What the Riff?!?

Many mark the start of the singer-songwriter genre to have begun when Carole King released her second studio album, the iconic Tapestry. As would be expected from a singer-songwriter, all of the songs on the album were either written or co-written by King.  Tapestry is considered one of the greatest albums of all time in the soft rock genre.

Born Carol Joan Klein in Manhattan, King began piano lessons at four years of age.  Her upbr...

U2 released a part-live, part studio album in October 1988 called Rattle and Hum.  This album accompanied a filmed “Rockumentary” of the band which was filmed in Denver and Arizona.  Originally intended to be entitled  “U2 in the Americas,” the album and film instead take their name from lyrics in the song “Bullet the Blue Sky’ from their album “The Joshua Tree.” 

Studio sessions for Rattle and Hum included time at Sun Studio in Mem...

Every Picture Tells a Story is a great name for Rod Stewart's third solo studio album.  The songs consist of solid storytelling, using mixture of original  and cover tracks to paint a mosaic of life, love, and loss.  This album would mark the transition of Stewart from a solid rock vocalist to an A-list performer.  Every Picture Tells a Story hit the top of the album charts in both the US and the UK, and its blend of rock, blues, a...

Guns N' Roses had established themselves as top tier Rock artists in the mid through late 80's, and it had been three years without an album release by the time we rolled around to 1991.  The band got its start in 1985 when members of the band L.A. Guns and Hollywood Rose decided to combine.  They released their debut album, "Appetite for Destruction" in 1987, which originally received disappointing sales, but which built over the ...

Neil Young's most successful solo album is also considered his signature album.  Harvest was Young's fourth solo studio album, and it topped the Billboard 200 chart in the US for two weeks while also spawning two top 40 singles.  

Young grew up in Winnipeg, Canada, and began playing and songwriting there in several groups.  His first success as a songwriter came for a song he wrote for The Guess Who which made it to the top 40 in Ca...

Nothing Like the Sun, or as it is written on the album, "...Nothing Like the Sun,"  is the second solo studio album by former Police bassist and front man Sting.  The title comes from Shakespeare's sonnet number 130 which contains the lines, "My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun."  Sting was met on the street one evening, who asked him, "How beautiful is the moon?"  Sting responded with this line from the sonnet.  

Two events ...

1990 is an odd time for a hard rock band from the late 70's to make a comeback.  Hair metal was declining rapidly, and music that would form the grunge movement was percolating up in the pacific northwest.  But that is exactly what AC/DC did with their album The Razors Edge.  The album reached number 2 on the Billboard 200 chart and number 4 on the UK albums chart, and it would become AC/DC's third highest selling album behind “Bac...

By the mid-70's the Beach Boys appeared to be a band that had been left behind.  Sales had been only moderate for their previous albums, and the band was struggling to determine their direction musically.  In the summer of 1973 the movie "American Graffiti" featured several Beach Boys songs, creating nostalgia for the earlier surfing music.

Between the revived interest sparked by "American Graffiti" and the success of the Beatles "R...

Folks, we're stretching a bit on this one.  Lynch noticed that Roger Waters performed "The Wall" at the Berlin wall in this month, and used that as an excuse to feature A Momentary Lapse of Reason, which was the latest studio album by Pink Floyd. Since that originally came out in 1987, we're asking you to squint a bit to see it's relevance to the summer of 1990.  That being said...

A Momentary Lapse of Reason is the first Pink Floyd...

The Young Rascals were one of the early groups which would define the genre of "blue eyed soul."  For a period of two to three years, this group would generate hit after hit.  Their third album, Groovin', would close out the era in which they were known as “The Young Rascals,” because follow-up albums would see them using simply the name "The Rascals."  

Felix Cavaliere was a classically trained pianist, and joined a band called the...

When it comes to hair metal of the mid to late 80's, no band discussion would be complete without bringing Poison into the mix.  The band consisted of front man Bret Michaels, guitarist C.C. DeVille, bassist Bobby Dall, and Rikki Rockett on drums.  Poison is a band out of Pennsylvania.  Originally named Paris when formed in 1980, the band drew a good following in local bars in Pennsylvania, but decided opportunities would be greate...

Sticky Fingers is considered by many to be the greatest studio album the Rolling Stones ever created.  This ninth studio album represented a return to a more basic sound for the Stones after several albums with less conventional instrumentation.  It was also known for its cover artwork from Andy Warhol which featured a man in jeans with a working zipper.  The album won a Grammy for “Best Album Cover” for this innovative design.

This...

By the time that Led Zeppelin was releasing their sixth studio album, they were solidly on top of the rock pantheon.  They had just switched to Swan Song Records, their own label, and had plenty of time to create this double album work, Physical Graffiti.  They had three sides-worth of new songs largely recorded at Headley Grange in Hampshire in early 1974, and they expanded it to a double album by including unreleased tracks from ...

Soundgarden emerged as a pioneering force in the Seattle grunge scene, bringing elements of heavy metal and alternative rock into what would come to be known as the Seattle sound.  The group originally found lead singer and primary songwriter Chris Cornell singing from behind a drum set where he was the group's percussionist, but it became clear that this would not work well in live concerts, so Cornell switched to vocals and rhyth...

Lynyrd Skynyrd was a success with their debut album, and continued to build a fan base when they opened for The Who on their Quadrophenia tour.  Many of the songs on their debut album were staples of their concerts in Jacksonville, Florida, where they had built their style over the years since the 60's.  Therefore it was not a sure thing that they would be able to sustain their success over time.  Those concerns were put to rest wh...

The Talking Heads is known as one of the more quirky bands of the 70's and 80's, and terribly innovative in their approach to both music and performance.  Consisting of Tina Weymouth on bass, Chris Frantz on drums, Jerry Harrison on keyboards and guitar, and fronted by David Byrne on vocals and guitar, the Talking Heads helped to shape the landscape of alternative and new wave rock through the 80's and 90's.  They really hit mainst...

It's not every day that we at What the Riff?!? review a rap album, but the Beastie Boys aren't your every day rap group either.  Hailing from New York City, Adam “Ad-Rock” Horovitz, Adam “MCA” Yauch, and Michael “Mike D” Diamond came out of an experimental hardcore punk band (think “punk” but faster) called The Young Aborigines.  After changing their name to the Beastie Boys, they saw some local success from a comedy hip hop single...

Echoes of the trajectory of the Beatles still reverberate through music today, and they loomed quite large over the rock scene in the early 70's.  In 1972 a bootleg 4-album set of Beatles songs was produced called "Alpha Omega" which sold well when marketed on TV.  In response - in addition to suing - Apple and EMI/Capitol Records produced an authorized collection in two double albums.  The first was called 1962-1966, also known as...

When you think of rock music anchored by piano, there are only a few standouts.  But outside of Elton John, perhaps the best known rock pianist is New York's Billy Joel.  Born in the Bronx and growing up in Long Island, Joel got his start early (at age 4) with piano lessons and dropped out of high school to pursue music full time.  After joining a couple of short-lived bands, Joel started his solo career and released his debut albu...