Category: Single Review

Def Leppard – “Personal Jesus” (2018) – 7″ Single (The Def Leppard Collection Series)

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In 2018, Def Leppard issued a new Greatest Hits compilation called ‘The Story So Far..The Best of’. It was released on CD and Vinyl and if you got the vinyl set, you received a 7″ Single for their cover of Depeche Mode’s “Personal Jesus”. It is the only way to get that single, that I am aware. And what a strange cover and unexpected surprise from the band. Who would’ve thought they would cover Depeche Mode.

According to Phil Collen in an article in Rolling Stone magazine by Sarah Grant…

“Depeche Mode [started out] really poppy like a lot of bands that disappeared, then all of a sudden they started doing things like ‘Personal Jesus’ – and it was like ‘woah’ … It has an element of cool that was different from the earlier Depeche Mode stuff,” Collen said. “I found it really inspiring how this article that said Depeche Mode sold out more than Bieber or Taylor Swift,” Collen said. “We [felt] a tear of pride and joy for them – the fact that they carried on, never stopped … and it’s sort of the way we see ourselves.”

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Bryan Adams – “War Machine” / “Rock And Roll Hell” – 7″ Single

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We all know Bryan Adams and what a great songwriter he is as he has had numerous hits such as “Cuts Like A Knife” and “Summer of ’69’ to only name a couple. He and his writing partner Jim Valance are two of the best. But did you know they also wrote for other artists? Before Bryan was famous as Bryan Adams, he and Jim wrote a couple songs for the band Kiss. On the Kiss album ‘Creatures of the Night’, they have two songs and both written with Gene Simmons and sung by Gene. One is one of his trademark songs “War Machine” and the other is “Rock And Roll Hell. What we have here is the brand new single released from Bryan covering those two songs. Is it technically a cover if he wrote it? Good question.

After all these years, why has he suddenly decided to release his own version? Easy, Bryan has started a brand new record label called Bad Records and this was his way of kicking off that label and it’s very first single release. They were released digitally and they decided to actually release a 7″ Vinyl Single as well which of course I had to buy as I am a huge Kiss fan and “Creatures” is one of my favorite albums by the band. It is Kiss Adjacent so I had to get it.

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.38 Special – “If I’d Been the One” – 7″ Single

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The last 7″ Single I found this Summer was for a Southern Rock Band that did really well in the early 80’s. A lot of smash hits including this one from their 1983 album ‘Tour de Force’. I said last week that this week’s single was special. And that is because the band was .38 Special and the song was “If I’d Been the One”. The album went to #22 thanks in part to this Top 40 song which went to #19 and #1 on the Mainstream Rock Chart. The version I have is a standard U.S. version and the B-Side was also from the album, so sadly, no non-album track which I love to get as the B-Side, but at least we got another great track from the album.

“If I’d Been the One” was credited to Don Barnes, Larry Steele, Jeff Carlisi and Donnie Van Zant. The song is about Donnie and his relationship with his older brother Ronnie Van Zandt who was killed in the notorious plane crash that killed several members and crew of the band Lynyrd Skynyrd. Donnie asks the question, what if he was the one on that plane? Donnie was definitely hurting and seem to be suffering from survivor’s guilt even though he wasn’t on the plane. It was a chance for him to express his love for his brother and his battle with all the emotions he felt about his death. It is really a sad song.

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Honeymoon Suite – ‘New Girl Now’ – 7″ Single

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Honeymoon Suite exploded on to the scene back in 1984 with their self-titled debut album all propelled by their debut single “New Girl Now”. The song went to #23 in their home country of Canada and only went to #57 in the U.S. So, maybe they didn’t explode on to the scene and it was more like a whimper. I remember seeing the song on MTV and I thought it was a great tune, but honestly, it didn’t make me run out and buy it. Granted, I didn’t have a job that year so I had no money to go out and get it.

The picture sleeve is really basic as it is a copy of the cover of their debut album. The back cover has a picture of all the band members including Gary Lalonde who plays bass; however, he didn’t play on the album as that was handled by Brian Brackstone. Gary was added to the band after the completion of the album. My pressing is the standard U.S. pressing and no non-album track on the B-Side. But I love saving 80’s picture sleeve singles from sitting in record stores and not getting loved.

The song was written by guitarists, Dermot (Derry) Grehan and the song was semi-biographical as he wrote after ending a relationship and moving off to college. The band started out as a cover band and would sneak their own songs in at the end of the sets and people noticed. They entered the song in to some local contest and actually one. This lead to more demos and eventually a record deal. For now, we are only focusing on the 7″ Single that I found this Summer while on vacation in Florida. It was in decent shape and it look like it needed to be adopted so I grabbed it. I figured my Canadian friends would be mad if I left it behind.

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Y&T – “All American Boy” – 7″ Single

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While on vacation this Summer, I came across a single for a band that did not get enough love. The band is Y&T and the single was for “All American Boy”. The song is a cover and was written by Dave Robbins and Van Stephenson. I believe it was first recorded by Stan Bush in 1983 on his self-titled album. Van had recorded this song and it appeared on the soundtrack to the movie “The Slugger’s Wife” back in 1984/1985. Y&T got ahold of the song in 1985 as well and it was included on their album ‘Down for the Count’ with quite possibly one of the worst album covers ever as you can see below for the back cover of the single. A funny enough, the front cover of the single is taken from the back cover of the album. The song went to #48 on the mainstream rock chart.

It was the the first single off the album, but for me not a great song choice to start with a cover. It was probably a label decision, who knows, but singer/guitarist Dave Meniketti, guitarists Joey Alves, bassist Phil Kennemore and drummer Leonard Haze deserved better. The had never recorded a cover song prior and they did two on this album…definitely label pressure. The follow-up single did much better which was their big single “Summertime Girls”. Y&T is a very underrated band. If you want to learn a lot about their albums, check out Tim Durling’s book ‘Down for the Count: The Y&T Album Review’ on Amazon.

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Bon Jovi – “Legendary” – 7″ Single (2024) (The Bon Jovi Collection Series)

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Back in 2022, Jon Bon Jovi went under the knife to fix his vocal cord problem that had been well documented by the cruel trolls of the internet. After watching the documentary, ‘Thank You, Goodnight: The Bon Jovi Story’, we got to see first hand how bad things were for Jon. It is amazing he is even able to still sing. When Bon Jovi released the first single off their upcoming album, ‘Forever’, all questions were answered if he could sing. The answer was a resounding, yes!!

The first single was the song “Legendary”. It was released on March 14, 2024. It did not hit the Top 40 as no band from that era is probably ever going to hit again. Instead, it hit #9 on the Adult Contemporary Chart and #2 on the Rock Digital Song chart. And it even charted elsewhere as it hit #21 in Canada and #27 in the UK. Not a bad start. The song was written by Jon, John Shanks and Billy Falcon who have both been writing with Jon for quite some time.

“Legendary” pays tribute to this wife, “Dorthea”, and their sweet love. He has been married to her for decades. Heck, she has been there since the beginning. It is also a little nostalgic looking at the band’s past and all their accomplishments. It also is a look in to the future and what is in store.

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Billy Idol – “Shock To The System” (1993) – Promo CD w/ Floppy Disk (The Billy Idol Series)

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Billy Idol became fascinated with technology and the cyberpunk movement of the early 90’s.  He saw how the advancement could be used to make music and in fact, ‘Cyberpunk’ was one of the first albums to use ProTools for almost the entire recording of the album. He felt the use of the computers allowed him to do things faster and he felt it gave the whole feel of a garage band.  I don’t know about that last part, but it was the very early stages of how albums and music would be recorded down the road. ‘Cyberpunk’ is the result of all these technological advances and it was an album way ahead of the times. How far ahead?

Well, when he released the single for “Shock to the System” he sent out the promo copies that contained a 3 1/2″ Floppy Disk.  MP3’s eat your heart out.  The disc housed pictures, bios and all the things you now see issued in todays electronic press kits (EPK).  He was also was one of the first albums to actually have an email address in the booklet that came with the album (don’t try it, it though as it no longer works). I finally found a pristine copy of the Promo and now I have the 3 1/2″ Floppy Disk as well. This is now one of the coolest pieces in my collection.

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Def Leppard – “When Love & Hate Collide” (1995) – CD Promo Single (The Def Leppard Collection Series)

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For the band’s first greatest hits compilation called ‘Vault: Def Leppard Greatest Hits 1980-1995’ there was actually two new songs, but only one official single. The single was for the song “When Love & Hate Collide” and was released on on October 2, 1995 where is one of their highest charting songs in the UK for the band going to #2. In the US it didn’t crack the Top 40 on the Billboard Hot 100, but did make the Adult Top 40 going to #39…just barely making it. It was the only new song on the album…well the Japanese version of the album at least. That song was “Can’t Keep Away From the Flame” which we will get to shortly.

The CD I have here is actually the Promo CD that was released by Mercury. It was released in a grey generic record company cardboard sleeve and actually contained both new songs from the album with “When Love & Hate Collide” and “Can’t Keep Away From the Flame”. From what I can gather is this was a US promo and not available anywhere else. Pretty cool.

“When Love & Hate Collide” was written by Joe Elliott and Rick Savage and was demoed back during ‘Adrenalize’, but lost out to “Have You Ever Needed Someone So Bad”. The song had a slightly heavier production for that album rather then the stripped down version here. It was written while Steve Clark was in rehab and the guitar solo on the song is the last recorded guitar solo by Steve who died in 1991.

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Friday New Releases – April 5, 2024

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Happy April. Hopefully, April has treated you well so and hopefully the new releases this week will be a treat as well. We have around 50 this week and a wide variety as well. There is nothing I’m running out and buying, but I’d like to hear the new Black Keys and even see what the Garbage Deluxe Edition for ‘Bleed Like Me’ has to offer. Let me know what you want to hear and also what we may have missed so everyone knows what is out there. Thanks for stopping by and I hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

  •  The Black Keys – Ohio Players – (Nonesuch Records)
  • Garbage – Bleed Like Me (Deluxe Edition) – (Interscope Records / UMG)
  • Old 97’s – American Primitive – (ATO Records)
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Def Leppard – “Tonight” (1993) – CD Single (The Def Leppard Collection Series)

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The sixth and final single from ‘Adrenalize’ was for the song “Tonight”. The song was written by Joe Elliott, Phil Collen, Steve Clark, Rick Savage and Robert John “Mutt” Lange. Written back during the ‘Hysteria’ Tour as a possible B-Side, it was instead held on to use for an album as they felt it was too good for a B-Side…and they’d be right. The song charted in the U.S. going to #62 on the Hot 100 and #13 on the Mainstream Rock chart while it also charted in the UK at #34. 

The song is a ballad and it sees the singer longing to be with the woman he loves and have some very passionate, satisfying sex. He sees the passion in her eyes and he wants to get lost in those eyes and that passion. A night of unbridled love making. Yeah baby!!! 

The band was overdoing it with ballads on ‘Adrenalize’, but this one reminded me of “Love Bites” and “Hysteria” which are two of their best and for that I like this one. When I wrote about “Have You Ever Needed Someone So Bad”, I also said it was a sophisticated sounding ballad with some great melodies and emotive music. Joe captured the lyrics with the perfect intensity and feelings. Joe knows how to deliver a lyric, no doubt. I don’t really get tired of their ballads because Def Leppard are so good at writing and performing them.

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