Episode 17 The Tubes The Completion Backward Principle

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Fee Waybill co-wrote and sang backup on two songs on Richard Marx's eponymous 1987 S/T debut, including the Top 10 melodic rock hit "Should've Known Better." And this is when Richard Marx's music had some teeth to it before he followed the same soft rock path as Michael Bolton did. I remember those days when album rock radio was so much different than it is today. Very hard to find radio stations that use the 80s AOR blueprint. Today, Richard's music is the kiss of death to classic rock radio. And he had some surprising rockers on those first two albums of his.

[@TJR-ClassicRockCorner0124]

@@davej.meister5421 I agree with you 💯 Michael Bolton was a hard rock singer but the powers that be at Columbia said we want a hit or we will drop you.

[@davej.meister5421]

Excellent album from a criminally underrated artist that many so-called experts have unfairly labeled as a one-hit wonder. Hard to believe that "Talk To Ya Later" bubbled under the Billboard Hot 100 at #1. Definitely deserved to go Top 40. Instead, the light rock ballad "Don't Want To Wait Anymore" became the band's first Top 40 hit. Their first ever Hot 100 hit was the somewhat satiric 1976 minor hit "Don't Touch Me There" (a comical dialog between Fee Waybill and female co-singer Ree Styles) from their sophomore album "Young And Rich." Ree left the band prior to recording this album, but it's rumoured that she reappeared as the main model in the video to their biggest hit "She's A Beauty" (1983.)

[@TJR-ClassicRockCorner0124]

@@davej.meister5421 I always wanted to cover this album so I researched and also used the essay from the Expanded Edition of the album to help with the research. Talk to Ya Later at least was an Album Rock hit and reached #7 on the Album Rock Tracks chart as it was known as in 1981. Plus was used in a hilarious scene on WKRP at the time and also MTV aired the video a lot. Don’t Touch Me There is a great song from the second album. Fee fired Re after the European leg of the Remote Control Tour. Should have been bigger but what happened was Breakfast in America was released at the same time so A&M’s promotion went to Supertramp. Also Joe Jackson’s first hit came out, Roxanne by The Police took off in the States and also Styx were in the midst of the five Platinum album streak of theirs. Capitol Records was jam packed and Billy Squier’s Don’t Say No was released at the same time as Completion Backward Principle and that album exploded. It was a miracle that The Tubes album went Top 40. Inside Outside was another great album but Duran Duran mania exploded and how Iron Maiden’s Piece of Mind took off was a mystery.

[@davej.meister5421]

@@TJR-ClassicRockCorner0124 Don't forget Peter Frampton (whose music I personally enjoy,) Joe Cocker and (gulp!) The Carpenters were on A&M during the mid-late 70s, as were (double gulp!!) Captain and Tenille. The latter two were a godsend to middle aged and squeaky-clean Christian parents who disliked rock music, especially mine. And the super massive Frampton Comes Alive happened in early 1976 - the same year as The Tubes Young And Rich. I don't think you get much bigger than Comes Alive - which was all over the radio back in the day.

[@TJR-ClassicRockCorner0124]

@ Even Styx broke out with The Grand Illusion in 1977.