Old Enough to Forget

Good old Sammy. I knew of Sammy at least a year or two before I ever heard the opening riff to "Heavy Metal" from the sountrack album. It was a song I should have loved, but it always sort of stuck in my craw like a spoonful of cinnamon. It should have been tasty ...  I'd seen Sammy's name in the credits of a couple albums I had back in the day: I think the first time I saw his name was in the credits on a Servant record. Servant had incorrectly attributed "Rich Man" to Sammy on their debut album Shallow Water ... I was this many days old when I learned Dan Hartman wrote the song, not Sammy. His name also popped up on Working Class Dog.  Rick Springfield covered "I've Done Everything For You" and absolutely made it his own. A few years later when Sammy replaced Dave in Van Halen  everyone knew who the Red Rocker was. Sammy is cool. Absolutely and unequivocally cool. For whatever reason I never really clicked with Sammy's stuff. I had all of...

On the Edge would be the last album by The Babys and their second to be released in 1980. John Waite would go on to a hit and miss solo career, and Jonathan Cain would join Journey. This was the album I liked best when I was a kid. I hadn't heard Union Jacks, so to me this was as good as the band got. The album opens with "Turn and Walk Away" that must have been a bigger hit in Canada as I'm sure I heard it on the radio. However, in the US it stalled outside the top 40. Too bad it didn't click, it's a hell of a song. This was the band's fifth record, and the band seemed to finally know what it wanted to be. The songs were cohesive and they were good. Sure, they were rooted in '70s rock, but the band seemed to be looking to the future.  The album was produced by Keith Olsen who was pretty busy during the '70s and '80s. There aren't many albums with his name on the jacket that I haven't enjoyed.  I wish I knew what the deal is with band...