1981

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In the late summer of 1981, San Francisco rock quintet Journey would release their eighth album, Escape, their fifth with lead singer Steve Perry. It was the album that would make the band, which had been a popular live act and staples on album rock radio throughout the '70s, and make them mainstream superstars, scoring numerous pop hits, in the '80s.

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The Southern California band Pablo Cruise epitomized the laid-back, soft pop of the mid- to late-'70s typified by acts like Player, Firefall and Ambrosia. Like those bands, Pablo Cruise included members who had a long list of credits, including former members of the bands Stoneground and It's A Beautiful Day.

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Producer and composer Jim Steinman first crossed paths with singer Marvin Lee Aday, better known as Meat Loaf, when the latter was in the cast of an off-Broadway musical penned by the former. Several years later, the two formed a creative team as Steinman wrote and produced Meat Loaf's phenomenally successful Bat Out Of Hell debut/ Released in 1978, that album spawned a trio of US Top 40 singles and was one of the best-selling albums of the '70s.

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Although he hailed from Baltimore, singer/songwriter Greg Kihn found his way to San Francisco in the mid-70s, becoming a part of that city's rich pop music history. Strongly influenced by '60s guitar pop, Kihn became a successful local act during the late '70s with his band, embraced by fans for his straight-forward style of power pop.

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Scottish singer/songwriter Ali Thomson came from a family familiar with music stardom as older brother Doug was the bassist for the band Supertramp. At the height of that band's popularity, following their smash album Breakfast In America, Thomson secured a record deal with A&M Records, Supertramp's label.

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Comprised of veteran players, both American and British from several rock bands of the early '70s like Spooky Tooth , Foreigner not only became one of the success stories of the late '70s, but, rightly or wrongly, helped the term "corporate rock" enter the lexicon of music fans. Their first two albums produced a string of Top Ten singles, but their third album, 1979's Head Games, failed to generate the same commercial success.

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In 1981, Phil Collins successfully launched a solo career parallel to his role as the lead singer of Genesis. Face Value saw him actually surpass the commercial fortunes of the band with the album reaching the Top Ten and it's first single, the horn-driven "I Missed Again," climbing to #19.

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Few acts in the history of pop music have been as beloved and as reviled as the brother and sister duo of Richard and Karen Carpenter. There was no denying the success of The Carpenters, who initially scored their first major hit in 1970 when they topped the charts with "(They Long To Be) Close To You." During the next six years, the pair would sell millions of albums and place fifteen songs into the US Top 40, including eleven Top Ten hits.

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The Pointer Sisters had kicked their career into high gear with their 1979 cover of Bruce Springsteen's "Fire" and continued their hitmaking ways with "He's So Shy" a year later. Where their success in the early '70s was greatest on R&B radio, their change in fortune coincided with their union with pop producer Richard Perry and their new found pop audience.

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Though they had come to fame in the US as part of the British Invasion that swept onto the music charts and radio of the mid-'60s, for the latter half of the '70s, The Moody Blues had seen their audience decline, especially in the wake of disco and punk. When the released their 1981 album, Long Distance Voyager, they had only had one minor hit - "Steppin' In A Slide Zone" which hit #39 in 1978 - in the previous eight years.

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Hard-rock guitarist Billy Squier seemed to be an overnight success story with his 1981 breakthrough album Don't Say No, but he had actually spent nearly a decade struggling as a musician. He had been a member of the Boston-based band Piper during the mid-'70s, who had released a pair of albums on Capitol Records to relatively little interest. When Piper broke up, Squier opted for a solo career, issuing Tale Of The Tape in 1980 with minimal success.

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Theme songs had long been a way for an unknown (or relative unknown) to make their way onto radio and the pop charts. The exposure from an appearance in a movie or a television show allowed for a catchy song to piggyback on the success, often providing singers and bands with their one moment of fame. Such a case was singer Joey Scarbury when he recorded "Believe It Or Not," the theme from '80s television show The Greatest American Hero starring William Katt (perhaps better known as Sissy Spacek's prom date in the movie Carrie).

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Born in Cincinnati, singer Marty Balin is best known for his work with the band Jefferson Airplane, which he co-founded with Paul Kanter in 1965. Although he quit the band six years later, Balin rejoined the rechristened Jefferson Starship in 1975 to sing lead on the new incarnation's #3 smash "Miracles."

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With their 1980 breakthrough album Lost In Love, Australia's Air Supply established themselves as the most successful purveyors of romantic, soft rock of the decade. That album managed to place three songs - "All Out Of Love, "Every Woman In The World," and the title song - into the US Top Ten. When the followup was issued in 1981, the group continued to build on the momentum.

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