A thread for the worst ballads/power ballads by rawk bands

Starship "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now" 9 May 1987 4

this was bad but I got a horrid feeling the even worse piece of shit we built this city was #1

Cher had a big hit with a certain rock song too in the 80s.

Ha, I really like "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now". I'm not sure I dislike the Airplane/Starship in any period!

Commercial radio had its own singles chart and i think the Chart Show on ITV used it so a lot of the time songs i thought were #1 werent an official #1. (ie the one bbc use)

Spirit have another connection to power ballads - Mark Andes was a member of Heart right through their 80s period.

That's just, like, a chord.

Same notes played in the same succession, at the same tempo, and in the same key on what sounds like the same instrument.

I'd be surprised if it was a wacky coincidence.

Whitesnake - Is It Love? was definitely a hit. I guess UK's hair metal bands did well here but maybe not as well as in north america.

I can't believe anyone would hate "The Flame". It's such a good song! I realized that at least one of the reasons I like Big Star's "For You" is because it has the same "yoooooooou" as "The Flame" (which I heard first when I was in middle school and not-dancing at the teen dance club).

I mean the flame analogy is corny, but parts of the song redeem the ott corny parts. At least I think so.

"The Flame" is better than the competition def.

Considered as the band's comeback album following the commercial failure of the 1986 album The Doctor, Lap of Luxury spawned three top 40 hit singles and one minor hit single. After "The Flame" topped the American Billboard Hot 100, a cover of Elvis Presley's "Don't Be Cruel" peaked at #4. The third single "Ghost Town" continued the commercial success, peaking at #33 whilst the fourth single "Never Had a Lot to Lose" peaked at #75. The album opener "Let Go" also peaked at #32 on the American Billboard Mainstream Rock chart. The success of "The Flame" brought the group out of a years-long commercial slump and back into music industry prominence. It was the band's only number one single in America.[4] It also became the band's first hit on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart, reaching #29 there; "Don't Be Cruel" then hit #32 on the AC chart.

Reportedly, although the band disliked the song at first,[5] Rick Nielsen disliked the song so much on first hearing that he yanked it from the tape player and ground the cassette beneath his boot heel.

In an interview with Gerry Galipault, Cheap Trick drummer Bun E. Carlos stated: "Tom Petersson rejoined in 1988, and then the vice president at Epic Records told us he had these two songs and they're both gonna be #1. He goes, 'We got one for you and one for the group Chicago, but you can have first choice.' He said, 'I think the one 'The Flame' would be good for you guys.' The other one was 'Look Away,' and it sounded like some girl singing on the demo. We really didn't like that song anyway, so 'Sure, we'll do 'The Flame.' We're game.'"[6]

According to lead vocalist Robin Zander, "The band was very skeptical about performing this song live, because we only liked to perform songs written by us. However, a young man from, oh, I don't know, somewhere, confirmed to us after a show in Florida about a week after the song was released that the song was great and, get this, would be a #1 single. As we joked about the guy's prediction, we later realized whoa! This guy was right. I thank him for that."

I'm fond of "Ghost Town."

Oh, I loved "Ghost Town" when I was 10. Should listen again.

If you want a summit of the power ballad masters, listen to this top ten from early '89:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUwF-8R7ckY

anyway my vote for shittiest power ballad goes to corny crap like "when i see you smile" and "love of a lifetime" -- those songs sucked then and now.

generally most power ballads are pretty good!

cowritten by Richard Marx!

TS: "Surrender To Me" vs. "Almost Paradise"

YES

almost paradise

cowritten by Eric Carmen!

oh god richard marx was really big for a while
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_E2EHVxNAE
big hit here

Same notes played in the same succession, at the same tempo, and in the same key on what sounds like the same instrument.

Isn't the instrument a guitar? There isn't really a succession of notes here: they're strumming an Asus2 chord in a similar (but not particularly unusual) rhythm. The similarity doesn't extend very much beyond that first chord. It's totally possible that Cheap Trick or the songwriters heard the Spirit song and were inspired by it. I'm just saying that this is far from any grounds to claim plagiarism (assuming that's what you meant by "rips off").

("Right Here Waiting" was huge in most countries with a lot of white people in them: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_Here_Waiting#Charts_and_sales)

how many of these songs were penned by Diane Warren? so many.

In an era of power ballads, "Right Here Waiting" distinguished itself by its understatement;[according to whom?] the track was arranged by Marx with Jeffery (C.J.) Vanston to feature none of the heavy drums and synth popular at the time, with Marx's vocal accompanied only by classical guitar (by Bruce Gaitsch) and keyboards (by Vanston). It is one of Marx's most frequently covered compositions.

love the first bracketed statement

I'm 80% sure it's a mandocello rather than a guitar -- Nielsen's dad owned a music store which had a number of odd stringed instruments, and he also played a mandocello on, oddly enough, "Mandocello."

I agree that the similarity doesn't extend beyond the intro, but it's like the Elastica/Wire skirmish: it's only a few seconds, but it's the exact same thing (or, alternately, it's the exactly same thing, but it's only a few seconds).

xp

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-nyeiKk35M

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rL9y9CcnEJQ

this shit never did anything here thankfully
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMKPQKU61QI

^^^that styx remix is VILE

a fair handful of these are pretty good imo - "Love Song," "Silent Lucidity," "More Than Words," "To Be With You" - schmaltzy, ok, but still decent tunes

I also rep for that Winger tune, fuck the haters

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHZ79InLGRY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAX20LoVgxE

PfunkGW 2 months ago

Remember when their were white people on mtv?

lolol NOT ME

(ie im not pfunkgw obviously)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmWE9UBFwtY

At least with Elastica/Wire, there's an actual similar melodic gesture. The Spirit/Cheap Trick thing really is a fairly common strumming pattern on one chord.

being someone else from the uk, my only knowledge of cheap trick is knowing big black covered one of their songs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukmobha2krY

If they were both using mandocellos, that would probably point more strongly to a connection/influence but not to plagiarism.

xpost to self

that richard marx song

Three music videos were filmed for the song, although two were deemed "too sexual" in nature, and were shunned and banned by lobbyist before the release ever hit the public's screens.[citation needed] Included in the first banned video was 42 second "softcore" sex scene, involving Marx and the love interest this song refers to.

The second video, was picked at with a fine-toothed comb. Complaints were made about every minor detail, including Marx briefly holding hands with a man, and the backup dancers clothing being "too tight".[citation needed]

After the criticism, Marx's producers denied any creative control to Marx, and ordered that he film a three minute sequence of him playing the piano, and became the music video for "Right Here Waiting".[citation needed]

fuckin' A, White Lion's "When the Children Cry," that right there is the unquestioned heavyweight champ of this shit. So vile. I can get down with "Wait" or "Little Fighter" if I have to but come the fuck on, White Lion

it's also so boring, as soon as i heard it i knew it was going to be huge

never heard it

I've noticed that every video in this thread has this kind of youtube comment

franklin armstrong 4 days ago

I GREW UP IN THE 80S AS A TEENAGER AND ALL THIS KIND OF MUSIC IS NOT HEARD OF TODAY. WHY IS THE QUESTION. I FEEL LOST IN TODAYS WORLD. I WISH THINGS WOULDNT OF EVOLVED TO THIS. ITS SAD.

ok this song is bad

what made party animal hair metal bands get serious cat on ballads? Cant blame live aid as it was years before. What started it?

appealing to the ladies?

i do have a soft spot for some of these 'lick my love pump' slow jams but there's only a couple mentioned thus far that i like. 'love bites' being supreme. other good ones: 'alone again' by dokken, 'don't close your eyes' by kix.

yeah "alone again" is solid and "don't close your eyes" is all-time