Yes, I admit it! I used to like Night Ranger! None of that "Sister Christian" shit though!
"Sing Me Away" is from their album "Dawn Patrol" which was released in 1982. Night Ranger was a favorite of the Mr. Pyromaniac as well as Ronin and Thor of the Schoolboys (Bert's coterie from junior high which extended to high school, college and the present day). Except for Mr. Pyromaniac because he is supposedly in jail for arson and/or drugs.
But back to Night Ranger.
I secretly felt embarassed to like this mainstream rock band. They didn't really rock hard enough like Ozzy Osbourne, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden or Motley Crue. They were kind of radio friendly even. They were not liked by the critics or by many who considered them too corporate or too vanilla. Liking a radio friendly band was the kiss of death for any junior high kid wanting to have street cred. Ha.
Night Ranger's guitarist Brad Gillis was best known (by me at least) as the late great guitarist Randy Rhoads' replacement on the "Speak of the Devil" tour (the album was a tribute to Rhoads - the album cover has a memorable photo of Ozzy with his mouth open and blood/jelly spilling out). For those of you who didn't know, Rhoads was a talented classically trained rock guitarist who formerly played lead guitar for Quiet Riot and Ozzy's solo project and album of the same name, Blizzard of Ozz. Sadly, Rhoads was killed in a tragic plane crash in 1982. I have his yellowed obituary somewhere in my boxes of stuff in my garage. But I digres... Brad Gillis was hired to sling his axe for Ozzy and his band for this tour and there you have it, the Night Ranger and Ozzy connection.
According to Wikipedia's entry on Night Ranger:
"Dawn Patrol's first single, "Don't Tell Me You Love Me", received a boost through its MTV video airplay and peaked modestly at #40 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. "Sing Me Away," a concert favourite sung by Keagy [my notes: Keagy was the drummer who shared lead vocalist duties with guitarist Jack Blades, who later was part of the group, Damn Yankees], failed to chart even though it also featured on MTV."
I totally remember this song with fond memories. It was one of my favorite songs on "Dawn Patrol". The first three singleswere pretty good, "Don't Tell Me You Love Me", "At Night She Sleeps" and this song. The rest were pretty forgettable.
"Sing Me Away" is one of those harmless rock ballads that you raise your arms in the air and flick your bic...so click on that video and open your cell phones (the modern equivalent to flicking your bic I suppose) and sway like there's no tomorrow!
Runner ups:
New Order - Thieves Like Us"(instrumental)- One of their most gorgeous songs; featured in "Pretty in Pink"
Gary Numan - Cars This was suggested by Kirk. Poor Gary Numan. Is he known for anything else besides this song?
New Edition - Cool It Now Because you HAVE TO HAVE your OLD SCHOOL! Loved Ralph Tresvant's voice before it changed! See Bell Biv Devoe before they became Bell Biv Devoe! See Bobby Brown before he became a drug using wife beater! Plus you get to see the Afro version of the mullet in this video!
Nina Simone - Just in Time From one of the most romantic movie sequels ever, this song is featured in the last moments of Richard Linklater's sequel to "Before Sunrise", which was "Before Sunset"...By the way, the link to the video is in Spanish. Oops.
No Doubt - Don't Speak The keyboard intro of this song was inspired by Aerosmith's classic "Dream On"...OMG, Gwen Stefani is a total babe. I would go lesbo for her.
Nu Shooz (just kidding - they sucked ballz)
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6 comments:
Hey CC - When I was in a band, I used to have to sing "Goodbye"... for some reason, I still kinda like the song today.
Hi Kirk - actually "Goodbye" is pretty good too!
so what was your band called? did you perform in public?
OMG CC, You are bringing back flashbacks girl.....lol...cars was the worst song on that - Gary Numan album...what about Nena and her 99 Luft balloons? and by the way....I tremble and bow at the sight of your pop culture prowess...
hi michael - cars was kirk's suggestion. i actually hated that song but for nostalgia's sake, i did consider it.
omfg, how could i forget nena???? did you know there's a version of her video where you can see her hairy armpits? well, she's german. 'nuff said. ha ha. everytime the video would play on mtv, my friends and i would crack up when she raised her arms.
and thank you for the high praise. i can say the same for yhou as well.
Hi CC - We sucked..... did play a couple of Battle of the Bands kinda thing. We did, but probably shouldn't have performed in public!
i too was in a band. a garage band. in high school.
i played the synths. sucked.
the leader was the drummer, a neil peart (rush) fanatic and perfectionist.
they were better off without me~!
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