Old Enough to Forget

Mr. Mister was huge ... then they weren't. Here in Canada the band's previous album Welcome to the Real World went triple platinum moving over 300,000 units. That's a lot of music per capita and I did my part by buying a record. I remember waiting for the follow up album ... and I don't know how I missed it. I suppose part of the problem was I didn't hear anything on the radio or see a video on Much Music. My sense of object permanence is kind of ... oooh a squirrel. In the fall of 1987 Mr. Mister released Go On ... and while I may have missed the boat, others didn't and the album would still go gold in Canada (50,000) and the band's music would appear in a few soundtracks, from Stand and Deliver, Stakeout , and I am absolutely positive they had a song in the Patrick Dempsey movie Can't Buy Me Love ... I'm certain of it. Don't ask me why I remember that - or why I saw it in the theatre, but not what I had for breakfast. "Stand and Deliver...

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 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 it was. In Canada it sold over 300,000 copies. However, in the US market while it did go platinum I'd always assumed it was in the millions ... millions! Not that sales is any indication of anything other than popularity. Still, when I really liked something, I assumed everybody liked it too. Now, let me qualify that 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...

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 cor...