The Georgia Satellites--Keep Your Hands To Yourself (1986)

     Rock music is almost always an amalgamation of the influences that come before it. There are those times that something fresh and truly innovative comes along, but for the most part music points as much to it's past as is does to it's future. The key is to put them together in combinations that sound fresh and exciting. There are times however, that a group or a song come along at a time that is totally out of time with the other music that goes on around it, and because of this is never quite as appreciated as it should be. This brings us to the Georgia Satellites.  
     The group was centered on singer Dan Baird, and guitarist Rick Richards, who formed Keith and the Satellites back in 1980 out of Atlanta. The band lasted for a few years when Barid and Richards formed The Georgia Satellites who went into the studio in early 1984 to record a demo. For various reasons the guys in the band decided it wasn't really going anywhere and by mid 84' had broken up.
     Their former manager however, continued to promote the demo in his homeland of Britain. A small label in Yorkshire liked what they heard and released the demo as an EP called, "Keep the Faith". The media response in the UK inspired the group to reform and record an album. That album, "Georgia Satellites" became a huge hit in the US led by the number 2 single, "Keep Your Hands To Yourself"
      If you were a music fan in the mid-80's, you can remember how different this sounded on the radio. Wedged in between the early days of hair metal, 80's dance, and the last vestiges of new wave, it was truly an anomaly. For those who were a bit older, it was easy to identify the Stones-like guitar riffs and the witty lyrics of Baird which showed he had been listening to a bit of Chuck Berry in his day. In the 70's this band would have had a lot greater success, but in the mid/late 80's, they were seen as a novelty and although the next album, "Open All Night", was almost as good as the debut, it didn't fair nearly as well and by the early 90's, the group was soldering on without Baird who had left for a solo career. For at least a short time in 1986 however, The Satellites reminded us about