AOR, and its synonym Melodic Rock, such as found on Melodic Rock radio, is IMO not Journey or Steely Dan or any acts you've ever heard of, is very popular in Greece and many of the bands are from Scandanavia. It ranges from soft romantic ballads: to harder-edged hair-metal... to slightly disco-y Lite-AOR... to almost New Wave-y angst... But it was all too obscure and "not the thing" to become hits. Anybody else like this stuff besides me? It makes me very unpopular at parties (-:
There are so many performers that had the songs and performances to make it big but somehow fell through the net. Teri de Sario was a one-hit wonder in the States with Yes, I'm Ready, a duet with KC that made The Captain & Tennile sound like Nine Inch Nails but her song Caught is one of the great lost AOR songs of the Eighties: Teri de Sario - Caught
Desmond Child is well known for his songwriting and production but his excellent work with the band Rouge have been sadly forgotten. Desmond Child & Rouge - The Truth Came Out
Yes I've had that album for quite a while. Maria Vidal, one of the Rouge member did a version of "House of Love" on her solo album. Did you get those two tracks from this sampler by chance? I bought it early-on when I wasnt especially into this type of music ... but it planted a seed.
Indeed I did! What an eye opener that album was. I've got all the parent albums of the tracks I like now. Took a while though.
RIO has many, many tracks that are sterling (the guys from RIO later backed the post millennial tours of the Zombies).
I love what Frontiers records does in theory, but also feel like they put out 50 albums a month that mostly sound the same. Work Of Art is one of the best new bands on the planet and I really hope we get a 5th album soon.
Wow ... what a discovery I just made. Alien. From 1979. Hard to classify ... AOR/Melodic? Yacht?? Disco??? Prog???? Wonderful... regardless.
