Dan Hartman--I Can Dream About You (1984)

     One of the fun things about the history of modern music is that not everything is always as it seems. Take Dan Hartman for instance. In the late 70s and early 80's he had several top 40 pop hits including this one. However, he got his first break as a bass player for one of the more popular rock acts of the early 1970's.
     Dan and his brother Dave had a high school band called The Legends in their home town of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. At the time Dan played keyboards and wrote much of the material. They actually recorded several songs, but success was not to be found. His first big break professionally was playing for the Johnny Winter Band for a period of time. Johnny's brother Edgar was looking for a bass player and hired Dan to fill that role in 1972. Hartman's first major contribution was on the album, "They Only Come Out At Night". "Free Ride" was the follow up to the monster hit,  "Frankenstein" and came in at #14.
     Hartman went solo in 1976 and had his first success with a dance number called, "Instant Replay". .Although not all of his songs were considered dance numbers, he always seemed to have had good luck on the dance charts. The biggest his of his career was this one, reaching number 5 in 1984. It was first offered to Hall & Oates, but they turned it down since at the time, they normally didn't do covered. They later recorded the song for their 2004 album, "Our Kind of Soul" as a tribute to it's writer who died earlier that year of brain cancer.

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Corey Hart--Sunglasses at Night (1984)

     Am sure it's just me, but I have always had a problem remembering Corey's, especially ones of 1980's vintage. For the life of me, twenty five years on, I still get Corey Hart, Corey Feldman, and Corey Haim confused. You don't have to tell me they are not only different, but Hart is the one who was a successful recording artist (but I had to check to make sure). He also had one of the more distinctive hits of the mid-80's.
     Hart was born in Montreal, but traveled with his parents around the world, living in Spain, Mexico City, and Florida. His parents divorced when Corey was ten, and moved back to Canada with his mother, although would still travel a great deal which led to him singing to Tom Jones in Florida at the age of 11 and also for Paul Anka in Los Vegas shortly thereafter. He continued to sing throughout his teenaged years even representing his home country in Japan in 1980 at the World Popular Song Festival. By 1982, he had signed a contract with Aquarius Records.
     Success came relatively quickly for the young singer although upon it's release, his first album, "First Offense" didn't do well in Canada. It was only after it begin to catch fire in the US, on the strength of, "Sunglasses At Night" that he became a North American superstar. The song eventually reached number seven on the US charts.  Although having eight more top 40 hits through the rest of the decade (including, "Never Surrender" which sold even better than "Sunglasses"), he would always be linked to this song.
     A couple of interesting "what if" notes. He was given consideration to play the role of Marty McFly in the "Back to the Future" movie. Director Steven Spielberg sent him a script and an invitation to do a screen test, but Hart declined wanting to focus more on his music career. He also rejected the idea of recording, "Danger Zone" since he was only interested in singing his own material. He continued to chart regularly in Canada throughout the 90's. Although he has done some recording since 2000, he has spent much of his time in the Bahamas with his wife and family.

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Glenn Frey--The Heat Is On (1984)

     Glenn Frey was having a solid career as a solo artist by 1984. Perhaps not to the level of The Eagles, his previous group, but three top 40 hits gave promise to a brighter future. From his late teens, the Detroit native had been at first been in a succession of local groups,  even singing backing vocals on the Bob Seger System's, "Ramblin' Gamblin' Man" in 1968. Thinking that his future was not going to be in his hometown, he went to California and shortly teamed up with J.D. Souther, a fellow Detroit native and soon formed the group, "Longbranch Pennywhistle". Looking back now, the group looked like a potential who's who of great musicians. Doug Kershaw Ry Cooder, James Burton, Larry Knechtel, and Joe Osbourn.
     The group had no promotion at all, but the connections within the band and in their gigging throughout California would serve Frey well, as he would come into contact with Jackson Browne and Linda Ronstadt. When the band finally folded, Ronstadt contacted him about playing in her backup band to support her nationwide tour in 1971. The band also consisted of Don Henley, Randy Mesiner, and Bernie Leadon. It wasn't long before the four chose to go on their own. It was thought in the music community that Leadon and Mesiner would be the leaders of this group since both had experience with name musicians, however it didn't take long for Henley and Frey to share songwriting duties and take leadership of the band called the Eagles.
     The Eagles is arguably the most popular American band in the 70's. (Fleetwood Mac was 2/5ths American), but as time went on the friction between the members, especially the principal songwriters became too much and they went their separate ways in 1982. Frey's first solo album, "No Fun Allowed" produced two top 40 this, and "The Allnighter" continued the momentum it a song from the movie, "Beverly Hills Cop" to send him into the top 10.
     The song written by Harold Faltermeyer and Keith Forsey, the song was one of five singles off of the soundtrack and contributed to the 80's being considered THE decade for pop hits.

 

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Foreigner--I Want To Know What Love Is (1984)

     I've always thought of Foreigner as a 70's band, and why not. The band's first album was released in 1977 and immediately cracked the top ten with, "Feels Like The First Time"(#4) and "Cold As Ice"(#6) . The next year saw even great success with the release of "Double Vision"(#2)  and "Hot Blooded" (#3). They were one of the few 70's bands that had as great of success with FM fans as with top 40 (although by this time the lines between two were blurring)
     The six piece group,named because three of it's members (Mick Jones, Ian McDonald, Dennis Elliott ) were British, and three were American, (Lou Gramm, Al Greenwood, Ed Gagliardi), were riding high on the charts even as the next decade turned. The album, "Head Games" did well but the singles off of the album didn't do quite as well. The 1981 album, "4" was the first to go number one and the songs, "Urgent" (#4) and "Waiting For a Girl Like You" (#2) brought them back to top 40 prominence. By 1983, it began to look as if the group might be running out of steam. The musical landscape had changed drastically over the previous few years, but the first single from the 1984 album, "Agent Provocateur" changed all of that
      "I Want To Know What Love Is", written by Mick Jones, with assistance by Lou Gramm (exactly how much assistance depends on which artist you ask) and was a distinct turn from anything they had released before. The distinct vocals of Gramm were there, however the musical backing were almost dreamlike with backing by The New Jersey Mass Choir. The change of pace was enough not only to give Foreigner their first top 40 hit in two years, but their first and only #1.
      Although the last top 40 hits were in the late 80's, Foreigner continues to tour and record although Jones is the last remaining original member. In fact, in 2010 the song, "In Pieces" hit #21 on the Adult Contemporary charts. You can find more about them at: http://www.foreigneronline.com/ . Lou Gramm's website is here: http://www.lou-gramm.com/

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