YEAR RELEASED: 1981

NOTABLE TRACKS: “The Best of Times”, “Too Much Time On My Hands”, “Rockin The Paradise”, “Nothing Ever Goes As Planned”

ALBUM MVP: “Too Much Time On My Hands”

WHY I LOVED IT: For starters this may literally be the first pop-rock album I can remember having, not a huge shock considering I was all of nine years old when it was released.

“Too Much Time On My Hands” may very well be the first cool rock song I remember. If nothing else it certainly was the first to make pause whatever I was doing and alternate playing the air-drums and air-synthesizer. 

Sure it was cheesy but God I loved that song! I probably like “The Best of Times” now more than I did back then, which is saying plenty because I liked it back in the early 80s as well.  Some say Styx isn’t a band that ages very well.  I couldn’t agree less. There’s few albums that have allowed me to enjoy the nostalgia of my youth more than Paradise Theater. By the way, don’t sleep on “Snowblind”, which may be the most underrated song the band ever recorded.

COMMERCIAL SUCCESS: Released on January 1981 I was shocked to learn this was already Styxx’s 10^th studio album, and it went on to become their lone Billboard Top 200 number-one album, where it spend a total of three weeks on top.  Paradise Theater spawned four charting singles, led by “The Best of Times”, which reached three on the Billboard Hot 100. “Too Much Time On My Hands” peaked at nine on the Billboard Hot 100 while “Nothing Ever Goes As Planned” maxed out at No. 54.  “Rockin The Paradise” climbed up to eight on the Billboard Top Rock Track Chart. In total Paradise Theater sold more than three million copoies in the United States.

FUN FACTS:  From Encyclopedia.com: “Early in 1981 Styx kicked off a 110-date North American tour to lay the groundwork for the April release of Paradise Theatre, which spent three weeks at number one on the rock album charts. The album featured two hit singles in “The Best of Times” and “Too Much Time on My Hands,” which helped push the album to platinum status, making Styx the first rock ‘n’ roll group in history to have four consecutive albums go platinum.”

From AXS.com: “Vocalist Dennis DeYoung taught music, bassist Chuck Panozzo taught art, and guitarist John Curulewski taught band. The band is well educated too; James JY Young has a degree in Mechanical Engineering from Northwestern University.”

YEAR RELEASED: 1989

NOTABLE TRACKS “Love Will Lead You Back”, “With Every Beat Of My Heart”, “I’ll Be Your Shelter”, “Heart Of Stone”

ALBUM MVP: “Love Will Lead You Back”

WHY I LOVED IT: This was Dayne’s sophomore album and I thought it was better than her first (Tell It To My Heart).  “Love Will Lead You Back” not being on my Favorite 100 Songs of the 80s countdown earlier this year may be single-biggest blunder.  I’m embarrassed, considering I was borderline obsessed with the song at the end of the 1980s.  “I’ll Be Your Shelter” and “With Every Beat Of My Heart” were big hits, but just alright for me.  I didn’t love them.   When people discuss the most successful artists and songs of the 80’s it’s a shame Dayne is undeservedly omitted far too often. You don’t see an artist have four Top-12 singles on the Billboard Hot 100 off one album often.  Also, “Heart of Stone” and “Up All Night” are underrated gems too.

COMMERCIAL SUCCESS:  “Love Will Lead You Back” reached number-one on the Billboard Hot 100 and finished 1990 ranked 28^th on the year-end Billboard charts. “I’ll Be Your Shelter” reached number-four on the Billboard Hot 100 and finished the year ranked 63^rd.  “With Every Beat of My  Heart” reached as high as five on the Billboard Hot 100 and finished the year 48^th.  “Heart of Stone” reached No. 12 on the Billboard Hot 100.

FUN FACT: “I’ll be Your Shelter” was originally written and intended for Tina Turner.  She passed.  That’s not it— Whitney Houston passed on recording “Love Will Lead You Back”.

Year Released: 1988

Notable Songs: “Bad Medicine”, “Born To Be My Baby”, “I’ll Be There For You”, “Lay Your Hands On Me”, “Living In Sin”

Album MVP: “I’ll Be There For You”

Why I Loved It: Oh boy. With yesterday’s inclusion of U2’s The Joshua Tree I offered a prediction that I’d get railed on having it too low on this countdown. Today I’m confidently predicting the opposite. Where I’m from (Buffalo, NY) I wouldn’t call Bon Jovi popular.  Ironically, I’m at the forefront of the hate brigade.  Seriously, I really fuckin’ despise Bon Jovi.

However, as a teenager one thing that was stronger than my hate for Bon Jovi was my affection for hot chicks who loved the band, which in the 80’s was essentially every female on earth. Girls didn’t have time for dudes hating on Jon Bon Jovi, so it forced us young men to at least tolerate their music. 

To be completely honest there’s two Bon Jovi albums I actually enjoyed and this was one of them. The absurd amount of 80’s “hard rock” cheese on this collection of songs, it’s actually a really good album. You can make an argument, at least if you’re a fan of this genre that each song on the album is somewhat memorable. They invite tons of being too commercial and not enough artistic, but to their credit they’ve been geniuses at producing tunes the masses want to hear. They’ve put out nine albums since “New Jersey” but this is literally the last effort of theirs I’ve enjoyed.

Commercial Success: The third album and follow up to their breakthrough “Slippery When Wet”, “New Jersey” was a smashing commercial success. The album rose to number-one on the Billboard Top 200 within two weeks of its release and spent four consecutive weeks on top of the charts.  It’d go on to sell more than seven million copies in the United States and finished 1989 fourth on the year-end Billboard Top 200. “Bad Medicine” and “I’ll Be There For You” both went to number-one on the Billboard Hot 100. “Born To Be My Baby” nearly joined them, settling for third on the chart.  “Lay Your Hands On Me” peaked at seven while “Living At Sin” reached nine before stalling.  Per Wiki, this is the first and only Hard Rock/Glam Rock band to have five Top 10 singles on one album.

Fun Facts: Courtesy of Jack969.com, here’s a few facts about the New Jersey album….

“It was the 1st American album released in Russia! Yep, New Jersey was released in the USSR by Russian record label Melodiya. It featured the same album cover and track listing but the back cover was entirely different… and was written in Cyrillic!

The initial working title of the album was Sons of Beaches. They ended up scrapping the name as they felt it was too closely related to Slippery When Wet.

The band had almost 30 songs ready for New Jersey and originally wanted it to be a double album. Their record company felt a double album was too risky and kiboshed the idea.

The accompanying Jersey Syndicate Tour saw the band play 237 concerts over 2 years, including a performance at the Moscow Music Peace Festival.”