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AMERICAN FOOL John Cougar Released: April 1982 9 weeks at Number One 44 weeks in Top Forty Hit singles: "Jack & Diane" (#1) "Hurts So Good"(#2) "Hand to Hold On To" (#19) Before John Cougar tagged his real name, Mellencamp, onto the stage name Cougar, he had the best-selling LP of 1982 in American Fool. The selfmocking title was nothing new, Cougars previous album was titled Nothin' Matters and What If It Did. But American Fool signaled a change in Cougar's fortune and outlook. "Jack & Diane", a plain-spoken tale of boredom, romance and survival in America, joined another song from the album, "Hurts So Good" in the Top Ten, and then won the Number One spot. Its chorus - "Oh yeah, life goes on/Long after the thrill of living is gone" - was more a celebration of endurance than an admission of defeat. Cougars succes led to a memorable string of albums during the Eighties, including the fine examples Uh-Huh and Scarecrow, from a man who now called himself John Cougar Mellencamp.
#17 
ASIA
Asia
Released:
March 1982
9
weeks at Number One
35
weeks in Top Forty
Hit
singles:
"Heat
of the Moment" (#4)
"Only
Time Will Tell" (#17)
Asia was the first supergroup of the Eighties. Guitarist Steve Howe
had come from Yes, keyboardist Carl Palmer had been a cornerstone of Emerson,
Lake and Palmer, and singer-bassisty John Wetton had belonged to King Crimson,
Uriah Heep and Roxy Music. Despite its roots in some of the Seventies biggest
progressive-rock bands, Asia took of in a decidedle poppy direction. The
results on the band's debut album, Asia, delighted radio dj's and
puzzled the musicians old fans and critics. "The disturbing thing about
Asia is the sound of talented players rolling over and playing dead for
the sake of airplay," David Fricke wrote in his Rolling Stone Review. Still,
Asia's marriage of progressive rock and pop simplicity was made in mainstream
heaven, and these four stranges to the charts suddenly found themelvees
with a Top Ten ("Heat of the Moment") and a Number One album.
#18 
TATTOO YOU Rolling Stones Released: August 1981 9 weeks at Number One 30 weeks in Top Forty Hit singles: "Start Me Up" (#2) "Waiting on a Friend" (#13 "Hang Fire" (#20) Although Tattoo You was greeted as the finest album the Rolling Stones had made in years, it was scraped together out of outtakes and unfinished songs from earlier LP's, including Goats Head Soup and Emotional Rescue. The classic Stones rocker "Start Me Up" had been recorded forty or so times as a reggae number during the Some Girls sessions, but while making Tattoo You, the group went back to the one version done in a rock tempo. The secret to the LP´s success, according to Keith Richards, was planning: "On this album, we took longer. We started to think about it soon after the last one came out, and we choe the songs a lot more carefully." The result is a mature collection of songs that combine well, despite their different vintage. #19 
SLIPPERY
WHEN WET
Bon
Jovi
Released:
August 1986
8
weeks at Number One
40
weeks in Top Forty
Hit
singles:
"You
Give Love a Bad Name" (#1)
"Livin'
on a Prayer" (#1)
"Wanted
Dead or Alive" (#7)
Slippery When Wet turned the trick for Bon Jovi. The Jersey rockers had earned a gold album with 7800 Fahrenheit, but they wanted more: platinum albums, a bigger audience, the opportunity to headline. Slippery When Wet succeeded beyond their wildest dreams, selling over 8 million copies and generating Number One hits in "You Give Love A Bad Name" and "Livin' on a Prayer" - a real breakthrough for a hard-rock band. Bon Jovi's strategy for world conquest centered on drawing female fans into the fold, which meant playing up their good looks, writing more relationship-oriented lyrics and tightening up the music. At the same time, they didn't want to make it too light and lose their male fans. The result, on Slippery When Wet, was a pop-metal hybrid that appealed to both sexes. The band members were, in one writer´s words, "masters of melodic, welterweight, metal-edged rock." And still singer Jon Bon Jovi wasn't satisfied. "I want a bigger record," he told Rolling Stone. "I want to do more shows. I want to be able to buy two houses instead of one." #20 
DOUBLE FANTASY John Lennon and Yoko Ono Released: November 1980 8 weeks at Number One 27 weeks in Top Forty Hit singles: "(Just Like) Starting Over" (#1) "Woman" (#2) "Watching the Wheels" (#10) Double Fantasy was only a few weeks old when John Lennon was gunned down on the evening of December 8th, 1980. The terrible irony was that Lennon had just emerged from a selfproclaimed retirement from the music business, and appeared ready to reengage the world with his music. Lennon had roused himself from creative exile while on vacation in Bermuda when he heard the B-52's song "Rock Lobster" at a night club. "It sounds just like Ono´s music," he said, "so I said to meself, 'It's time to get out the old axe and wake the wife up!'" Working at the Hit Factory in New York, John and Yoko recorded enough material for two albums in sessions that streched into late 1980. Double Fantasy was the first album in eight years jointly credited to John and Yoko. "If theu didn't want the two of us," Lennon said at the time, "we weren't interested." He expressed that same detachment in "Watching the Wheels". Despite his indifference to pop success, the LP immediately took off, going gold (500.000 copies sold) in the two weeks between its release and Lennons murder. "Throughout my career, I've selected to work with only two people: Paul McCartney and Yoko Ono," Lennon told Rolling Stone only days before his murder. "That ain't bad picking." Sources: Billlboard OnLine, various issues of Rolling Stone, Q, Vox, Mojo, NME, LIFE and TIME, the Rolling Stone Record Guide, Verdensrock. Images used for promotional use on this site only. Not for copying, modification or reuse |
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