Hair Band History (May 20th)

May 1987: Poison followed up the smash "Talk Dirty To Me" with "I Want Action", the third single from the album "Look What The Cat Dragged In". The music video begins at a diner..."You guys in a band or something!?" Release information source: [US] FMQB radio trade publication ad - May 22, 1987.

May 20, 1985: Bon Jovi began a string of dates in the UK to conclude the European leg of the "7800° Fahrenheit" Tour with opener Lee Aaron. The entire tour included 150 shows spanning 10 countries.

Spring 1983: Driven by lead single "Photograph", Def Leppard's third album "Pyromania" was a worldwide smash including Japan, where the follow up "Rock Of Ages" would be just as successful... "Gunter gleiben glauchen globen."

May 20-21, 1985: Organized by Ronnie James Dio, Jimmy Bain and Vivian Campbell, 40 metal and hard rock musicians gathered in L.A. as "Hear 'n Aid" to record "Stars" for famine relief in Africa. Record label contractual issues delayed its release for a year.

The "Hear 'n Aid" project originated when Dio felt disrespected by not being invited to participate in the "We Are The World" charity fundraising song, but despite that, the "Stars" recording featured only male performers. Female guitarists and vocalists like Joan Jett and Lita Ford were not invited.

May 20, 1984: This review appeared in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch following a Scorpions show there three nights earlier... "Possibly the most popular German rock band in the United States, easily won over an enthusiastic crowd at Kiel Auditorium."

"Once Upon A..." there was this band from Philadelphia called Cinderella that made us all forget about the fairytale, and the release of their greatest hits in 1997 reminded us just how good we had it in the late '80s/early '90s.

Slaughter released their fourth studio album "Revolution" in 1997 featuring a more eclectic and psychedelic sound that didn't really catch on. It would be the last Slaughter LP with original guitarist Tim Kelly who was killed in an auto accident in 1998.

Happy Birthday to original Hurricane drummer [1985-91] Jay Schellen (May 20, 1960).

Happy Birthday to Cher (May 20, 1946), who embraced the hair band look and sound with her self-titled comeback album in 1987 that featured producers Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora. Jon and Richie also co-wrote single "We All Sleep Alone".

May 20, 1980: Def Leppard performed their first USA show in Santa Monica, California, opening with the song "Hello America".

May 1984: Former KISS guitarist Ace Frehley formed a new band, "tongue-in-cheekly titled Frehley's Comet!" and his replacement, Vinnie Vincent, was now also a former KISS guitarist. -Kerrang!

May 20, 1988: What record has sold one million two hundred and fifty thousand units in two weeks and is No. 1 at Musicland? If you were a teen or twenty-something at this time, you might know it was Poison's "Nothin' But A Good Time"... Big sales and the video played often on MTV.