Great Musicians

Sir Roderick David Stewart (born 10 January 1945) is a British rock and pop singer and songwriter. Born and raised in London, he is of Scottish and English ancestry. With his distinctive raspy singing voice, Stewart is among the best-selling music artists of all time, having sold over 250 million records worldwide. He has had 10 number-one albums and 31 top ten singles in the UK, six of which reached number one. Stewart has had 16 top ten singles in the US, with four reaching number one on the Billboard Hot 100. He was knighted in the 2016 Birthday Honours for services to music and charity.

Stewart's music career began in 1962 when he took up busking with a harmonica. In 1963, he joined The Dimensions as a harmonica player and vocalist. In 1964, Stewart joined Long John Baldry and the All Stars before moving to the Jeff Beck Group in 1967. Joining Faces in 1969, he also maintained a solo career releasing his debut album that year. Stewart's early albums were a fusion of rock, folk music, soul music, and R&B. His third album, 1971's Every Picture Tells a Story, was his breakthrough, topping the charts in the UK, US, Canada and Australia, as did its ballad "Maggie May". His 1972 follow-up album, Never a Dull Moment, also reached number one in the UK and Australia, while going top three in the US and Canada. Its single, "You Wear It Well", topped the chart in the UK and was a moderate hit elsewhere.

Mike and the Mechanics are an English rock supergroup formed in Dover in 1985 by Mike Rutherford, initially as a side project during a hiatus period for his other group Genesis. The band are known for the hit singles "Silent Running", "All I Need Is a Miracle", "Taken In", "The Living Years", "Word of Mouth", and "Over My Shoulder".

Chicago is an American rock band formed in Chicago, Illinois, in 1967. The group began calling themselves the Chicago Transit Authority in 1968, then shortened the name in 1969. Self-described as a "rock and roll band with horns", Chicago's songs often combine elements of classical music, jazz, R&B, and pop music.

Survivor is an American rock band formed in Chicago in 1978 by Jim Peterik and Frankie Sullivan. The band achieved its best success in the 1980s, producing many charting singles, especially in the United States. The band is best-known for their double-platinum-certified 1982 hit "Eye of the Tiger", the theme song for the 1982 motion picture Rocky III; that single spent six weeks at number one in the US. The band continued to chart in the mid-1980s with singles like "Burning Heart" (US number 2), "The Search Is Over" (US number 4), "High on You" (US number 8), "Is This Love" (US number 9), and "I Can't Hold Back" (US number 13).

Before Survivor formed, Jim Peterik was the lead vocalist–guitarist for the band The Ides of March. The Jim Peterik Band formed after Peterik had released his album Don't Fight the Feeling on Epic Records in 1976. The liner notes of the album, written by Jim Charney, refer to Peterik as a "survivor". This note inspired the name of Peterik's next grouping.

Philip David Charles Collins is an English singer, musician, songwriter, record producer and actor. He was the drummer and later lead singer of the rock band Genesis and also has a career as a solo performer. Between 1982 and 1990, Collins achieved three UK and seven US number one singles as a solo artist. When his work with Genesis, his work with other artists, as well as his solo career is totalled, he had more US top 40 singles than any other artist during the 1980s. His most successful singles from the period include "In the Air Tonight", "Against All Odds ", "One More Night", and "Another Day in Paradise".

John Charles Waite (born 4 July 1952) is an English musician. As a solo artist, he has released ten studio albums and is best known for the 1984 hit single "Missing You", which reached No. 1 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and the top ten on the UK Singles Chart. He was also the lead vocalist for the successful rock bands The Babys and Bad English.

Waite was born in Lancaster, Lancashire, and was educated at Greaves Secondary Modern and Lancaster Art College (The Storey Institute). As a performer, Waite first came to attention as the lead singer and bassist of The Babys, a British rock band that had moderate chart success. The band achieved two pop hits that both coincidentally peaked at No. 13 on the Billboard Hot 100, "Isn't It Time" (1977) and "Everytime I Think of You" (1979), and a solid following of their concert tours. Over the course of five years, the band produced five albums ending with the final album On the Edge in October 1980, after which the group disbanded.

Heart is an American rock band formed in 1973 in Seattle, Washington. The band evolved from previous projects led by founding members Roger Fisher (guitar) and Steve Fossen, including The Army (1967-1969), Hocus Pocus (1969-1970), and White Heart (1970-1973). By 1975, original members Fisher, Fossen, and Ann Wilson, along with Nancy Wilson, Michael Derosier (drums), and Howard Leese formed the lineup for the band's initial mid- to late-1970s success period. These core members were included in the band's 2013 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Robert Allen Palmer was an English singer-songwriter, musician and record producer. He was known for his powerful, soulful voice and sartorial elegance, and for his stylistic explorations, combining soul, funk, jazz, rock, pop, reggae, and blues. While his "four-decade career incorporated every genre of music", Palmer is best known "for the pounding rock-soul classic, 'Addicted to Love', and its accompanying video, which came to epitomise the glamour and excesses of the 1980s."

Kim Carnes is an American singer and songwriter. She was born in Los Angeles and grew up there. She began her career as a songwriter in the 1960s, writing for other artists while performing in local clubs and working as a session background singer with the famed Water Sisters. After she signed her first publishing deal with Jimmy Bowen, she released her debut album Rest on Me in 1971. Carnes' self-titled second album primarily contained self-penned songs, including her first charting single "You're a Part of Me", which reached No. 35 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart in 1975. In the following year, Carnes released Sailin', which featured "Love Comes from Unexpected Places". The song won the American Song Festival and the award for Best Composition at the Tokyo Song Festival in 1976.

Men at Work are an Australian rock band formed in Melbourne in 1978 and best known for breakthrough hits such as "Down Under", "Who Can It Be Now?", "Be Good Johnny", "Overkill", and "It's a Mistake". Its founding member and frontman is Colin Hay, who performs on lead vocals and guitar. After playing as an acoustic duo with Ron Strykert during 1978–1979, Hay formed the group with Strykert playing bass guitar and Jerry Speiser on drums. They were soon joined by Greg Ham on flute, saxophone, and keyboards and John Rees on bass guitar, with Strykert switching back to lead guitar. The group was managed by Russell Depeller, a friend of Hay, whom he met at La Trobe University. This line-up achieved national and international success during the early to mid 1980s.

The Bangles are an American pop rock band formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1981. The band recorded several singles that reached the U.S. top 10 during the 1980s, including "Manic Monday" (1986), "Walk Like an Egyptian" (1986), "Hazy Shade of Winter" (1987), "In Your Room" (1988), and "Eternal Flame" (1989).

The Police were an English rock band formed in London in 1977. For most of their history the line-up consisted of primary songwriter Sting, Andy Summers (guitar) and Stewart Copeland. The Police became globally popular in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Emerging in the British new wave scene, they played a style of rock influenced by punk, reggae, and jazz.

Bryan Guy Adams FRPS is a Canadian musician, singer, songwriter, composer, and photographer. He has been cited as one of the best-selling music artists of all time, and is estimated to have sold between 75 million and more than 100 million records and singles worldwide. Adams was the most played artist on Canadian radio in the 2010s and has had 25 top-15 singles in Canada and a dozen or more in each of the US, UK, and Australia.

Foreigner is a British-American rock band, originally formed in New York City in 1976 by veteran British guitarist and songwriter Mick Jones and fellow Briton and ex-King Crimson member Ian McDonald, along with American vocalist Lou Gramm. Jones came up with the band's name as he, McDonald and Dennis Elliott were British, whereas Gramm, Al Greenwood and Ed Gagliardi were American.

Huey Lewis and the News is an American pop rock band based in San Francisco, California. They had a run of hit singles during the 1980s and early 1990s, eventually achieving 19 top ten singles across the Billboard Hot 100, Adult Contemporary, and Mainstream Rock charts. Their sound draws upon earlier pop, rhythm & blues and doo-wop artists, and their own material has been labeled as blue-eyed soul, new wave, power pop, and roots rock.

REO Speedwagon (originally stylized as R.E.O. Speedwagon) is an American rock band from Champaign, Illinois. Formed in 1967, the band cultivated a following during the 1970s and achieved significant commercial success throughout the 1980s. The group's best-selling album, Hi Infidelity (1980), contained four US top 40 hits and sold more than 10 million copies.

Over the course of their career, the band has sold more than 40 million records and has charted 13 top 40 hits, including the number ones "Keep On Loving You" and "Can't Fight This Feeling". REO Speedwagon's mainstream popularity waned in the late 1980s, but the band remains a popular live act.

In the autumn of 1966, Neal Doughty entered the electrical engineering program at the University of Illinois in Champaign, Illinois, as a junior. On his first night, he met fellow student Alan Gratzer. They held an impromptu jam session in the basement of their Illinois Street Residence Hall dormitory and soon started a rock band. Gratzer had been a drummer since high school, and was playing in a local group on the weekends, while Doughty had learned some Beatles songs on his parents' piano.

Cutting Crew are an English rock band formed in London in 1985. They are best known for their debut album Broadcast and hit single, "(I Just) Died in Your Arms".

While still in his teens, Nick Van Eede (born Nicholas Eede) recorded a few UK solo singles in the late 1970s, and later was in the band The Drivers, which found success in Canada, particularly with their 1982 single "Tears On Your Anorak". While touring Canada, The Drivers had a support band called Fast Forward, whose line up included guitarist Kevin MacMichael. Van Eede was so impressed with MacMichael's guitar playing that he asked him to form a new band with him. The Drivers split in 1983, but Van Eede and MacMichael joined forces in 1985 by relocating to London, England. Initially, the two made demos that led to a recording contract, before bassist Colin Farley and drummer Martin "Frosty" Beedle joined in 1986.

Starship is an American rock band from San Francisco, California. Initially a continuation of Jefferson Starship, it underwent a change in musical direction, the subsequent loss of personnel, and a lawsuit settlement that led to a name change. Starship's 1985 album, Knee Deep in the Hoopla, was certified platinum by the RIAA, and included two singles that went to number one on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart: "We Built This City" and "Sara". Their follow up album, No Protection, released in 1987, was certified gold and featured the band's third number one single, "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now". After a short hiatus in the early 1990s, the band reformed in 1992 as "Starship featuring Mickey Thomas" and resumed touring.