CLASSIC ROCK TRACKS POLL parking lot tailgate pre-party -- nominations, discussions, parameters, etc.

David Robinson is surely the least appreciated Car, though, because he's the only one whose name I had to look up.

I'm willing to hear out possible post-1986 nominations (although i appreciate them being noted as such when brought up). i think of "Midnight Blue" as kind of an adult contempo track, but it does seem fortuitous that it was released in January of 1987 and "Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic calls the song the 'last great single of the album-rock era.'"

My classic rock stations were NY's WNEW, 102.7 FM and WXRK, 92.3 K-ROCK.

For your consideration:
Bruce Springsteen - The Promised Land
Rolling Stones - Can't You Hear Me Knocking
Led Zeppelin - Ten Years Gone
The Band - The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down
John Mellencamp - Lonely Ol' Night

imo the most played post-86 classic rock jam is Tom Petty's "Free Fallin'" Don't know if it belongs on the poll, but feel like it's a staple

Opening it up to 1987 would make Appetite For Destruction eligible. That's classic rock by now, isn't it?

yeah but we're going off what WAS classic rock back in the day, not what is being played as classic rock now

OK. But back in the day, anyone foolish enough to suggest Toto was classic rock would have gotten a well deserved beatdown.

What about Lenny Kravitz???

Jeff and I were just discussing G-n-f'n-R and they were definitely embraced by the classic rock stations and listening audience.

Toto definitely not.

What about Lenny Kravitz???

This poll just got Kravitzed.

David Robinson is surely the least appreciated Car, though, because he's the only one whose name I had to look up.

― Johnny Fever, Tuesday, June 17, 2014 4:09 PM

HE WAS IN THE MODERN LOVERS, YOU SAVAGE

(just kidding, JF, u r awesome)

I never knew that!

About Robinson, I mean. I knew I was awesome.

did "Baker Street" get mentioned? G. Rafferty needs his spot in the canon (see also, "Stuck in the Middle w/You")

yes on Baker Street, the constant soundtrack to my 7th grade beach vacation of 1978

yeah definitely should be in the mix

and -- arguably -- "Right Down the Line"

No no no on GNR, wtf

Aldo Nova -- Fantasy
Loverboy -- Turn Me Loose
Loverboy -- Lovin' Every Minute of It

Glad to see Donnie Iris has been nominated, saves me the trouble.

i said i might budge on the '87 thing, but not for GNR.

I understand the hesitation regarding Toto, but "hold the line" is undeniable fm gold

please no lenny kravitz

If we're including Styx up to Paradise Theatre (I see "Too Much Time on My Hands" on the list) then clearly

Styx -- Rockin' the Paradise

^^^ xp no lenny

Lenny's debut album was in late '89, so you're all safe

imo the most played post-86 classic rock jam is Tom Petty's "Free Fallin'" Don't know if it belongs on the poll, but feel like it's a staple

if we're going there, i'd add "i won't back down" and "runnin' down a dream" and maybe a couple more. but that opens a can of worms ("where the streets have no name," cough cough), doesn't it?

Re Lenny -- the fact that LK's career was (at least at first) a deliberate "classic rock" pastiche would in my opinion disqualify it even if it had been released in 1986. By the same logic, I don't really think we should consider B Joel's "It's Still Rock and Roll To Me" or B Seger's "Old Time-uh Rock and Roll" but I can't deny that these sour little eructations were actually played a lot on classic rock stations, so I just implore people not to vote for them.

I know 1989 is totally pushing it, and this song was already casually mentioned upthread, but I'll throw it out there as an official nomination since the door (floodgate?) has been opened:

Neil Young - Rockin' in the Free World

No "Free Fallin." Not classic rock in the same sense as "American Girl." Huge hit of course but already heard in the spirit of "old guy who's still around" and we should no more include it than we should include "Kokomo" or "Touch of Gray."

No "Free Fallin." Not classic rock in the same sense as "American Girl." Huge hit of course but already heard in the spirit of "old guy who's still around"

that's crazy talk.

i guess my issue is that there's not really much of anything post-86 that you could nominate here that isn't also played by a lot of "new rock" stations that put Joshua Tree/Appetite For Destruction/Full Moon Fever hits alongside the latest Foo Fighters or whatever.

imo the most played post-86 classic rock jam is Tom Petty's "Free Fallin'" Don't know if it belongs on the poll, but feel like it's a staple

if we're going there, i'd add "i won't back down" and "runnin' down a dream" and maybe a couple more. but that opens a can of worms ("where the streets have no name," cough cough), doesn't it?

― fact checking cuz, T

and "Jammin' Me" actually hit #1 AOR.

I still stand by my "if the band ever had a video played on 120 Minutes, then they aren't the kind of 'classic rock' we're considering" rule.

If we're including Styx up to Paradise Theatre (I see "Too Much Time on My Hands" on the list) then clearly

Styx -- Rockin' the Paradise

― Guayaquil (eephus!), Tuesday, June 17, 2014 9:40 PM (15 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I didn't know if this was another Chicago-specific heavy-rotation dealie, but yeah, this should probably be included.

Man, Chicago radio really liked to show its hometown pride for some shitty bands.

yeah...one pre-87 song that on a lot of CR airplay lists i found that just felt too 'generation X' to me was Simple Minds' "Don't You (Forget About Me)."

there are Talking Heads/Cars/Clash songs that are just too ubiquitous to leave out, though.

Well Billy Idol was originally asked to record that song....

haha well played

i wouldn't be averse to taking Idol, out, honestly, his stuff feels slightly less AOR to me than Combat Rock-era Clash or whatever.

yeah...one pre-87 song that on a lot of CR airplay lists i found that just felt too 'generation X' to me was Simple Minds' "Don't You (Forget About Me)."

an addendum to johnny fever's "120 minutes" rule: if john hughes used it, it's probably not classic rock.

Idol should definitely be in. I'd actually add "Hot in the City," which is the first Idol song that got heavy rotation on my local AOR station.

Idol may have been played on on AOR at the time, as well as Top 40, but he seemed to be at the front of a style rather than at the back end of one (which is where a lot of the 80s material on the poll will be focused).

I won't poo poo anyone's votes for Idol. It's your ballot! He just won't be on mine.

where do the sweet fit into this? "ballroom blitz"? "fox on the run"?

what about the stray cats? too overtly retro for the poll?

I think I'll put "Ballroom Blitz" on the list. my local station plays it pretty regularly.

I don't feel like the 2 or 3 Stray Cats hits survived as recurrents in radioland, i only know them from VH1 Classic and retrospectives of what videos were on early MTV.

"Rock This Town" belongs in this poll, I'm not sure about any other Stray Cats songs.

o shit yeah, "ballroom blitz" is must

"pictures of matchstick men"?

i tend to agree abt drawing the line not only @ 1987, but also @ most punk/postpunk/new wave stuff, 120 minutes buzzbin candidates, alt canon artistes, etc.

that said, you did include a number of cars hits in you OP, sd. and the only cars track i remember getting AOR classix airplay back in the day was "moving in stereo" (which sounded appropriate next to the likes of "tom sawyer" & "burning for you").

on my current hometown classic rock station, klos, the cars are in heavy heavy rotation, right up there with boston, van halen, the eagles and the red hot chili peppers. sometimes i wonder if boston and los angeles are the only two american cities klos is aware of.

yeah Cars are basically as classic rock as Tom Petty when you get down to it

i honestly figure if you can't reasonably imagine some long-haired, aviator-shaded freedom rock burnout sneaking parking lot tokes in the band's t-shirt outside a foghat show c. 1980, then it probably doesn't belong. but then again, it ain't my poll...

I think classic rock as we know it ended the day Nevermind came out. On a completely unrelated note, I'm glad nobody is nominating acts like Big Star, Gram Parsons or Gene Clark, who, great as they are, were never on the radio, and hence cannot be classic rock.

yeah in earlier planning stages i thought of 90/91 as the cutoff point instead of 86/87. so many classic rock stations outright playing Nevermind and Achtung Baby singles now, though. Kenny Wayne Shepherd's "Blue On Black" now shows up in the top 500 airplay stats for the format, and that's from 1997!