- Milli Vanilli - Girl You Know It's True (lip synced or not it was a catchy song)
- The Archies - Jingle Jangle (so what if it's by a "fake band" based off a cheesy comic book, the song is infectiously catchy)
- Air Supply - Making Love Out of Nothing At All (their music is largely cavity inducing, but this song is anthemic)
- Jim Steinman (his songs have been performed by Air Supply, Meat Loaf, Bonnie Tyler, and heck even Barbra Streisand. All of his songs are rather bombastic and over-the-top and I love just about every one of them)
- Queen - Fat Bottomed Girls (Queen really isn't a "guilty" pleasure, but Fat Bottomed Girls is a far cry from Bohemian Rhapsody or Under Pressure)
- Chicago Hot Streets - Chicago is one of the top-selling American bands, liking them isn't really a guilty pleasure. But this album with some serious disco influences from the late 70s is certainly not the pinnacle of the band's creative energies... But I still can't get enough of songs like Alive Again and No Tell Lover.
- Dream Theater - When Dream and Day Unite - Their debut album with former lead singer Charlie Domenici. Many find Domenici to be a bit "unlistenable" but I quite enjoy his vocals.
- Syd Barrett - Syd's material tempered by his bandmates in Pink Floyd was strange enough. Without the rest of Pink Floyd to tame his eccentricities you get songs like Birdie Hop that are truly bizarre.
- Def Leppard - I've continued listening to these guys long after many others have stopped. And I don't just mean their classics, I listen to their new stuff too.
- Survivor - Eye of the Tiger, Burning Heart, The Search Is Over... I can't get enough of these blokes.
- REO Speedwagon - do I really have to explain?
- Matthew Wilder - Break My Stride - A one hit wonder and I'm still listening 25 years later.
- Joey Scarbury - Believe It Or Not a TV theme song that was far more popular than the show it was the theme to (The Greatest American Hero), over 25 years later and I still dig it.
- Toto - I don't really feel guilty about loving this band, they're solid musicians and play some great music. They just are generally forgotten here in their home country.
- John Farnham-era Little River Band - While I prefer John Farnham solo over his time with LRB and I prefer LRB with Glenn Shorrock over LRB with John Farnham I do still enjoy this brief anomaly in LRB's history.
- Fergie Frederiksen - This guy is almost a musical footnote and not much else. He was the lead singer for a band called LeRoux for 1 album (So Fired Up, they scored a minor hit with the song Carrie's Gone), replacing their original lead singer-- Jeff Pollard... only to leave LeRoux to join Toto for one album. He has a tweeter-frying stratospheric tenor voice and tremendous range.
- Peter Cetera - Chicago's former frontman. Most of what he sings is saccharine love drivel but man his voice... His voice is so distinct and really sets him apart from other singers. I'm not crazy about what he chooses to sing but I still love the way he sings it!
- Michael Jackson - Thriller (Michael is bat guano crazy, but in his day he sure knew how to craft one killer pop album... there's not a bad song on this album!)
- Saturday Night Fever soundtrack - I was still in diapers when this movie and soundtrack came out but with 5 older siblings it's indelibly stamped in my memory
- England Dan & John Ford Coley - These guys really made some great cheezy schmaltz in the tradition of bands like Firefall but there was/is something quite catchy about songs like Nights Are Forever Without You and I'd Really Love To See You Tonight that I can't help but like.
Monday, January 21, 2008
Top 20 Musical Guilty Pleasures
This post might be more appropriate for my other blog. But I figured I'd share it here as well. The guys over at Rock Revival challenged their readers to list their Top 20 "Guilty Pleasures." I decided to bite:
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7 comments:
That's an interesting list. I once saw Milli Vanilli "in concert". They sucked;)
I would have never guess you to be an Air Supply fan. Interesting that. You're tastes are very varied.
Air Supply reminds me of high school big time. I also recall enjoying an album I had by GTR, as well as one by Poison. Ahhhh, hair bands. They will always remind me of my youth.
Art: For some reason, I'm not at all surprised by that.
dantallion: I can be a bit of a softie sometimes. Before I got into prog and classic rock, I was a soft-rock fan. A lot of soft rock reminds me of my youth/childhood as a result. SHHH, don't tell, but I even had a Richard Marx phase.
Susan: GTR were more of a Supergroup than a hair band. They had Yes guitarist, Steve Howe, and Genesis guitarist, Steve Hackett. Not to mention they were produced by Geoff Downes-- the Keyboardist in Asia and The Buggles (and briefly, Yes).
I never got much into Poison, for hair metal I was more a Def Leppard and Guns 'n' Roses kinda guy. Although, now I have a medley of Poison songs stuck in my head!
We have a lot of similar musical tastes. I cracked up about Break my Stride. I had forgotten that song. I never did know who had sung it until reading this.
I already knew about your Richard Marx thing. But I still like you anyway. ;)
One point I didn't make in my comment on your cross-post ... even though I can't stand Michael Jackson, England Dan/Coley, I do recognize that they were damn good pop artists!
-- david
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