OK. But back in the day, anyone foolish enough to suggest Toto was classic rock would have gotten a well deserved beatdown.
― kornrulez6969, Tuesday, 17 June 2014 23:47 (ten years ago) link
What about Lenny Kravitz???
― Jeff, Tuesday, 17 June 2014 23:50 (ten years ago) link
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.
― carl agatha, Tuesday, 17 June 2014 23:50 (ten years ago) link
This poll just got Kravitzed.
― carl agatha, Tuesday, 17 June 2014 23:51 (ten years ago) link
David Robinson is surely the least appreciated Car, though, because he's the only one whose name I had to look up.
ā Johnny Fever, Tuesday, June 17, 2014 4:09 PM
HE WAS IN THE MODERN LOVERS, YOU SAVAGE
(just kidding, JF, u r awesome)
― polyamanita (sleeve), Tuesday, 17 June 2014 23:51 (ten years ago) link
I never knew that!
About Robinson, I mean. I knew I was awesome.
― Johnny Fever, Wednesday, 18 June 2014 00:38 (ten years ago) link
did "Baker Street" get mentioned? G. Rafferty needs his spot in the canon (see also, "Stuck in the Middle w/You")
― col, Wednesday, 18 June 2014 00:59 (ten years ago) link
yes on Baker Street, the constant soundtrack to my 7th grade beach vacation of 1978
― polyamanita (sleeve), Wednesday, 18 June 2014 01:02 (ten years ago) link
yeah definitely should be in the mix
― some dude, Wednesday, 18 June 2014 01:06 (ten years ago) link
and -- arguably -- "Right Down the Line"
― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 18 June 2014 01:06 (ten years ago) link
No no no on GNR, wtf
― brimstead, Wednesday, 18 June 2014 01:28 (ten years ago) link
Aldo Nova -- FantasyLoverboy -- Turn Me LooseLoverboy -- Lovin' Every Minute of It
Glad to see Donnie Iris has been nominated, saves me the trouble.
― something of an astrological coup (tipsy mothra), Wednesday, 18 June 2014 01:29 (ten years ago) link
i said i might budge on the '87 thing, but not for GNR.
― some dude, Wednesday, 18 June 2014 01:31 (ten years ago) link
I understand the hesitation regarding Toto, but "hold the line" is undeniable fm gold
― brimstead, Wednesday, 18 June 2014 01:35 (ten years ago) link
please no lenny kravitz
― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Wednesday, 18 June 2014 01:40 (ten years ago) link
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!), Wednesday, 18 June 2014 01:40 (ten years ago) link
^^^ xp no lenny
― no matter how crabby of a mood Iām in because of the New World Order (WilliamC), Wednesday, 18 June 2014 01:40 (ten years ago) link
Lenny's debut album was in late '89, so you're all safe
― some dude, Wednesday, 18 June 2014 01:43 (ten years ago) link
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, Wednesday, 18 June 2014 01:45 (ten years ago) link
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.
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Wednesday, 18 June 2014 01:46 (ten years ago) link
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
― cwkiii, Wednesday, 18 June 2014 01:48 (ten years ago) link
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."
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Wednesday, 18 June 2014 01:48 (ten years ago) link
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.
― fact checking cuz, Wednesday, 18 June 2014 01:49 (ten years ago) link
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.
― some dude, Wednesday, 18 June 2014 01:52 (ten years ago) link
ā fact checking cuz, T
and "Jammin' Me" actually hit #1 AOR.
― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 18 June 2014 01:54 (ten years ago) link
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.
― Johnny Fever, Wednesday, 18 June 2014 01:58 (ten years ago) link
ā 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.
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Wednesday, 18 June 2014 02:01 (ten years ago) link
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.
― some dude, Wednesday, 18 June 2014 02:02 (ten years ago) link
Well Billy Idol was originally asked to record that song....
― MarkoP, Wednesday, 18 June 2014 02:07 (ten years ago) link
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.
― some dude, Wednesday, 18 June 2014 02:12 (ten years ago) link
an addendum to johnny fever's "120 minutes" rule: if john hughes used it, it's probably not classic rock.
― fact checking cuz, Wednesday, 18 June 2014 02:27 (ten years ago) link
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.
― something of an astrological coup (tipsy mothra), Wednesday, 18 June 2014 02:28 (ten years ago) link
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).
― Johnny Fever, Wednesday, 18 June 2014 02:35 (ten years ago) link
I won't poo poo anyone's votes for Idol. It's your ballot! He just won't be on mine.
― Johnny Fever, Wednesday, 18 June 2014 02:36 (ten years ago) link
where do the sweet fit into this? "ballroom blitz"? "fox on the run"?
― fact checking cuz, Wednesday, 18 June 2014 02:46 (ten years ago) link
what about the stray cats? too overtly retro for the poll?
― cock chirea, Wednesday, 18 June 2014 02:49 (ten years ago) link
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.
― some dude, Wednesday, 18 June 2014 02:54 (ten years ago) link
"Rock This Town" belongs in this poll, I'm not sure about any other Stray Cats songs.
― voodoo chili, Wednesday, 18 June 2014 03:06 (ten years ago) link
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").
― sci-fi looking, chubby-leafed, delicately bizarre (contenderizer), Wednesday, 18 June 2014 03:07 (ten years ago) link
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.
― fact checking cuz, Wednesday, 18 June 2014 03:12 (ten years ago) link
yeah Cars are basically as classic rock as Tom Petty when you get down to it
― some dude, Wednesday, 18 June 2014 03:15 (ten years ago) link
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...
― sci-fi looking, chubby-leafed, delicately bizarre (contenderizer), Wednesday, 18 June 2014 03:15 (ten years ago) link
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.
― kornrulez6969, Wednesday, 18 June 2014 03:24 (ten years ago) link
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!
― some dude, Wednesday, 18 June 2014 03:28 (ten years ago) link
my local station has recently taken to playing new singles by old acts in the middle of regular daytime programming, and even if the occasional new Paul McCartney or Joan Jett track is actually not bad, it really feels weird in that context
― some dude, Wednesday, 18 June 2014 03:32 (ten years ago) link
X postKenny Wayne Shepherd is NO Johnny Lang!
Who is everyone's favorite classic rock DJ? Scott Muni 4EVA!!!!!!!!
― kornrulez6969, Wednesday, 18 June 2014 03:34 (ten years ago) link
"Blue on Black" was the #1 Album Rock Track in 1998, the before NuMetal broke.
― Incident At Spanish Harlem (C. Grisso/McCain), Wednesday, 18 June 2014 03:35 (ten years ago) link
The YEAR before, even
― Incident At Spanish Harlem (C. Grisso/McCain), Wednesday, 18 June 2014 03:36 (ten years ago) link
I really like a lot of the 60s / 70s stars current music. One of my favorite songs by The Who is Mike Post Theme from their 2006 record.
― kornrulez6969, Wednesday, 18 June 2014 03:38 (ten years ago) link
My dad was reminiscing about KZAP (sacramento) today, talked about how they would play 11 minute Traffic album cuts and stuff late in the evening. I distinctly remember them enforcing a Led Zeppelin ban for some reason?!?
― brimstead, Wednesday, 18 June 2014 03:38 (ten years ago) link