Raised On Radio #9- Peter Wolf
May. 11th, 2012 07:39 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bedsitter23Growing up in the 80s, it seemed like every 70s band broke up or managed to go on hiatus long enough for the band to all do solo projects.
Maybe it's like that in every decade. Maybe everybody saw the Kiss solo albums and decided it was pretty cool.
Still, there it was - Daltrey and Townshend, DeYoung and Shaw, Buckingham, Nicks, and McVie, Page and Plant, the Joe Perry Project, Paul Rodgers, Lou Gramm, David Lee Roth, Steve Perry, Peter Cetera, Phil Collins, and pretty much all of the Eagles. Some of the biggest hitmakers were former lead singers of 70s bands I had never heard of (John Waite, Eric Carmen) and even the biggest band in the world wasn't immune (Mick and Keef both embarked on solo careers).
One of the biggest bands I remember was the J Geils Band. My vision may be skewed because my cousin had all their cassettes, but I am fairly certain this was the case. (Showtime Side 1 as I recall ended with the scream "Love". You flipped the tape over and Side 2 started "Stinks")
Of course, now they are almost considered a two-hit wonder ("Centerfold" and "Freeze-Frame") and everyone thinks "Love Stinks" is an Adam Sandler original composition. Maybe those two hits dominate everything else because they were such huge hits, but Wikipedia lists 27 top-100 hits (and most were bigger on the AOR charts). From 1979-1982, there were 11 hit singles.
As you may or may not know depending on age and tastes, the lead singer wasn't J Geils (as one would assume), but Peter Wolf.
As everyone else with any success did at the time, Wolf went off to embark on a solo career.
I liked Wolf a lot at the time and he ended up with two Top 20 hits - "Lights Out" went to #12 and "Come As You Are" at #15). Wolf's solo career has to be considered a success- six top 100 hits in six years- but I am sure it was a bit of a disappointment after J Geils.
Wolf has remained active and 2010s Midnight Souvenirs was an AOR hit, returning Wolf back to Billboard going to #45 on the Album's Chart.
Maybe it's like that in every decade. Maybe everybody saw the Kiss solo albums and decided it was pretty cool.
Still, there it was - Daltrey and Townshend, DeYoung and Shaw, Buckingham, Nicks, and McVie, Page and Plant, the Joe Perry Project, Paul Rodgers, Lou Gramm, David Lee Roth, Steve Perry, Peter Cetera, Phil Collins, and pretty much all of the Eagles. Some of the biggest hitmakers were former lead singers of 70s bands I had never heard of (John Waite, Eric Carmen) and even the biggest band in the world wasn't immune (Mick and Keef both embarked on solo careers).
One of the biggest bands I remember was the J Geils Band. My vision may be skewed because my cousin had all their cassettes, but I am fairly certain this was the case. (Showtime Side 1 as I recall ended with the scream "Love". You flipped the tape over and Side 2 started "Stinks")
Of course, now they are almost considered a two-hit wonder ("Centerfold" and "Freeze-Frame") and everyone thinks "Love Stinks" is an Adam Sandler original composition. Maybe those two hits dominate everything else because they were such huge hits, but Wikipedia lists 27 top-100 hits (and most were bigger on the AOR charts). From 1979-1982, there were 11 hit singles.
As you may or may not know depending on age and tastes, the lead singer wasn't J Geils (as one would assume), but Peter Wolf.
As everyone else with any success did at the time, Wolf went off to embark on a solo career.
I liked Wolf a lot at the time and he ended up with two Top 20 hits - "Lights Out" went to #12 and "Come As You Are" at #15). Wolf's solo career has to be considered a success- six top 100 hits in six years- but I am sure it was a bit of a disappointment after J Geils.
Wolf has remained active and 2010s Midnight Souvenirs was an AOR hit, returning Wolf back to Billboard going to #45 on the Album's Chart.
