert Hazard, “Escalator Of Life”
- Schon & Hammer, “Lies”
- The Sherbs, “No Turning Back”
- Sniff N The Tears, “Driver’s Seat”
- Tarney Spencer Band, “No Time To Lose”
- Taxxi, “I’m Leaving”
- 707- “I Could Be Good For You”
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What’s your favorite 5 on there? I’m going with The Kings, Sniff ‘n the Tears, Red Rider, Greg Kihn, and Axe, though I do love all of those songs! They don’t write them like that anymore!
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Oh man… Five is tough but I’ll go Donnie Iris, Frank Marino, Tarney Spencer Band, The Kings, and Schon & Hammer
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Funny that Marino doesn’t even lay down a solo on Strange Dreams. Made me think of Ritchie toning it down in Rainbow. Great song that would’ve been better if he pulled a bit of guitar god!
When I hear No Time to Lose I always think its a lost Alan Parsons song!
Jan Hammer has to win the prize as the most unlikely rock star. Not only does he walk around rocking with his keyboard strapped on, he looks like somebody’s dad, Not to mention the thing I remember most about the video is Schon’s extremely short upper body, haha!
I actually think Driver’s Seat is one of the greatest songs ever. Maybe it’s the casual cool vocal, the out of the blue sweet guitar solo, or the cool keyboard blips, but I think more than anything it’s the relentless drive from the drummer that makes it feel like you’re cruising in a car down a lonesome highway “on a Saturday night”.
Sorry, not a big fan of “Ah Leah”. It’s a good song, but the chorus and that bizarre bridge annoys me for some reason. My favorite thing about that song is the Geezer Butler cameo on bass. 🙂
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Driver’s Seat is probably number six on the list. Would have loved to have done that one too. Really good description because it definitely has that “late night driving” feel. I play that one frequently.
Not an “Ah Leah” fan, eh? I get it, although I love the crazy, mesmerizing vocal part because he’s got a ridiculous falsetto going through most of it. One of those “I wish I could sing” songs that I couldn’t even come close to.
And Neil! Ha ha! I remember that. Funny that I don’t think I heard that song on the radio. Definitely on MTV. Just a killer fat riff and some great guitar work.
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