Old Enough to Forget

Mr. Mister managed to catch lightning in a bottle on Welcome to the Real World . Although they had released a moderately successful album in 1984 that managed to crack the Billboard to 200, most people, myself included had no idea their '85 release wasn't their debut. The album is best remembered for two great singles, "Broken Wings" and "Kyrie" that were pretty much saturating radio at the time. I'd always assumed the album was a monster in terms of sales, and in Canada it sold over 300,000 copies. However in the US market it did go platinum but I'd always assumed it was in the millions. Not that sales is any indication of anything other than popularity. Still, when I really liked something, I assumed everybody like it too. Now, let me qualify assessment. I know I've said it before, but I loved making mix tapes for the car and I mined the big songs right away, and honestly didn't play the album as often as you'd think. Sure, the ballad ...

By the mid '80s David Foster was manifesting the Midas touch for just about everything he worked on (except for that Payolas album that was supposed to be gold - those guys couldn't catch a break. I mean really, if guys like Mick Ronson and David Foster can't push a band over the top, the cards are stacked against you). Much of the MOR highly polished pop and the mushy synthesizer "strings" in the '80s could be laid at Mister Foster's feet. Don't get me wrong, I bought the St. Elmo's soundtrack when it came out, but I also eschewed a lot of what he produced. I mean there was only so much insipid music I could stomach. I remember hearing "Who's Gonna Love You Tonight" on the radio, rock radio at that, and thought to myself, "Hey, that's a pretty good song. Who is that?" Don't forget it was around this time a lot of really cool but somewhat faceless "rock" was huge. Mr. Mister was the poster band of corporate...