Chic

There is no doubt that Chic was disco's greatest band. Working in a heavily producer-dominated field, they were most definitely a band. By the time Chic appeared in the late '70s, disco was already heading toward mainstream saturation and an inevitable downfall. Chic bucked the trend by stripping disco's sound down to its basic elements. Specializing in stylish grooves with a uniquely organic sense of interplay, Chic's sound was anchored by the scratchy "chucking"-style rhythm guitar of Nile Rodgers, the indelible, widely imitated, and sometimes outright stolen basslines of Bernard Edwards, and the powerhouse drumming of Tony Thompson. As producers, Rodgers and Edwards used keyboard and string embellishments economically, which kept the emphasis on rhythm. Chic's distinctive approach not only resulted in some of the era's finest singles, including the number one hits "Le Freak" and "Good Times" -only two of several classics off the platinum albums 'C'est Chic' (1978) and 'Risqué' (1979)- but also helped create a template for funk, dance-pop, and hip-hop in the post-disco era. Not coincidentally, Rodgers and Edwards wound up as two of the most successful pop producers, and the sound they developed and perfected remained relevant for decades, acknowledged most notably with the duo's induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. Through the 2010s, Rodgers continued to lead Chic as a major live draw and took the act back to the studio for 'It's About Time' (2018). 

Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards met in 1970, when both were jazz-trained musicians fresh out of high school. Edwards had attended New York's High School for the Performing Arts and was working in a Bronx post office at the time, while Rodgers' early career also included stints in the folk group New World Rising and the Apollo Theater house orchestra. Around 1972, Rodgers and Edwards formed a jazz-rock fusion group called The Big Apple Band. This outfit moonlighted as a backup band, touring behind smooth soul vocal group New York City in the wake of their 1973 hit "I'm Doin' Fine Now." After New York City broke up, The Big Apple Band hit the road with Carol Douglas for a few months, and Rodgers and Edwards decided to make a go of it on their own toward the end of 1976. At first they switched their aspirations from fusion to new wave, briefly performing as Allah & the Knife Wielding Punks, but quickly settled into dance music. They enlisted onetime LaBelle drummer Tony Thompson and vocalists Norma Jean Wright and Alfa Anderson, and changed their name to Chic in summer 1977 so as to avoid confusion with Walter Murphy & the Big Apple Band (who'd just hit big with "A Fifth of Beethoven").

 

 

Augmented in the studio by keyboardists Raymond Jones and Rob Sabino, Chic recorded the demo single "Dance, Dance, Dance (Yowsah, Yowsah, Yowsah)" and shopped it around to several major record companies, all of which declined it. The small Buddah label finally released it as a 12" in late 1977, and as its club popularity exploded, Atlantic stepped in, signed the group, and re-released the single on a wider basis. "Dance, Dance, Dance" hit the Top Ten, peaking at number six, and made Chic one of the hottest new groups in disco. The band scrambled to put their self-titled first album together, and it spawned a minor follow-up hit, "Everybody Dance," in early 1978. At this point, Wright left to try her hand at a solo career (with assistance from Rodgers and Edwards), and was replaced by Luci Martin. It was a good time to come onboard; "Le Freak," the first single from sophomore album 'C'est Chic', was an out-of-the-box smash, spending five weeks on top of the charts toward the end of 1978 and selling over four-million copies (which made it the biggest-selling single in Atlantic's history). Follow-up "I Want Your Love" reached number seven, cementing the group's new star status, and 'C'est Chic' became one of the rare disco albums to go platinum. 

1979's 'Risqué' was another solidly constructed LP that also went platinum, partly on the strength of Chic's second number one pop hit, "Good Times." "Good Times" may not have equaled the blockbuster sales figures of "Le Freak," but it was the band's most imitated track: Queen's number one hit "Another One Bites the Dust" was a clear rewrite, and The Sugarhill Gang lifted the instrumental backing track wholesale for the first commercial rap single, "Rapper's Delight," marking the first of many times that Chic grooves would be recycled into hip-hop records. Also in 1979, Rodgers and Edwards took on their first major outside production assignment, producing and writing the Sister Sledge smashes "We Are Family" and the oft-sampled "He's the Greatest Dancer." This success, in turn, landed them the chance to work with Diana Ross on 1980's 'Diana' album, and they wrote and produced "Upside Down," her first number one hit in years, as well as "I'm Coming Out." 

 

The disco fad was fading rapidly by that point, however, and 1980's 'Real People' failed to go gold despite another solid performance by the band. Changing tastes put an end to Chic's heyday, as Rodgers and Edwards' outside production work soon grew far more lucrative, even despite aborted projects with Aretha Franklin and Johnny Mathis. Several more Chic LPs followed in the early '80s, with diminishing creative and commercial returns, and Rodgers and Edwards disbanded the group after completing 'Believer' in 1983. Later that year, both recorded solo LPs. Hungry for respect in the rock mainstream (especially after accusations that they had ripped off Queen instead of the other way around), both Rodgers and Edwards sought out high-profile production and session work over the rest of the decade. Rodgers produced blockbuster albums like David Bowie's 'Let's Dance', Madonna's 'Like a Virgin', and Mick Jagger's 'She's the Boss'. Edwards wasn't as prolific as a producer, but did join the one-off supergroup The Power Station along with Tony Thompson as well as Robert Palmer and members of avowed Chic fans Duran Duran; he later produced Palmer's commercial breakthrough, 'Riptide'. Edwards also worked with Rod Stewart ('Out of Order'), Jody Watley, and Tina Turner, while Rodgers' other credits include The Thompson Twins, The Vaughan Brothers, INXS, and The B-52's' comeback 'Cosmic Thing'.

 
Rodgers and Edwards re-formed Chic in 1992 with new vocalists Sylver Logan Sharp and Jenn Thomas, and an assortment of session drummers in Thompson's place; they toured and released a new album, 'Chic-ism'. In 1996, the reconstituted Chic embarked on a tour of Japan; sadly, on April 18, Edwards passed away in his Tokyo hotel room due to a severe bout of pneumonia. Rodgers continued to tour occasionally with a version of Chic. In 1999, his Sumthing Else label issued a recording of Edwards' final performance with the band, 'Live at the Budokan'. More importantly, Rodgers compiled 'The Chic Organization Box Set, Vol. 1: Savoir Faire', a four-disc anthology released in 2010. Rodgers' career was boosted once more, through a string of collaborations with Duran Duran and Daft Punk, among others. He published a memoir, beat cancer, and kept the Chic name alive, primarily as a touring group. In 2018, two years after Rodgers and Edwards were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, Rodgers completed and released a long-in-the-works Chic album, 'It's About Time'. [SOURCE: ALLMUSIC]

 

Cheap Trick

Combining a love for British guitar pop songcraft with crunching power chords and a flair for the absurd, Cheap Trick provided the necessary links between '60s pop, heavy metal, and punk. Their sound provided a blueprint for both power pop and arena rock; it also had a long-lived effect on both alternative and heavy metal bands of the '80s and '90s (and beyond), who often relied on the same combination of loud riffs and catchy melodies. The band's early albums were filled with highly melodic, well-written songs that drew equally from the crafted pop of The Beatles, the sonic assault of The Who, and the tongue-in-cheek musical eclecticism and humor of The Move. After developing a cult following after three outstanding albums -1977's 'Cheap Trick' and 'In Color' and 1978's 'Heaven Tonight'- and relentless touring, Cheap Trick scored an unexpected hit with 1978's 'At Budokan', a live album that became their international breakthrough. Glossy production and at times confused creative direction were roadblocks for the band throughout much of the '80s, though they did find commercial success with 1988's 'Lap of Luxury' and its hit single "The Flame." However, after leaving the major labels behind with 1997's Cheap Trick, the band enjoyed a creative second wind, reaffirming the strength of their formula on-stage and in the studio as evidenced on 2006's 'Rockford' and 2016's 'Bang, Zoom, Crazy... Hello'. Soon after being elected to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, they kicked off a productive streak that saw them release three albums within 18 months, and while they were mostly dedicated to touring after that, they did return to the studio to produce 2021's 'In Another World', yet another example of how their timeless sound failed to dim no matter how many years they employed it. 

 
Cheap Trick's roots lie in Fuse, a late-'60s band formed by Rick Nielsen and bassist Tom Petersson in Rockford, Illinois. The group released an album on Epic in 1969; after it failed to gain any attention, the band relocated to Philadelphia and changed their name to Sick Man of Europe. The group toured Europe unsuccessfully in 1972 and returned to Illinois in 1973. Not long after their return to Rockford, Nielsen and Petersson changed their band's name once more -this time to Cheap Trick- and added drummer Bun E. Carlos and vocalist Randy "Xeno" Hogan to the lineup. Hogan was fired the following year, making room for ex-folksinger Robin Zander to join the group. Between 1975 and the band's first album in 1977, Cheap Trick toured constantly, playing over 200 concerts a year while occasionally opening for the likes of The Kinks, Kiss, Santana, AC/DC, and Queen. During this time, the band built up a solid catalog of original songs that would eventually comprise their first three albums; they also perfected their kinetic live show. 

 

 

Cheap Trick signed with Epic in 1976 and released their self-titled debut early the following year. The record sold well in America, yet it failed to chart. However, the group became a massive success in Japan, and the album went gold upon release. Later that year, the band released their second album, 'In Color'. It backed away from the harder-rocking side of Cheap Trick, featuring slicker production and quieter arrangements that spotlighted the band's melodic skills instead. Due to their constant touring, the record made it into the U.S. charts, peaking at number 73. It became another gold-seller in Japan, however, where the musicians had become virtual superstars. Their Japanese concerts began selling out within two hours, and they packed the sizable Budokan Arena. 

 
Cheap Trick's concerts at Budokan were recorded for possible release, although the live album didn't appear until the band's third album, 1978's 'Heaven Tonight'. That third album captured both the loud, raucous energy of Cheap Trick's debut and the hook-laden songcraft of 'In Color', leading to their first Top 100 single, "Surrender," which peaked at number 62. However, the live performances on 'At Budokan' (1979) captured the band's energetic, infectious live show, resulting in their commercial breakthrough in America. The album stayed on the charts for over a year, peaking at number four and eventually selling over three million copies. Meanwhile, a live version of "I Want You to Want Me" became their first Top Ten hit. Later that year, the group released their fourth studio album, 'Dream Police', which followed the same stylistic approach as 'Heaven Tonight'. It also followed 'At Budokan' into the Top Ten, selling over a million copies and launching the Top 40 hit singles "Voices" and "Dream Police." In the summer of 1980, the group released an EP of tracks recorded between 1976-1979 called 'Found All the Parts'.

 

 

Following the recording of the George Martin-produced 'All Shook Up', Petersson left the group in the summer of 1980 to form a group with his wife, Dagmar. He was replaced by Jon Brant. Released toward the end of 1980, 'All Shook Up' performed respectably, peaking at number 24 and going gold, yet the single "Stop This Game" failed to crack the Top 40. 'One on One', the group's seventh album and the first recorded with Brant, appeared in 1982. Although it peaked at number 39, the record was more successful than 'All Shook Up', eventually going platinum. Nevertheless, the group was entering a downhill commercial slide, despite the fact that its music was becoming increasingly polished. 'Next Position Please', released in 1983, failed to launch a hit single and spent only 11 weeks on the charts. 'Standing on the Edge' (1985) and 'The Doctor' (1986) suffered similar fates, as the group were slowly losing their creative spark. 

 
Petersson rejoined the band in 1988 and the group began work on a new record with the help of several professional songwriters. The resulting effort, 'Lap of Luxury', was a platinum Top 20 hit, featuring the number one power ballad "The Flame" and a Top Ten version of Elvis Presley's "Don't Be Cruel." 'Busted', released in 1990, wasn't as successful as 'Lap of Luxury', peaking at number 48 and effectively putting an end to the group's commercial comeback. 

 

 

Cheap Trick soldiered into the new decade by signing with Warner Bros. in 1994 and releasing 'Woke Up with a Monster', which peaked at number 123 and spent two weeks on the album chart. That same year, Epic released a sequel to 'At Budokan', aptly titled 'Budokan II'. Compiled from the same shows as 'At Budokan', the record served as an effective reminder of why the group had become so popular in the late '70s. In 1995, Cheap Trick asked to leave Warner's roster after the label's chief executives, Lenny Waronker and Mo Ostin, departed. The band then decided to go back to the basics, and several alt rock superstars who had been influenced by Cheap Trick gave the band opportunities to restore their reputation. The Smashing Pumpkins had them open their tour in 1995, and the group played several dates on the 1996 Lollapalooza Tour. That same year, the box set 'Sex, America, Cheap Trick' appeared to positive reviews, and the band signed with the fledgling indie label Red Ant before setting to work on a new album. Early in 1997, the group released a Steve Albini-produced single on Sub Pop, which was followed by the eponymous 'Cheap Trick', their acclaimed debut for Red Ant, in the spring. Unfortunately, Red Ant filed for bankruptcy seven weeks after the album's release, sadly putting a sudden halt on the group's building momentum.  

 
On April 30, 1998, the group launched a four-night residency in Chicago, devoting each show to reprising one of their first four albums in its entirety. Those shows later yielded a 1999 live LP, 'Music for Hangovers', which the musicians issued on their own Cheap Trick Unlimited label. A band-authorized hits collection followed in 2000. By the dawn of the new millennium, Cheap Trick were still without a label, but had retained their loyal following by continually touring the world. Appropriately, another live set saw the light of day in 2001. 'Entitled Silver', the double-disc album (and companion DVD) documented the band's star-studded, career-spanning 25th anniversary show on August 28, 1999. The band also recorded another studio album, released in 2003 as 'Special One'. It was followed in 2006 by 'Rockford', named in tribute to the band's hometown, and then 'The Latest' in 2009. Cheap Trick also maintained a heavy touring ethic, canvassing America that summer alongside Def Leppard and releasing their tribute to The Beatles with 'Sgt. Pepper Live'. In late 2015, Cheap Trick signed with powerhouse country label Big Machine Records, and their first album for their new sponsors, 'Bang, Zoom, Crazy... Hello', was released in April 2016 -the same month the group was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. It was the first Cheap Trick release since the departure of drummer Bun E. Carlos. Daxx Nielsen, Rick's son, became the group's new percussionist in 2010. Wasting no time, they returned with their second album for Big Machine, the rollicking 'We're All Alright!', in June 2017. They had barely caught their breath when they were back with their first holiday album, 'Christmas Christmas', in October 2017. After spending much of their time playing every stage that would have them, the group returned with a studio album in 2021. 'In Another World' conjured up memories of early albums, with both Nielsen and Zander performing with the zeal of men far younger. A much earlier version of the band was trotted out in all their strutting glory on the 2022 archival release 'Live at the Whisky 1977'. Recorded while the band was in the midst of working on 'In Color', the four complete live shows capture a raucous, guitar-heavy side of the group that their studio albums don't. When it was released near the end of 2022, the band had just finished a U.S. tour. [ALLMUSIC] 

 

The Filipinos

The Filipinos were a garage and psychedelic rock band from Birmingham, UK. Members were Antony Darby (bass), Billy Child (voice), Mark Barrows (guitar) and David Twist (drums). David Twist, born 22 May 1960 in Moseley, Birmingham, was also vocalist for Shock Treatment in 1977; drummer for T.V. Eye in 1977-1978 (with Dave Kusworth); drummer for The Prefects from late 1978 to january 1979; from 1979 to 1981 drummer for Obviously Five Believers, a.k.a. The Subterranean Hawks, a.k.a. The Hawks; in 1982, drummer for The Bible Belt; from December 1982 to 1985, drummer for The Scarecrows; from 1999 to 2004 drummer for Dave Kusworth And The Tenderhooks and from 2005 to 2009 drummer for The Dave Kusworth Group. They released four albums: 'Doo·Wadda·Doo·Wop!' (1989, Swordfish Records), 'Summertime' (1990, Wild Records), 'Peel Back The Skin' (1991, Wild Records) and 'Get Yer Wah-Wah's Out!' (1991, Contempo Records).

 

Cancer Moon

Cancer Moon was a rock music group founded in Bilbao (Basque Country, Spain) in 1988 by Josetxo Anitua (vocals), Jesús Suinaga (drums) and Jon Zamarripa (guitar). The first two came from other groups such as La Tercera En Discordia and Jugos De Otros (Jesús later played with Los Bichos from Pamplona), while Jon came from Gazte Hilak, Test, Los Primitivos and Los Extraños/Los Raros. As a group they did not officially disband, but in 1996 they ceased their public activity. Josetxo Anitua died on April 22, 2008 at the age of 43. 

The group produced a sound between noise rock and alternative rock, which in the 90's was beginning to emerge in Spain with groups like Surfin' Bichos, 713avo Amor or The Pantano Boas. They are considered one of the founding groups of noise in Spain. Cancer Moon had among their influences groups like The Velvet Underground, Sonic Youth or Television. 

They released three albums, each one on a different label due to their problems in finding a label where they could fit in: 'Hunted By The Snake' (1990), 'Flock, Colibri, Oil' (1992) and 'Moor Room' (1994). The latter was chosen as the best national album of the year by the music magazine Rockdelux. 'Hunted By The Snake', was released with the experimental label Polar Records, and under the production of the co-manager of Ruta 66 magazine, Jaime Gonzalo. The CD edition included a cover version of Iggy Pop's “I Need Somebody”.

When they finally left Polar, they signed in 1994 with the then booming Munster Records, which sent them to Bordeaux to record their next album, 'Flock, Colibri, Oil' in only four days with producer Kid Pharaon. By that time Suinaga had already left the band, so Anitua and Zamarripa relied on studio musicians to complete the album. The CD version included two extra songs, “Human Jukebox”, by The Scientists, and “Girl”, by Suicide. Once again they change label, this time to Radiation Records to release 'Moor Room'. [SOURCE: WIKIPEDIA]

 

Peter Murphy

Despite having a successful solo career as a cult artist, vocalist Peter Murphy remains best known as the lead singer for Bauhaus, the pioneering post-punk goth rock band of the early '80s.

 
After disbanding Bauhaus in 1983, Murphy formed Dali's Car with former Japan member Mick Karn. Dali's Car only released one album, 'The Waking Hour', in 1984. Following its release, the duo broke up and Murphy hesitatingly began a solo career with a cover of Magazine's "The Light Pours Out of Me," which was featured on a 1985 Beggars Banquet compilation called 'The State of Things'. In 1986, he released his first full-fledged solo album, 'Should the World Fail to Fall Apart', which featured a number of guest artists, including former Bauhaus member Daniel Ash. Two years later, Murphy released his second solo album, 'Love Hysteria'. Like its predecessor, 'Love Hysteria' received lukewarm reviews but sold well to his dedicated fan base. 

 
With 1990's 'Deep', Murphy had a surprise hit -the first single from the record, the Bowie-esque "Cuts You Up," became the American modern rock hit of the year, spending seven weeks at the top of the U.S. charts and crossing over to AOR radio and the pop charts, where it peaked at number 55. Following its success, 'Deep' reached number 44 on the album charts. Murphy wasn't able to sustain that success with his next album, 1992's 'Holy Smoke', which only reached 108 on the charts, despite the number two modern rock hit "The Sweetest Drop." 

 

 

In 1995, Murphy released 'Cascade', which was greeted with weak reviews. The album failed to chart in either America or Britain. While touring with a reunited Bauhaus in 1998, he recorded the solo EP 'Recall'. The new millennium, however, saw a newly charged Murphy. Without a deal, he took to the road in support of the greatest-hits retrospective 'Wild Birds 1985-1995: The Best of the Beggars Banquet Years' for two tours of the U.S. during spring and fall 2000. The latter tour, which was more acoustically based, showcased some new material and rare favorites. Still a cult mainstay with American fans, Murphy issued the live double-disc 'Alive Just for Love' in summer 2001. This delightful set was released by 'Metropolis' and featured Bauhaus tracks and solo hits. A year later, he hooked up with renowned world artist Mercan Dede for 'Dust', followed by 'Unshattered' in 2004. His first collection of new solo material in seven years, the appropriately titled 'Ninth', dropped in June of 2011.

 
Murphy toured the U.S. and Europe in 2013 to celebrate 35 years of Bauhaus. That same year, he gained headlines after a traffic accident saw him convicted on charges of a misdemeanor hit-and-run. (Other charges of driving under the influence and use of methamphetamine were dismissed.) He didn't let the incident derail his career, however. His next studio album, 'Lion', recorded with Youth (Killing Joke bassist Martin Glover) in the producer's chair, was released in June 2014. In 2017 Murphy released 'Bare-Boned and Sacred', a concert LP recorded in New York during his "Stripped" tour in 2016. [SOURCE: ALLMUSIC]

 

Levitation

Following a well-publicized fall-out with frontman Guy Chadwick, guitarist Terry Bickers left The House of Love to form Levitation with bassist Laurence O'Keefe, keyboardist Robert White, guitarist Christian Hayes and drummer Dave Francollini. A series of brilliant live gigs quickly cemented the fledgling group's status among the British press, while interviews with the eccentric Bickers, in which he expounded freely on topics including prog-rock revivals, flying saucers, reincarnation, bacchanalian revelry and Egyptology, further established the band as media darlings. 

 
Anticipation was high for Levitation's recorded debut, and 1991's 'Coppelia' EP did not disappoint: a shimmering, majestic effort highlighted by the narcotic epic "Smile," it also featured excursions into delicate psychedelia ("Rosemary Jones") and distorted pop ("Paid in Kind"). The follow-up, 'The After Ever' EP, was equally strong, and the two records were later combined with live material and a pair of new tracks, "Squirrel" and "It's Time," as the full-length 'Coterie'. 

 
In 1992, Levitation issued the superb 'Need for Not' album, soon signing to major label Chrysalis. In the wake of the release of 1993's 'Even When Your Eyes Are Open' EP, the group mounted a British tour; while playing London's Tufnell Park Dome, Bickers abruptly announced "Oh, dear. We've completely lost it, haven't we?" and left the stage, never to return to the band and refusing to publicly discuss his exit. (He subsequently worked under the alias Cradle.) In his absence, the remaining members of Levitation hired new vocalist Steven Ludwin and issued an EP, 'King of Mice'; the 1994 full-length 'Meanwhile Gardens', a patchy collection of re-recordings of old songs as well as new material, was issued only in Australia, and was the unit's final effort. [SOURCE: ALLMUSIC]

 

David Byrne

Although best-known for his groundbreaking tenure fronting the new wave group Talking Heads, David Byrne is also acclaimed for his adventurous solo career, encroaching upon such diverse arenas as world music, filmmaking, and performance art in the process. The creatively restless Byrne has taken his work in numerous directions since striking out on his own -Latin rhythms (1989's 'Rei Momo'), orchestral works (1991's 'The Forest'), Scottish music (2003's 'Lead Us Not Into Temptation'), adventurous pop (1992's 'Uh-Oh'), electronic dance-pop (2010's 'Here Lies Love', with Fatboy Slim), and collaborations with other artists of note (2012's 'Love This Giant', with St. Vincent, and 2008's 'Everything That Happens Will Happen Today', with Brian Eno). But Byrne's passion for rhythms and sonic colors, his gift for angular but catchy melodies, and his keen and cooly witty but thoughtful observations of diverse characters are the through-lines that bring his catalog together. 

Born in Dumbarton, Scotland on May 14, 1952, David Byrne was raised in Baltimore, Maryland. The son of an electronics engineer, he played guitar in a series of teenage bands before attending the prestigious Rhode Island School of Design, where, feeling alienated from the largely upper-class student population, he dropped out after one year. However, he remained in the Providence area, performing solo on a ukulele before forming The Artistics (also known as The Autistics) with fellow students Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth. 

After changing the name of the band to Talking Heads and enlisting onetime Modern Lover Jerry Harrison, the group signed to Sire Records. A series of LPs, including the debut 'Talking Heads '77', 1978's 'More Songs About Buildings and Food', and 1980's 'Remain in Light' followed, establishing the quartet as one of contemporary music's most visionary talents. During a band sabbatical in 1981, Byrne teamed up with Brian Eno, the producer of much of the Heads' work, for the collaborative effort 'My Life in the Bush of Ghosts', a complex, evocative album that fused electronic music with Third World percussion and hypnotic vocal effects. That same year, Byrne also began exploring theater with the composition of 'The Catherine Wheel', a dance piece choreographed by Twyla Tharp.

 
Byrne's next solo work appeared in 1985 with The Knee Plays, a New Orleans brass band-influenced project composed for a portion of Robert Wilson's theatrical epic "CIVIL warS". In 1986, Byrne wrote, starred in, and directed the feature film "True Stories", a series of comic vignettes based on press clippings culled from tabloid publications like the Weekly World News. He also wrote and produced the majority of music for the film's score in addition to performing his usual duties for that year's Talking Heads LP, also named 'True Stories'. In 1988, he wrote the score to the Jonathan Demme comedy "Married to the Mob" and, in tandem with Ryuichi Sakamoto and Cong Su, won an Academy Award for his musical work on Bernardo Bertolucci's historical epic "The Last Emperor". 

 

Also in 1988, Byrne's fascination with world music -a longtime influence on his herky-jerky performance style as well as Talking Heads' complex polyrhythms- inspired him to form his own record label, Luaka Bop, to give widespread American release to global music. That same year, the Heads released 'Naked', their final proper LP, leaving Byrne to give his full attention to solo endeavors. He resurfaced in 1989 with 'Rei Momo', a song collection inspired by Latin rhythms, and also directed the documentary "Ile Aiye" (The House of Life), which focused on the rituals of Yoruban dance music. In 1991, he again collaborated with Robert Wilson on 'The Forest', writing music for a full orchestra. 

1992's 'Uh-Oh' marked Byrne's return to more conventional rock performance, a direction he continued with a self-titled album issued in 1994. 'Feelings', recorded with members of Morcheeba and Devo, followed in 1997. Four years later, 'Look Into the Eyeball' was issued on Virgin Records/Luaka Bop and captured Byrne's signature wry humor and musical diversity. In 2003, Byrne's music for the film "Young Adam" (featuring members of Belle & Sebastian and Mogwai) was released as 'Lead Us Not Into Temptation' by Thrill Jockey. 'Grown Backwards', his first disc for the Nonesuch label, appeared a year later. In 2007, the ever-busy Byrne released a CD/DVD version of 'The Knee Plays' that featured the 12 original tracks along with eight demos and outtakes. 'Big Love: Hymnal', containing material composed for the HBO series "Big Love", appeared in 2008; 'Everything That Happens Will Happen Today', a collaboration with Brian Eno that took in folk and gospel influences, followed later that year. 

Byrne's next project proved to be another collaborative album, this one created with the assistance of British DJ Fatboy Slim. Released in early 2010, 'Here Lies Love' was a concept album about former First Lady of the Philippines Imelda Marcos and her controversial love life. Over 20 guest vocalists appeared on the eclectic record, including Cyndi Lauper, Martha Wainwright, Sharon Jones, and Santigold. Byrne's next big project was another collaboration, this time with St. Vincent/Annie Clark, The Dap-Kings, Antibalas, and producer John Congleton. 'Love This Giant' arrived in September 2012.

 
Byrne spent 2015 staging "Contemporary Color", a pair of concerts in Brooklyn and Toronto which paired musicians with color guard groups; the shows were preserved in a 2016 film of the same name. Early in 2018, Byrne returned with the chart-topping 'American Utopia', his first solo album since 2004's 'Grown Backwards'. The record was the first installment of a larger multimedia project titled "Reasons to Be Cheerful," which focused on optimism during an age of political uncertainty. Byrne's tour in support of 'American Utopia' was a unique presentation with extensive choreography of the vocalists and musicians, and after a successful and well-received series of performances in the United States and Europe, the show moved to New York City for a run on Broadway. An album was drawn from the New York engagement, fittingly titled 'American Utopia on Broadway'. [SOURCE: ALLMUSIC] 

Patti Smith

Punk rock's poet laureate Patti Smith ranks among the most ambitious, unconventional, and challenging rock & rollers of all time. When she emerged in the '70s, Smith's music was hailed as the most exciting fusion of rock and poetry since Bob Dylan's heyday. With her androgynous, visual presentation echoing her unabashedly intellectual and uncompromising songwriting, Smith followed her muse wherever it took her, from structured rock songs to free-form experimentalism. Her most avant-garde outings, such as 1975's 'Horses' and the following year's 'Radio Ethiopia', borrowed improvisation and interplay from free jazz, but remained firmly rooted in primal three-chord rock & roll. A regular at CBGB's during New York punk's early days, the artiness and the raw musicianship of her work had a major impact on the movement among contemporaries and followers alike. As boundary-pushing as her music could be, Smith nevertheless scored a hit in the Bruce Springsteen collaboration "Because the Night" from 1978's 'Easter', which, like 1979's 'Wave', offered a slightly more polished version of her sound. When she returned to music following a lengthy hiatus and the death of her husband, Fred "Sonic" Smith, her work was sometimes subtler and more meditative, as on 1996's 'Gone Again', but rock was still a fiery, vital part of albums like 2000's Grammy-nominated 'Gung Ho' and 2012's 'Banga'. Her other projects in the 2010s and 2020s, such as her National Book Award-winning memoir "Just Kids" and her work with Soundwalk Collective on albums like 2020's 'Peradam', proved her expression was as boundless as ever. 

Smith was born in Chicago on December 30, 1946. Her parents moved to Philadelphia when she was three, and then to the nearby, less urban town of Woodbury, New Jersey, when she was nine. Something of an outcast in high school, she found salvation in the poetry of Arthur Rimbaud, the writings of the Beat poets, and the music of soul and rock artists like James Brown, The Rolling Stones, The Doors, and especially Bob Dylan. She attended Glassboro State Teachers College, but dropped out due to an unplanned pregnancy. She gave the baby up for adoption and took a job on a factory assembly line, thus saving enough money to move to New York City in 1967. She worked in a bookstore and met art student/future photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, who became her lover despite living most of his adult life as a gay man. In 1969, Smith went to Paris with her sister, busking on the streets as a performance artist. Upon her return, she moved into the Chelsea Hotel with Mapplethorpe for a brief period, then became involved with underground theater.

 

 

With playwright and partner Sam Shepard, she co-authored and co-starred with him in the somewhat autobiographical play "Cowboy Mouth" in 1971. During this time, she was also working on her poetry as a member of the St. Mark's Poetry Project, and met guitarist Lenny Kaye, also a Bleecker Street record store clerk and rock critic. Kaye had written a magazine essay on doo wop that impressed Smith, and the two found that they shared a love of early and obscure rock & roll. When Smith gave a public poetry reading at St. Mark's Church in February 1971, she invited Kaye to accompany her on the electric guitar for three pieces. Over the next two years, Smith continued to perform in plays and poetry readings; she also wrote for Rolling Stone and Creem, published two volumes of her poems, and contributed lyrics to the literary-minded metal band Blue Öyster Cult. 

Smith and Kaye performed again in late 1973, and their partnership grew into a much more regular occurrence. The following year, they added pianist/keyboardist Richard Sohl, and their performances grew into unique blends of Beat-influenced poetry, improvised spoken word with equally spontaneous musical backing, and covers of rock & roll oldies. Regular gigs around New York cemented their growing reputation, and in June 1974, with Mapplethorpe paying for studio time, the band cut a groundbreaking independent single, "Hey Joe" b/w "Piss Factory." The former added a monologue about Patty Hearst, while the latter recounted Smith's stint as an assembly line worker in vivid detail, incorporating lyrical snippets from the rock records in which she took solace. Both songs featured Television guitarist Tom Verlaine, and along with Television's own "Little Johnny Jewel," the single helped kick-start the independent, D.I.Y. aesthetic that remains punk rock's hallmark.

 

 

In late 1974, Smith and her band played a few gigs on the West Coast. When they returned, they added guitarist/bassist Ivan Kral to flesh out their sound, and joined Television as part of the emerging new rock scene at CBGB's, a dive bar in the Bowery. Their two-month stand in early 1975 sometimes featured drummer Jay Dee Daugherty, who became a regular member, and attracted the notice of Arista Records president Clive Davis, who offered Smith a record deal. She entered the studio with ex-Velvet Underground member John Cale serving as producer, and in late 1975 released her debut album, 'Horses', which was essentially the first art-punk album. Rapturously received by most critics, 'Horses' offered unorthodox covers of party rock tunes like "Gloria" and "Land of 1000 Dances" (Smith opened the former with the declaration "Jesus died for someone's sins, but not mine"), as well as a mix of original songs and lengthy, improv-driven spoken word pieces; it sold well enough to climb into the Top 50. 

The 1976 follow-up, 'Radio Ethiopia', was credited to the Patti Smith Group, and placed some of Smith's most straightforward rock songs ("Ask the Angels," "Pumping [My Heart]") directly alongside some of her most experimental, free-form pieces (the title track). In early 1977, Smith was performing in Tampa, Florida, when she twirled herself right off the stage; she broke two vertebrae in her neck and was forced to take some time off to recuperate. During that period, she wrote a book of poetry titled "Babel". She returned to recording in 1978 with 'Easter', a more accessible nod in the direction of album rock radio, which featured her writing collaboration with Bruce Springsteen, "Because the Night." The ballad climbed to number 13 on the pop charts and sent Easter into the Top 20.

 

 

Smith's sound became increasingly polished on 1979's 'Wave', thanks in part to new producer Todd Rundgren. Two of the album's tracks, "Dancing Barefoot" and "Frederick," were dedicated to MC5/Sonic's Rendezvous Band guitarist Fred "Sonic" Smith, and the couple married in 1980. She retired to a life of domesticity near Detroit, raising two children with her husband. In 1988, Smith re-emerged with 'Dream of Life', on which Fred co-wrote all the material and also played guitar, with backing by Smith Group members Sohl and Daugherty. Following its release, Smith disappeared from music again but continued to write, completing a poetry collection called "Woolgathering" (among other projects), and gave occasional readings. 

As the '80s became the '90s, Smith lost some of those closest to her. Longtime friend and album-cover photographer Mapplethorpe died in 1989, followed a year later by pianist Richard Sohl. At the end of 1994, both her husband and her brother Todd died of heart failure within a month of one another. Smith returned to performing as a means of therapy, and re-formed the Patti Smith Group -with Kaye, Daugherty, and new bassist Tony Shanahan- for a few small-scale tours including a December 1995 excursion with Bob Dylan that R.E.M.'s Michael Stipe documented in the book "Two Times Intro". 

 

The following year, Smith moved back to New York. She and the group then headed into the studio to record 'Gone Again', which featured a new second guitarist in Oliver Ray and guest spots from Tom Verlaine, John Cale, and Jeff Buckley. 'Gone Again' took a stronger, more optimistic tone than might have been expected, and was well-received by many critics. That year, Smith also appeared on "E-Bow the Letter" from R.E.M.'s 'New Adventures in Hi-Fi', and published "The Coral Sea", a book of poetry inspired by Mapplethorpe. Following closely on 'Gone Again's heels, 'Peace and Noise' appeared in 1997 and earned a Grammy nomination for the track "1959"; a much darker affair than its predecessor, it took into account the deaths of two more of Smith's inspirations, Allen Ginsberg and William S. Burroughs. Smith returned in 2000 with 'Gung Ho', the most aggressive-sounding and socially conscious album of her comeback; the song "Glitter in Their Eyes" earned her a second Grammy nomination. 

Smith and Arista parted ways in 2002, with the label issuing 'Land (1975-2002)', a double-disc compilation of hits and rarities, as a wrap-up. Her first album for Columbia, 'Trampin', appeared in 2004 and included songs about the loss of her mother. The following year, Smith celebrated the 30th anniversary of 'Horses' release with the first live performance of the album in its entirety at London's Meltdown Festival, which she curated. Arista also reissued the album in a deluxe two-CD 30th Anniversary Legacy Edition. Also in 2005, the French Ministry of Culture named Smith a Commander of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. The following year, she performed at CBGB's final concert. On March 12, 2007, Smith was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame alongside Van Halen, The Ronettes, Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five, and R.E.M. She released an album of typically eclectic covers, 'Twelve', that same year. In 2008, she issued 'The Coral Sea' as a live album pairing readings from the book with music by Kevin Shields, and was the subject of Stephen Sebring's acclaimed documentary "Patti Smith: Dream of Life". 

 

Smith's creative streak continued during the 2010s. Her 2010 memoir about her life with Mapplethorpe, "Just Kids", won the National Book Award for Non-Fiction for that year. In 2011, Sony Legacy released a single-disc, career-spanning compilation, 'Outside Society', featuring recordings from her Arista and Columbia catalogs. Just after the recording was released, Smith, along with The Kronos Quartet, won Sweden's prestigious Polar Prize for "devoting her life to art in all its forms." Smith also contributed both a 12" x 12" original print and an audio track to the ultra-limited-edition, multi-artist Legacy box set '15 Minutes: Homage to Andy Warhol'. That year, she also exhibited her first collection of photography, "Camera Solo", at the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, and contributed songs to the Buddy Holly tribute 'Rave on Buddy Holly' and the soundtrack to "The Hunger Games: Catching Fire". Smith released 'Banga', her 11th studio album, in 2012. Along with her regular band, guests included her two children, Jackson and Jessi, Tom Verlaine, and Jack Petruzzelli. After meeting Stephen Crasneanscki of Soundwalk Collective in Paris, she became a frequent collaborator with the field-recording, globe-trotting group. Their first collaboration was 'Killer Road', an homage to Nico that chronicled her final days in Ibiza. Featuring the sounds of the island as well as poetry and vocals by Smith and her daughter Jesse, 'Killer Road' was staged in New York City and Berlin in 2014 and released as an album that combined live and studio recordings two years later. 

In 2015, Smith, her children, and her band recorded "Aqua Teen Dream" for the series finale of the Adult Swim cartoon "Aqua Teen Hunger Force", one of her favorite shows. Among her other projects, Smith appeared in Terrence Malick's 2017 documentary "Song to Song", while the concert/documentary film "Horses: Patti Smith and Her Band" appeared in 2018. The following year, she reunited with Soundwalk Collective for 'The Perfect Vision', a trilogy of albums about French poets. First up was that May's 'The Peyote Dance', a work inspired by Antonin Artaud's time with the Rarámuri, an indigenous people of Mexico's Sierra Tarahumara region. That November's 'Mummer Love' also featured Philip Glass and Mulatu Astatke as it explored Arthur Rimbaud's spiritual journey to Harar, Ethiopia. The final volume of the project, September 2020's 'Peradam', was inspired by the metaphysical voyage in René Daumal's novel "Mount Analogue". Along with Smith's poems and vocalizations, it included contributions from Charlotte Gainsbourg, Tenzin Choegyal, and Anoushka Shankar, as well as field recordings captured in the Himalayas and the Indian cities of Rishikesh and Varanasi. [SOURCE: ALLMUSIC]

 

Kraftwerk

Kraftwerk's radical and prophetic approach to purely electronic pop music has been referenced by an extraordinary number of artists from the mid-'70s onward. The Düsseldorf pioneers' self-described "robot pop" -hypnotically minimal and obliquely rhythmic, and presented since the late '70s as the work of automatons- has resonated in virtually every development of contemporary pop since the late 20th century, including David Bowie's Berlin trilogy, synth pop, and Neue Deutsche Welle, as well as later U.S. developments such as electro, techno, and house. Kraftwerk's enduring influence, particularly through '70s albums such as the unlikely cross-continental hit 'Autobahn', 'Trans-Europe Express', and 'The Man-Machine', and 1981's 'Computer World', cannot be overstated. Although new material has been in short supply since the group's second decade of activity, they've continued to enhance their legacy with innovative live performances and several catalog projects. 

Kraftwerk emerged from the same German experimental music community of the late '60s that spawned Can and Tangerine Dream. Primary members Florian Schneider and Ralf Hütter met as classical music students at the Düsseldorf Conservatory, originally teaming in the group Organisation and issuing a 1969 album, 'Tone Float', in the U.K. Schneider and Hütter soon disbanded Organisation, rechristening themselves Kraftwerk (German for "power station"), beginning work on their own studio (later dubbed Kling Klang), and immersing their music in the fledgling world of minimalist electronics. The group's 1970 debut, titled simply 'Kraftwerk', offered a hint of their unique aesthetic in its earliest form, already implementing innovations -including Schneider's attempts at designing homemade rhythm machines- with encouragement and assistance from producer/engineer Conny Plank. 

 

A series of lineup shifts followed. Among the musicians who came and left were Michael Rother and Klaus Dinger, who formed Neu! in 1971. At one point, Hütter even left the band; however, by the release of 1972's 'Kraftwerk 2', he and Schneider were again working in tandem. Recorded without a live drummer, the album's rhythms relied solely on a drum machine, creating a distinctly robotic feel without precedent -the concept of purely technological music was, at the time, utterly alien to most musicians, as well as listeners. A series of well-received live performances followed before Kraftwerk began work on their breakthrough third LP, 1973's 'Ralf & Florian'. Honing their many ambitions down to a few simple yet extraordinarily innovative concepts, their music began growing more and more revelatory -even their clean-cut, scientific image was in direct opposition to the dominant pop fashions of the time. 

Kraftwerk's first album to be issued in the U.S., 1974's 'Autobahn' -their first recording with member Wolfgang Flür, and their last with Plank- was an international smash. An edited single version of the epic title track reached number nine in Germany and number 11 in the U.K., and became the group's lone Top 40 pop hit in the U.S., where they toured for the first time with new addition Karl Bartos. The album went Top Ten in all three territories. Performed in large part on a Moog synthesizer, 'Autobahn' crystallized the distinctive Kraftwerk sound while making the group's first clear overtures toward conventional pop structure and melody, establishing a permanent foothold for electronic music within the mainstream.

 

 

Kraftwerk resurfaced in 1975 with 'Radio-Activity', a concept album exploring the theme of radio communication. Indicative of the band's new global popularity, it was released in both German- and English-language editions, the latter appearing early the following year, and in France it was a chart-topping success. Train travel emerged as the subject of 1977's 'Trans-Europe Express', which marked an increased movement toward seeming musical mechanization. The line became even further blurred with the follow-up, 1978's aptly titled 'The Man-Machine', a work almost completely bereft of human touches. By this time, the members of Kraftwerk even publicly portrayed themselves as automatons, an image solidified by "The Robots," a number 25 single in the group's home country. 

Having released their most influential albums, the group disappeared from view, the first of many extended absences to follow. They did not return to action prior to 1981's 'Computer World', a meditation on the new global dominance of technology -a social climate their earlier music had forecast. After achieving their second Top Ten placement on Germany's album chart and topping the U.K. singles chart with "Computer Love," they took an extended break from releasing albums. However, their earlier works informed 1982 electro classics such as Afrika Bambaataa's "Planet Rock" and Planet Patrol's "Play at Your Own Risk," and in 1983, they issued a single, the joyous competitive cycling homage "Tour de France," a number four U.S. club hit (number 22 pop in the U.K.) heard in the film "Breakin'". Kraftwerk ended a five-year wait between albums in 1986 with 'Electric Cafe', by which point pop music was dominated by synthesizers and drum machines. Another five years passed before the next full-length, 'The Mix', a set of remixed and rearranged material that placed Kraftwerk -essentially Schneider and Hütter now- closer to the Detroit techno and Chicago house producers they inspired. Just before the end of the '90s, Kraftwerk released their first original material in well over a decade, the "Expo 2000" single.

 
The group celebrated the 2003 centennial anniversary of 'Tour de France' with a new version of their 1983 single, and followed it with a full album, 'Tour de France Soundtracks'. 'Minimum-Maximum', a live recording, arrived in 2005. Schneider departed in 2008, leaving Hütter as the lone founding member, flanked by longtime associates Fritz Hilpert and Henning Schmitz (and eventually live video technicians Stefan Pfaffe and Falk Grieffenhagen). From the late 2000s through the 2010s, Hütter tended to Kraftwerk's recorded legacy and continued to tour. An extensive box set, 'The Catalogue', pulled together their eight core albums with remastered sound in 2009. Three years later, Kraftwerk performed their studio works from 'Autobahn' to 'Tour de France' at New York's Museum of Modern Art, and soon did the same in Düsseldorf and at the Tate Modern in London. The group's steady touring culminated in the live release '3-D The Catalogue', capturing performances from 2012 through 2016. On May 6, 2020, representatives of Kraftwerk confirmed that Schneider had died from cancer. [SOURCE: ALLMUSIC]

 

The Knack

Forming in Los Angeles in the late '70s, The Knack (Doug Fieger, vocals/guitar; Berton Averre, lead guitar; Prescott Niles, bass; and Bruce Gary, drums) were neither punk nor rock, but pure simple pop, standing out among the musical dross that littered the Sunset Strip. Signing with Capitol after a feeding frenzy of label offers, The Knack released their debut, 'Get the Knack', in 1979. With its leadoff single, "My Sharona," The Knack climbed both the album and singles charts (eventually selling millions of copies around the globe), gained wide commercial acceptance, and regenerated the power pop scene that had laid dormant for half a decade.

 
The Knack's image, or lack thereof, was often unfavorably compared to The Beatles, but their music relied on the rough punchiness of The Kinks and The Who rather than the Fab Four. Their refusal to do interviews turned critics against them, and by the time they released their second album, '...But the Little Girls Understand', less than a year after the debut, the backlash had already begun ("Knuke the Knack"). 

The Knack then began a quick spiral downward that they were never to recover from. Their third album, 'Round Trip', was adventurous and daring and received favorable reviews, but the band decided to split up soon after the album was released. Due to their continuing underground popularity, The Knack resurfaced almost a decade later (minus Bruce Gary) and recorded the abysmal 'Serious Fun' before hiding out once again to lick their wounds. The appearance of "My Sharona" on soundtracks and compilations caused The Knack to be thrown in the midst of a revival of sorts, reuniting and playing the occasional show in L.A. Bruce Gary temporarily returned to the fold, but by the time The Knack released their second "reunion" album, 'Zoom', during the summer of 1998, the drum stool had been filled by Terry Bozzio (formerly of Missing Persons and Frank Zappa's band). Still, the bandmembers hoped that a whole new generation of music fans would get The Knack with the release of 2001's 'Normal as the Next Guy', an album that found the group at its best when discarding old formulas. Fieger, however, died in 2010 after battling lung and heart cancer. [SOURCE: ALLMUSIC]

 

Electric Eels

What can you say about a scuzzy bunch of troublemakers, who used rock and roll as means of venting their seemingly endless frustration, boredom, and hatred upon an unsuspecting public? How about, "Cool, did they make any records?" The Electric Eels might well have been the biggest bunch of low-lifes to come out of the late pre-punk scene in Cleveland, which is saying something for a scene that contributed antisocial snotballs like The Pagans and substance-fueled art-punks like Rocket From the Tombs. They played a total of six gigs (all of which ended in violence and/or arrest) and recorded a handful of crudely played (and mostly bass-less) garage-punk that predicted the angry, fuzzed-out and revved-up sound of The Dead Boys and Rubber City Rebels. So it is safe to call the Electric Eels an influential band, but in a warped, disturbing kind of way. 

 
They formed in 1972 after hulking John Morton and suburban Cleveland friends Dave E and Brian MacMahon saw a terrible band, with a recording contract no less, open for Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band. Convinced that they could suck as much as said opening act, the Electric Eels became a reality. The problem was that Morton and pals were prone to violence (generally among themselves), and this became a part of their approach to recording and, more notoriously, performing. The Electric Eels never employed a full-time bass player, and as a result their sound was fuzzy and grungy, but trebly and, at extreme volumes, capable of being quite irritating. So too was Morton's voice, which was more of a yelp and bark than anything that could be described as tuneful. Their gigs (all six of them) generally disintegrated into shouting matches and fights, especially when Morton would punctuate the songs by hammering a hunk of sheet metal, or start a lawn mower onstage. By late 1975, the Electric Eels' reputation for fighting and unstable (not to mention potentially dangerous) performances led to their being banned from virtually every club in Cleveland, signaling that the end was nigh. Loud, proud, obnoxious, and unapologetically incompetent, the Electric Eels were a great part of the great rock & roll tradition of expressing pure antisocial attitude. [SOURCE: ALLMUSIC]

 

Edwyn Collins

Best known for his tenure fronting the Scottish pop revivalists Orange Juice as well as his international solo hit "A Girl Like You," singer/songwriter/guitarist/producer Edwyn Collins was born in Edinburgh in 1959. He spent his youth absorbing the pop music of the day and learning how to play guitar. In 1976, he formed The Nu-Sonics with guitarist James Kirk, bassist David McClymont, and drummer Steven Daly and began working on creating a sound that blended The Byrds, The Velvet Underground, and Chic with the energy, if not the snarling attitude, of punk. After the quartet renamed themselves Orange Juice in 1979, Collins and his friend Alan Horne formed the Postcard label to release the band's debut single. "Falling and Laughing," recorded for less than 100 pounds, was issued in 1980 to massive critical acclaim, and subsequent releases like "Blueboy," "Simply Thrilled Honey," and "Poor Old Soul" further established the group as a major new talent. Sessions began for a full-length album, but in the midst of recording, Orange Juice left Postcard to sign to Polydor. That label funded the completion of 'You Can't Hide Your Love Forever', which hit record store shelves in 1982. Also released that year, the group's second album, 'Rip It Up', was a more ambitious affair than its predecessor, veering from the buoyant Motown tribute "I Can't Help Myself" to the energetic pop of the title track, which reached the Top Ten of the U.K. singles charts. Another LP followed, 1984's self-titled affair, but the multiple lineup changes and lack of chart action led the group to disband. 

 
A solo career seemed like the obvious next step, but Collins struggled to find a label willing to release his records. Only after a pair of sold-out London performances did Creation's Alan McGee sign him to the label's Elevation off-shoot in 1986. The singles "Don't Shilly Shally" and "My Beloved Girl" followed, but the label proved to be a short-lived venture, and when McGee decided not to shift Collins over to Creation, the singer was again left without a contract.

 

 

Some months later, Collins accepted the opportunity to record at a small German studio run by a group of devoted Orange Juice fans. Cut with the aid of old friends Dennis Bovell and Aztec Camera's Roddy Frame, the resulting LP, 'Hope and Despair' -a brooding, ambitious collection spotlighting Collins' smooth, soulful baritone- was eventually picked up by the Demon label and issued in 1989. The album proved quite successful on the independent charts, and soon Collins returned to the studio to record 1990's 'Hellbent on Compromise'; when the LP failed to repeat its predecessor's good fortune, Demon dropped him from their ranks, and another long sabbatical followed. 

 
Collins spent much of the decade's first half in the producer's seat, overseeing sessions from artists including longtime pal Paul Quinn, The Rockingbirds, A House, and The Frank and Walters. He finally earned another shot as a performer when he signed with the U.K. indie Setanta, which released the album 'Gorgeous George' -a scathing, shimmering set of retro-pop highlighted by the single "A Girl Like You"- in 1994. Slowly, the song became a massive hit throughout Europe as well as the U.S. and returned Collins to the charts for the first time since the 1983 Orange Juice smash "Rip It Up," finally establishing the longstanding cult hero as something of a household name. The success of "A Girl Like You" also gave Collins the financial means needed to build his own studio, which he did in West Hampstead with the help of engineer Seb Lewsley. The duo recorded many artists at West Heath Studio, including Robert Forster, The Cribs, and The Proclaimers. Collins also used the studio to record his solo records. 1997's 'I'm Not Following' was the first; it featured the single "Magic Piper (of Love)," which reached the Top 40 of the U.K. singles charts and was also on the soundtrack for the film "Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery". The album was recorded with his core band of drummer Paul Cook of Sex Pistols fame, bassist Clare Kenny, and keyboardist Sean Read, along with the inimitable vocals of Mark E. Smith on one track.

 

 

Collins turned mostly to producing other artists for the next few years, working on records by Vic Godard, Astrid, Terrorvision, and Space. When he did get back behind the mic, it was to work on the album 'Doctor Syntax'. Released in 2002, the record was built around samples culled by Seb Lewsley with almost all the instruments played by Collins. After its release, Collins moved back to the producer's chair. Albums by Little Barrie, HAL, and Dave Couse were recorded at West Heath between 2002 and 2005. He also began working on a more acoustic and introspective solo album, but the sessions were cut short when Collins suffered two severe cerebral hemorrhages that left him unable to walk, move his right arm, or remember words. His stubborn nature and the undying support of his wife (and manager), Grace Maxwell, kept him on the road to recovery as he learned to walk, then talk, and finally sing again. After a brief attempt to return to the studio to mix the album he had recorded, Collins took extended time off to recover. During that period, he worked on drawing, quickly becoming a master of depicting birds and woodland creatures. Eventually, he and Lewsley went back to West Heath (which had been used by Collins' friend Bernard Butler while he convalesced) and finished mixing what became 'Home Again'. The album, which showcased Collins' introspective side and soulful croon, was released on Heavenly Recordings in September 2007. 

 
In 2010, Collins released 'Losing Sleep', his first new collection of songs since his illness. The album featured guest appearances from a wide range of collaborators -including members of The Cribs, The Drums, Franz Ferdinand, and Little Barrie- and showed that Collins was well along the road to recovery. As Collins continued to get stronger, he and James Endeacott, a former A&R man at Rough Trade, formed a new record label, Analogue Enhanced Digital, to release further records by Edwyn, new artists, and old chums like Roddy Frame. He also maintained a regular schedule of playing live shows, and in March of 2013 he released a new album for AED titled 'Understated'. The LP was made with the core band of multi-instrumentalists Carwyn Ellis and Sean Read, Rails' guitarist James Walbourne, and long-time drummer Paul Cook. At the same time, he and Maxwell were working with filmmakers James Hall and Edward Lovelace on a documentary that charted Collins' comeback. Titled "The Possibilities Are Endless", a phrase that Collins repeated over and over while in his hospital bed, it was released in 2014. A soundtrack album featuring old songs and newly recorded instrumentals was issued at the same time.

 
Around this time, Collins and Maxwell decided to leave London and West Heath behind and move to the Scottish Highlands, where they built a new studio complete with breathtaking views of the Moray Firth. Once constructed, it was used to record albums by bands like Hooton Tennis Club, Tracyanne & Danny, Spinning Coin, and many others. Collins himself also worked there, and with Ellis and Read assisting him again, he recorded his third post-stroke album, 'Badbea'. It was released in March 2019 by AED, after which Collins undertook some live shows to promote it. [SOURCE: ALLMUSIC]