School of Rock

Let us go Crazy on you.

This band, formed in the early 70's when Ann Wilson joined Roger Fischer and formed Hocus Pocus. She met Roger's brother, Mike, at a Hocus Pocus show, they fell in love and she moved to Canada with him. Heart was officially formed when Roger Fischer and Steve Fossen (Hocus Pocus bassist) joined the couple in Late 1972-early 73. Ann's sister, Nancy joined them after dropping college some time after. Despite the fact that the Fischer brothers were founder members, they both left the band and the only members that have been constant through time are the Wilson sisters.

After releasing a demo they got signed to canadian Mushroom Records. Under this label, they released only one album, Dreamboat Annie, which became a major success for them, with singles as "Crazy On You" and "Magic Man" They left their label because of the publicity they did for the record was misinterpreted and suggested that the sisters were lesbian lovers. Ann wrote the lyrics to their biggest hit, "Barracuda" after this situation.

The band changed a bit their style in the mid-80's, getting more into power ballads instead of hard rock. Then in the 90's, they went on hiatus. The sisters started doing things again in the early 2000s and released a new record. Ann released a solo album in 2007.

The band was a pioneer in things as mixing acoustic and electric guitars, as well as having women playing rock songs, and the sisters are two of the most influential women in rock. And the band is simply awesome.

And, as a curious fact, Nancy is married to film director Cameron Crowe and have made a few cameos in his movies, including "Almost Famous".

-Dreamboat Annie (1976)

-Magazine (1978)

-Dog & Butterfly (1978)

-Bebe Le Strange (1980)

-Private Audition (1982)

-Passionworks (1983)

-Heart (1985)

-Bad Animals(1987)

-Brigade (1990)

-Jupiter's Darling (2005)

During his Nirvana years, Dave Grohl used to write stuff that he kept it for himself because he felt it wasn't good enough, compared to what Kurt Cobain used to write (we, the fans of Foo Fighters have to disagree). Some time after Nirvana disbanded, and after reject a lot of offers, including the permanent position and drummer of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, he decided to start a solo project: "I was supposed to just join another band and be a drummer the rest of my life, I thought that I would rather do what no one expected me to do. I enjoy writing music and I enjoy trying to sing, and there's nothing anyone can really do to discourage me." He recorded twelve of his songs after the seudonim of  "Foo Fighters", being this the first, homonymous record. He played every instrument by himself, and made vocals in every track.

After the unexpected success (for him, because it's a really good album and every magazine and specialized media gave good reviews of it) this record had, he had to find a supporting band; he thought about inviting Kris Novoselic (Ex- bass player of Nirvana) to this new band, but both agreed that it would be weird for the public, so, after Sunny Day Real Estate disbanded, he invited bassist Nate Mendel and drummer William Goldsmith to join him. The group played its debut show at a keg party in February 1995, and  made their live debut on a big venue on March 3, 1995 during a show at The Satyricon in Portland.

Goldsmith left the band during the recording of the second album, "The Colour and the Shape".

The current members are Dave Grohl, Taylor Hawkins, Nate Mendel and Chris Shiflett. The have released 6 magnificent records: Foo Fighters (1995), The Colour and the Shape (1997), There Is Nothing Left to Lose (1999), One by One (2002), In Your Honor (2005)(Double disc) and Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace (2007)

This time I can't embed the videos due to copyright restrictions, but I highly recomend you to watch Times Like These (Check out, Dave's t shirt), Learn To Fly, Everlong, The Pretender, Big Me and Monkey Wrench.

The Killer Queen.

This awesome british band was formed in 1970. They became famous quickly, due their good music and great live performances. If you're from another galaxy and don't know anything about them, let me tell you that they just are the #13 of the Best Hard Rock bands, acording to the VH1 list; their 1985 Live Aid performance was voted the best live rock performance of all time, they have the record of the biggest attendance to a concert in Hyde Park (150 000 people); according to The Guinness Book of World Records, Queen albums have spent a total of 1,322 weeks or twenty-seven years on the United Kingdom album charts; more time than any other musical act including The Beatles and Elvis Presley; in 2006, the Greatest Hits album was found to be the United Kingdom's all-time best selling album, with sales of +5,407,587 copies, that's over 604,295 more copies than its nearest competitor, The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band; Queen is also the only group in which every member has composed more than one chart-topping single from their eighteen number one albums, eighteen number one singles, and ten number one DVDs worldwide. Also, on January 2007, it was announced that Queen's Greatest Hits I & II was the most downloaded album on iTunes in the US. And they're the most boothlegged band ever, a 2001 survey revealed the existence of 12,225 websites dedicated to Queen bootlegs, the highest number for any band. They have released fifteen studio albums and five live albums. They probably have like a million compilations too. And thet's just an intro.

Contrary to the majority of people's belief, Queen didn't disband after Freddie Mercury's demise, and they still play in very special ocassions, though John Deacon haven't colaborated since 1997.

• Queen (1973)
• Queen II (1974)
• Sheer Heart Attack (1974)
• A Night at the Opera (1975) -This was the most expensive album made at that time-
  
• A Day at the Races (1976)

-These two albums are not a continuation or a two-part album and are not related in a different way than the rest of Queen's albums-

• News of the World (1977)
• Jazz (1978)
• The Game (1980)
• Flash Gordon (1980)
• Hot Space (1982)
• The Works (1984)
• A Kind of Magic (1986)
• The Miracle (1989)
• Innuendo (1991)
• Made in Heaven (1995)

And, before I finish and to crown this journal, another little fact: Bohemian Rapsody is the only song that has reached #1 on British charts TWICE in two completely diferent ocassions, the original release and the re-release after Freddie Mercury's death and is Britain’s third-best-selling single of all time.

After The Runaways disbanded, Joan lived in England, where she pursuited a solo career. After some years she moved to NY and then to LA, where she met producer Kenny Laguna, who convinced her to form the Blackhearts. She placed an ad in the L.A. Weekly and the chosen boys were Gary Ryan, Eric Ambel and Danny O'Brien, later replaced by Ricky Bird and Lee Crystal, respectively.

After an Europe tour, and during their first US tour, Jett and Laguna used their personal savings to press up copies of the Joan Jett album and set up their own system of independent distribution, sometimes selling the albums out of the trunk of Laguna's Cadillac at the end of each concert. Laguna was unable to keep up with demand for her album. Eventually, old friend and founder of Casablanca Records, Neil Bogart signed Joan to his new label, Boardwalk Records, and re-released the Joan Jett album as Bad Reputation, and you can see the "Blackheart" in the cover.

Joan has released a good number of records where The Blackhearts are not properly credited since they're her band. The records are:

-Joan Jett

-Bad Reputation

-I Love Rock n' Roll

-Album

-Glorious Results From A Misspent Youth

-Good Music

-Up Your Alley

-The Hit List

-Notorious

-I Love Rock n' Roll '92

-Pure And Simple

-Evil Stig

-1979

-Naked

-Sinner

One of their most succesful singles, "I Love Rock n' Roll" is actually a cover, the original dong is from british band "The Arrows"

Joan Jett

The 60s

The 60s gave us hippies, stoners, and The Beatles.

These four British boys stole the hearts of every American girl and continue to influence nearly all known music today. The band, however, really existed for only about one decade. They're many chart topping hits consisted strongly at first of pop, "Love Me Do" being probably the best known. The Beatles characterized American pop music during the 60s, but there were many other pop bands during that time. The Buckinghams were one of many bands that sounded likethe Beatles.

The Buckinghams' songs "Kind of a Drag" and "Don't You Care" were both chart toppers in 1967. However, The Beach Boys

also emerged during this decade. There hits consisted of sunny melodies and feel-good lyrics. Their song California Girls has been covered many times by many different bands. Their other great hits from the 60s were Barbara Ann and Surfin' USA. The Beach Boys outlasted the Beatles and entered the 70s with their album The Sunflower, which was greeted as their finest album by critics.

The 70s

While the 70s brought new performers into the limelight, many bands from the 60s still continued to shine. Most notably the Jackson 5, a band that started out in 1964, became a sensation. 

A little Michael Jackson (now commonly referred to as the King of Pop) and his brothers (Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, and Marlon) continued their careers together until 1989. Please listen to ABC.

Another group that continued from the 60s was The Supremes, but their name changed several times. (The Supremes->Diana Ross and the Supremes->Diana Ross)

A brief selection of their most popular songs would have to include Ain't No Mountain High Enough (which I can't find a video for), I Hear a Symphony, and the Happening.

However, there was one musical act that continuosly stayed on top of the charts worldwide during the 70s, and that was ABBA.

Abba created many songs the most amazing of which, in my opinion, are Mamma Mia!, Waterloo, and Take a Chance on Me.

Please Note:

I can't write about Woodstock, "Blood, Sweat, and Tears", or "The Rolling Stones", because that is rock music. :(

I'm also leaving out a lot of pop music, but I feel bad about not posting anything in 2 months.