Lita Ford--Kiss Me Deadly/Close My Eyes Forever (1988)

     When The Runaways broke up in the early 1979, the focus went to the careers of Cherie Currie and then a couple of years later to Joan Jett as both went solo. Lead guitarist Lita Ford took some time to continue working on her singing skills and released her first solo album, "Out For Blood" in 1983 and a follow up, "Dancin' On The Edge". Neither made the kind of impact that Ford had hoped for, so she went to work with Tony Iommi as producer on her next album. Both were pleased with the result, but for some reason that has still to be explained, the album was never released. This led Ford to make a change that would have a huge impact on her career.
     She signed a contract with RCA Records, and hired Sharon Osbourne Management to help rebuild her career. Osbourne had gained a lot of respect in the industry for her no nonsense, take no prisoners approach having rebuild her husband Ozzy's career. Ford began to streamline her hard rock approach that melded with the pop/metal that was being heard on the radio. This coupled with her decision to produce her own album resulted in "Lita" which gave her the two biggest hits of her career.
     "Kiss Me Deadly" was released in 1988 and reached #12 on the charts. Early in 89', "Close My Eyes Forever", a duet with Ozzy Osbourne hit #8. She has released four albums since then, the most recent being "Living Like a Runaway" in 2012. You can find out more by going to:  http://www.litafordonline.com/

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Black Sabbath--Iron Man (1972)

     Over the years there has been a lot of misconceptions about Black Sabbath, most of them false. They did not invent what is known as "heavy metal", but they took a form already there, and popularized it beyond anyone's imaginings. That is usually the way it goes in music, someone develops the style, and one person or group brings it to the public in a form that makes it easy to say they "invented" it.
     Nor are they an "occult" band. They would take occult themes at times and put them into the music, but they actually were aiming for the aural equivalent of a horror movie, and in fact has dealt with many social issues through that filter.  The band was named Earth early on, until they ran across a band with the same name. In looking for a new name, they came across a theater next to where they were doing a gig. The movie playing at the time was Boris Karloff's 1963 film, "Black Sabbath".
     Something that you might not know was that just before this name change, guitarist Tony Iommi had left the band to join Jethro Tull. It was a short lived affair however, as Iommi wasn't much for Ian Anderson's dictatorial style in leading a band. He rejoined his old band, and they put out their debut album in 1970. The album, "Paranoid" came later that year, which produced their only two songs on the top 100 and has been hailed since as one of the greatest heavy metal albums of all time.
     "Iron Man" has been closely associated with the comic of the same name, but has nothing to do with it, although the song has been used in the movie series. The song and the album that launched it propelled Black Sabbath into the forefront of their newly found genre. The success of the group has never really waned in the UK, and still have a rabid following stateside As of November of this year, lead singer Ozzy Osbourne has rejoined the group with the idea of recording again.

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