VA - The 100 Greatest Hair Metal Songs of All Time (Super Deluxe Edition) [2021] (6 x CDs)

K's HAIR ROCK SPECIAL

VA - The 100 Greatest Hair Metal Songs of All Time (Super Deluxe Edition) [2021] (6 x CDs)

Glam metal (also known as hair metal or pop metal) is a subgenre of heavy metal that features pop-influenced hooks and guitar riffs, upbeat rock anthems, and slow power ballads. It borrows heavily from the fashion and image of 1970s glam rock.

Hair metal. One of the most distinct music subgenres of all time, and one of the biggest fads of the 1980s. Bright colors, skin-tight leather, sticky sweet guitar riffs and enough hairspray to hold up a skyscraper. We all know who the big guys of the era were - Motley Crue, Def Leppard, Ratt, Poison and so on. But where the hell did the style derive from? What took popular rock 'n' roll from being blues-based and gritty to party-pop anthems?

Two words: Glam rock.

This unique subsidiary of rock started in the U.K. in the late 1960s, and became popular thanks to Marc Bolan and his band T. Rex when he started making televised appearances wearing glitter and other seemingly flamboyant clothing. David Bowie

came next, especially when he started performing as his alter ego Ziggy Stardust. Other bands began following suit, focusing heavily on their fashion and appearance and writing pop-rock tunes, like Slade and the Sweet. Eventually, the cultural phenomena carried over the Atlantic and the New York Dolls formed in the U.S. These artists' combination of their androgynous

appearances and their flashy rock music paved the way for artists such as Van Halen and Quiet Riot, who would rise in the late-'70s and start creating hair metal as we know it today.  Early glam metal evolved directly from the glam rock movement of the 1970s, as visual elements taken from acts such as T. Rex, the New York Dolls, and David Bowie (and to a lesser extent, the punk and new wave movements taking place concurrently in New York City) were fused with the decidedly more heavy metal leaning and theatrical acts such as Alice Cooper and Kiss. The first examples of this fusion began appearing in the late 1970s and early 1980s in the United States, particularly on the Los Angeles Sunset Strip music scene. Early glam metal bands include Mötley Crüe, Hanoi Rocks, Ratt, Quiet Riot, Twisted Sister, Bon Jovi, and Dokken. Glam metal achieved significant commercial success from approximately 1983 to 1992, bringing to prominence bands such as Poison, Skid Row, Cinderella and Warrant. From a strictly visual perspective, glam metal is defined by flashy and tight fitting clothing, makeup, and an overall androgynous aesthetic in which the traditional "denim & leather" aspect of heavy metal culture is replaced by spandex, lace, and usually heavy use of bright colours.

Glam metal suffered a decline in popularity in the early-mid 1990s, as the grunge and alternative phenomena revolutionized hard rock, and fans' tastes moved toward a more natural and stripped-down aesthetic and a rejection of the glam metal visual style. During this period, many of the most successful acts of the genre's 1980s pinnacle suddenly found themselves facing disbandment as their audiences moved in another direction. Glam metal has experienced a resurgence since the late 1990s, with successful reunion tours of many popular acts from the genre's 1980s heyday, as well as the emergence of new, predominantly European bands, including The Darkness, Crashdiet, Reckless Love, and American band Steel Panther.

Music journalist Stephen Davis claims the influences of the style can be traced back to acts like Kiss, Boston, Cheap Trick, and the New York Dolls. Kiss, and to a lesser extent Alice Cooper, were major influences on the genre. Finnish band Hanoi Rocks, heavily influenced themselves by the New York Dolls, have been credited with setting a blueprint for the look of hair metal. Van Halen has been seen as highly influential on the movement, emerging in 1978 from the Los Angeles music scene on Sunset Strip, with a sound based around the lead guitar skills of Eddie Van Halen. He popularized a playing technique of two-handed hammer-ons and pull-offs called tapping, showcased on the song "Eruption" from the album Van Halen. This sound, and lead singer David Lee Roth's stage antics, would be highly influential on glam metal, although Van Halen would never fully adopt a glam aesthetic. Def Leppard, often categorized with the New Wave of British heavy metal, released their second album High 'n' Dry in 1981, mixing glam rock with heavy metal, and helping to define the sound of hard rock for the decade.

In the early 1980s, bands from across the United States began to move towards what would become the glam metal sound. In 1981, Mötley Crüe (from Los Angeles) released their first album Too Fast for Love, Dokken (also from Los Angeles) released

their first album Breaking the Chains, and Kix (from western Maryland) released their first album Kix. In 1982, Night Ranger (from San Francisco) released their initial album Dawn Patrol which reached the top 40 in the United States. Quiet Riot was one of the first glam metal bands to achieve mainstream success. 1983 was the breakout year for heavy metal: Quiet Riot's Metal Health was the first heavy metal album to reach number one in the Billboard charts. Quiet Riot success paved the way for manyheavy metal acts, glam and otherwise, as the decade progressed. That same year saw a larger wave of heavy metal albums achieve previously unheard of commercial success, with Mötley Crüe releasing its second album Shout at the Devil, Def Leppard releasing its third album Pyromania, and Kiss releasing Lick It Up. Def Leppard's Pyromania, later certified 10× platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), reached number two on the Billboard 200. The singles "Foolin'", "Photograph", and "Rock of Ages", helped by the emergence of MTV, reached the Top 40. Pyromania's style was widely emulated, particularly by the emerging Californian scene.

The most active glam metal scene was starting to appear in clubs on the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles, including The Trip, the Whisky a Go Go, and the Starwood. These clubs began to avoid booking punk rock bands because of fears of violence and began booking many metal bands, usually on a "pay to play" basis, thus creating a vibrant scene for hard rock music. An increasing number of metal bands were able to produce debut albums in 1984, including Ratt (from Los Angeles) with its breakthrough album Out of the Cellar, Bon Jovi (from New Jersey) with its debut Bon Jovi, Great White with Great White, Black 'n Blue (from Portland, Oregon) with Black 'n Blue, Autograph with its first album Sign In Please, and W.A.S.P. with its self-titled debut album.

All these bands played a part in developing the overall look and sound of glam metal during the early 1980s. In 1985, many more commercially successful glam metal albums began to appear. Mötley Crüe released Theatre of Pain, Ratt's second album Invasion of Your Privacy, Dokken's third album Under Lock and Key, Stryper's first release Soldiers Under Command, Bon Jovi's second release 7800° Fahrenheit, and Autograph's second album That's the Stuff. Los Angeles continued to foster the most important scene around the Sunset Strip, with groups like London, which had originally formed as a glam rock band in the 1970s, and had seen future members of Mötley Crüe, Cinderella and Guns N' Roses pass through its ranks, finally releasing their début album Non Stop Rock in 1985 as well. By the mid-late 1980s, glam metal had begun to become a major mainstream success in America with many of these bands' music videos appearing on heavy rotation on MTV often at the top of MTV's daily dial countdown,

and some of the bands appeared on the channel's shows such as Headbangers Ball, which became one of the most popular programs with over 1.3 million views a week. The groups also received heavy rotation on radio stations such as KNAC in Los Angeles. 

1986 was a significant year for glam metal music as one of the most commercially significant releases of the era was put out by Bon Jovi with Slippery When Wet which mixed metal with a pop sensibility and spent a total of eight weeks at the top of the Billboard 200 album chart, selling over 12 million copies in the United States. It became the first hard rock album to spawn three top ten singles, two of which reached number one. The album has been credited with widening the audience for the genre, particularly by appealing to women as well as the traditional male dominated audience and opening the door to MTV and commercial success for other bands at the end of the decade.

The Swedish band Europe released the anthemic album The Final Countdown which reached the top ten in several countries, including the U.S. and while the title single reached number one in 26 countries. Stryper made their mainstream breakthrough in 1986 with the release of their platinum album To Hell with the Devil and brought Christian lyrics to their hard rock music style and glam metal looks. Two Pennsylvania bands, with Harrisburg's Poison and Philadelphia's Cinderella released multi-platinum début albums, respectively Look What the Cat Dragged In and Night Songs in 1986. Van Halen released 5150 their first album with Sammy Hagar on lead vocals, which was number one in the U.S. for three weeks and sold over six million copies. Additionally, some established hard rock and heavy metal bands of the era such as Scorpions, Whitesnake, Dio, Aerosmith, Kiss, Alice Cooper, Ozzy Osbourne, Judas Priest, Saxon and Accept began incorporating hair metal elements into their sounds and images, as the genre's popularity skyrocketed in 1985-1986. Four Def Leppard songs were on the top ten of the Billboard Hot 100. Glam metal bands continued their run of commercial success in 1987 with Mötley Crüe releasing Girls, Girls, Girls, White Lion releasing Pride, and Def Leppard releasing Hysteria producing a hard rock record of seven hit singles. Another of the greatest successes of the era was Guns N' Roses, originally formed from a fusion of bands L.A. Guns and Hollywood Rose, who released the best selling début of all time, Appetite for Destruction. With a "grittier" and "rawer" sound than most glam metal, incorporating elements punk and blues, Appetite for Destruction produced three top 10 hits, including the number one "Sweet Child O' Mine". Such was the dominance of the style that Californian hardcore punk band T.S.O.L. moved towards a glam metal sound in this period.

In the last years of the decade the most notable successes were New Jersey (1988) by Bon Jovi, OU812 (1988) by Van Halen, while Open Up and Say... Ahh! (1988) by Poison, spawned number one hit single "Every Rose Has Its Thorn", and eventually sold eight million copies worldwide. Britny Fox from Philadelphia and Winger from New York released their eponymous débuts in 1988. In 1989 Mötley Crüe produced their most commercially successful album, the multi-platinum number one Dr. Feelgood. In the same year eponymous débuts included Danger Danger from New York, Dangerous Toys from Austin, Texas, who provided more of a Southern rock tone to the genre, Enuff Z'Nuff from Chicago who provided an element of psychedelia to their sound and visual style, and Tora Tora from Memphis, Tennessee, who incorporated elements of blues rock into their music. L.A. débuts included Warrant with Dirty Rotten Filthy Stinking Rich (1989), and Skid Row with their eponymous album (1989), which reached number six in the Billboard 200, but they were to be one of the last major bands that emerged in the glam metal era.

So, after exhaustive and extensive online research, plus my own recollections and memories, here is my personal compilation of what I consider to be the 100 best and most important tracks from the original hair metal era. This fully packed 6CD set contains only the original studio mixes. No later remixes, re-recordings, or live bootleg versions here!  Compiled as always using the very latest and highest quality digital remasters, with a considerable number of tracks sourced from the original master tapes for superior sound quality.

I hope you enjoy my selection of 'turn it up to 11' tracks! What could be better than 7.5 hours of headbanging, earthshaking, squealing guitar rock?!!

K

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Pt.1     Pt.2     Pt.3 

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Track lists

CD1

01 Guns N' Roses - Welcome To The Jungle 4:33

02 Def Leppard - Pour Some Sugar On Me 4:27

03 Van Halen - Jump 4:04

04 Bon Jovi - Livin' On A Prayer 4:10

05 Whitesnake - Here I Go Again '87 4:35

06 Scorpions - Rock You Like A Hurricane 4:12

07 Kiss - Rock And Roll All Nite 2:48

08 Twisted Sister - We're Not Gonna Take It 6:31

09 Quiet Riot - Cum On Feel The Noize 4:51

10 Mötley Crüe - Dr. Feelgood 4:51

11 Poison - Every Rose Has Its Thorn 4:20

12 Guns N' Roses - Sweet Child O' Mine 5:56

13 Def Leppard - Photograph 4:08

14 Bon Jovi - You Give Love A Bad Name 3:43

15 Van Halen - Why Can't This Be Love? 3:48

16 Europe - The Final Countdown 3:57

17 Ratt - Round & Round 4:24

CD2

18 Cinderella - Don't Know What You Got (till It's Gone) 5:54

19 Warrant - Cherry Pie 3:18

20 Kiss - Detroit Rock City 2:58

21 Van Halen - Panama 3:32

22 Poison - Unskinny Bop 3:49

23 Guns N' Roses - November Rain 8:57

24 Mötley Crüe - Girls, Girls, Girls 4:30

25 Autograph - Turn Up The Radio 4:30

26 Winger - Headed For A Heartbreak 5:15

27 Skid Row - 18 & Life 3:48

28 Def Leppard - Hysteria 5:54

29 Bon Jovi - Wanted Dead Or Alive 5:08

30 Warrant - Heaven 3:56

31 Damn Yankees - High Enough 4:17

32 Twisted Sister - I Wanna Rock 4:33

33 Guns N' Roses - Paradise City 6:45

CD3

34 Firehouse - Love Of A Lifetime 4:47

35 Great White - Once Bitten, Twice Shy 5:23

36 Night Ranger - Sister Christian 4:10

37 Lita Ford - Kiss Me Deadly 4:01

38 Aerosmith - Dude (looks Like A Lady) 4:23

39 Kiss - Crazy Crazy Nights 3:46

40 Quiet Riot - Mama Weer All Crazee Now 3:37

41 Winger - Miles Away 4:10

42 Hanoi Rocks - Up Around The Bend 3:08

43 Faster Pussycat - Bathroom Wall 3:41

44 Aerosmith - Love In An Elevator 5:23

45 Ozzy Osbourne - Shot In The Dark 4:16

46 Slaughter - Fly To The Angels 5:07

47 White Lion - Wait 4:02

48 Britny Fox - Girlschool 4:25

49 Vixen - Edge Of A Broken Heart 4:25

50 Hanoi Rocks - Don't You Ever Leave Me 4:06

51 Enuff Z'nuff - Fly High Michelle 4:14

CD4

52 Def Leppard - Love Bites 5:47

53 Y&t - Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark 4:51

54 W.a.s.p. - L.o.v.e. Machine 3:52

55 Bulletboys - Smooth Up In Ya 4:20

56 Cinderella - Shake Me 3:43

57 Poison - Nothin' But A Good Time 3:43

58 Kiss - Lick It Up 3:56

59 Alice Cooper - Poison 4:29

60 Scorpions - Wind Of Change 5:12

61 Queensrÿche - Silent Lucidity 5:46

62 Def Leppard - Rock Of Ages 4:07

63 Whitesnake - Still Of The Night 6:39

64 Cheap Trick - The Flame 5:38

65 Kiss - Forever 3:52

66 Aerosmith - Janie's Got A Gun 5:28

67 Ozzy Osbourne - Crazy Train 4:51

CD5

68 Dokken - Alone Again 4:19

69 Skid Row - I Remember You 5:12

70 Tesla - Love Song 3:55

71 Poison - Talk Dirty To Me 3:44

72 Dokken - Burning Like A Flame 4:45

73 Stryper - To Hell With The Devil 4:05

74 Y&t - Don't Stop Running 4:22

75 Kiss - I Was Made For Lovin' You 3:59

76 Slaughter - Up All Night 4:19

77 Britny Fox - Long Way To Love 4:55

78 Bon Jovi - I'll Be There For You 5:46

79 Danger Danger - Naughty Naughty 4:51

80 Mötley Crüe - Home Sweet Home 4:00

81 Skid Row - Youth Gone Wild 3:19

82 Cinderella - Nobody's Fool 4:39

83 Lita Ford With Ozzy Osbourne - Close My Eyes Forever 4:46

84 Mötley Crüe - Without You 4:30

CD6

85 Scorpions - No One Like You 3:55

86 Winger - Can't Get Enough 4:18

87 Van Halen - When It's Love 5:39

88 Whitesnake - Is This Love 4:44

89 Bon Jovi - Bad Medicine 5:16

90 Poison - Fallen Angel 3:56

91 Dokken - In My Dreams 4:18

92 White Lion - When The Children Cry 4:19

93 Mötley Crüe - Kickstart My Heart 4:44

94 Kiss - Shout It Out Loud 2:49

95 David Lee Roth - Just Like Paradise 4:04

96 Quiet Riot - Metal Health (bang Your Head) 5:17

97 Van Halen - Hot For Teacher 4:43

98 Def Leppard - Bringin' On The Heartbreak 4:31

99 Guns N' Roses - Patience 5:54

100 Poison - Something To Believe In 5:30

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