Night Ranger

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Night Ranger
Night Ranger (2008)
Night Ranger (2008)
General information
Genre (s) Hard rock
founding 1982, 1991
resolution 1989
Website www.nightranger.com
Current occupation
Jack Blades (until 1989, since 1996)
Brad Gillis
Keri Kelli (since 2014)
Kelly Keagy
Eric Levy (since 2011)
former members
Vocals, bass
Gary Moon (1991-1996)
guitar
Jeff Watson (1982-1991, 1996-2007)
guitar
Reb Beach (2007-2008)
Guitar, keyboards
David Zajicek (1993–1996)
guitar
Joel Hoekstra (2008-2014)
Keyboards
Alan Fitzgerald (1982–1988, 1996–2003)
Keyboards
Jesse Bradman (1988-1989)
Keyboards
Michael Lardie (2003-2007)
Keyboards
Christian Cullen (2007-2011)

Night Ranger is a rock band formed in San Francisco in 1981 . The band is best known for their ballad Sister Christian . To date, Night Ranger has sold more than 16 million albums worldwide.

history

Jack Blades, Kelly Keagy and Brad Gillis were members of a pop band called Rubicon, which was based in San Francisco , until 1979 . After their dissolution, they founded the hard rock band Stereo. Keyboardist Alan Fitzgerald, who had previously played as bassist with Sammy Hagar and Ronnie Montrose in his band Montrose , joined them later . He recommended them the guitarist Jeff Watson, who left his own band to play for the newly founded band under the name Ranger . The band Ranger played melodic hard rock.

The band's name had to be changed to Night Ranger in 1982 at the instigation of a country band of the same name .

In 1982 the band recorded the album Dawn Patrol for Boardwalk Records , which gave them their first small success. The album made it into the top 40 of the US charts , as did the single Don't Tell Me You Love Me, for which a video that was extremely popular on MTV was shot. Night Ranger was booked to support ZZ Top , Judas Priest and Ozzy Osbourne , among others . The latter temporarily hired the Night Ranger guitarist Brad Gillis in his band.

In 1983 Night Ranger recorded their second album Midnight Madness , this time for MCA Records , which made it into the top 20 of the US charts, the single Sister Christian even made it into the top 5. In their music, the band tried to create a symbiosis between to live out hard rock music and ballad-like hymns . The image of the band also lived from this balancing act; While Blades - portrayed as a profound, romantic beautician - was primarily intended to cast a spell over the female world, the images of the other band members were conveyed primarily through male expressiveness, with a corresponding target group orientation . With this concept the band was quite successful in MTV's early days. The album Midnight Madness also contains the song (You Can Still) Rock In America, with which Night Ranger has traditionally ended concerts since then, as well as another Top 40 single When You Close Your Eyes. The album went platinum several times .

In 1985 Night Ranger recorded their third album with 7 Wishes . Although the big hits were missing, the band had established itself so much that the album reached the top 10 of the US charts. The single Sentimental Street also made it into the top 10, the second single Goodbye still made it into the top 40. This year, Night Ranger went on tour as the main group for the first time . The stage concept revolved around a North American B-25 bomber, which was also shown on the album cover.

In 1986 Night Ranger composed some songs as a soundtrack for teenage films such as Pretty in Pink with 1980s teen icon Molly Ringwald or Out of Bounds (Heiße Hölle L.A.).

In 1987 Night Ranger released their fourth album called Big Life . Then the eponymous theme song of the film, among other things was The Secrets of My Success (German: The Secret of My Success ) with Michael J. Fox included, which was also extracted the same as a single. The single could not assert itself in the charts; Other releases also flopped. The style of the band had evolved into nuanced compositions and had moved away from the hard rock realms. In addition, there was an incipient rift with the record company MCA, which pushed Night Ranger to more ballad-like, softer songs, while the band preferred to find their way back to their old forms. The single Hearts Away , favored by the record company , was released against the will of the band, which would have preferred a harder track. In addition, there was the fact that rock bands that, like Night Ranger, worked with conventional concepts, were increasingly being supplanted by glam metal bands like Poison or Mötley Crüe .

The album Man in Motion , released in 1988, promised a return to the old days with its rocking sound. Nevertheless, none of the singles - again rather ballad-like - could attract enough attention to provide effective advertising for the album. Thus Man in Motion for previously sold the least Night Ranger album. During the recording of the album, keyboardist Alan Fitzgerald left the band, so that a temporary keyboarder had to be booked for the poorly attended concert tour. Fitzgerald joined Robert Berry's band Alliance , which also includes former musicians from Boston and Sammy Hagar's band.

Then Blades left the band to form the very successful band Damn Yankees together with Tommy Shaw (Styx) and Ted Nugent .

In 1989, after Blades left, Night Ranger officially ceased to exist. The record company therefore released a greatest hits album and the following year the album Live In Japan. Nevertheless, Kelly Keagy and Brad Gillis tried together with the newly engaged Gary Moon to continue the band as a trio , while the other band members went about their various projects.

In 1996 the barely noticed album Feeding Off The Mojo came out, which is not listed in official Night Ranger discographies. Half of the songs on it were sung by Gary Moon. In the same year the original members - with the exception of keyboardist Alan Fitzgerald - came together for a reunion. The purpose of the reunion was a large-scale tour of Japan and the United States . The great response led the band to record another album in 1997, this time for Sony Records . Neverland could not build on earlier successes, but since the days of hard rock seemed to be over anyway, the band was not discouraged by the modest sales as in 1988/1989. Night Ranger experienced a boom when their biggest hit, Sister Christian, rose to prominence when it appeared on the soundtrack of the three - time Oscar-nominated film Boogie Nights . Consequently, they brought in 1998 with Seven another album out, although the title given the unofficial Feeding Off The Mojo actually Eight should have read. The album was published by BMG . In between there was another CD with concert recordings, the Rock in Japan '97 and a best-of album Rock Masterpiece Collection.

In 2000, MCA Records, spurred on by the unexpected success of the Night Rangers concert tours, released another best-of compilation with digitally edited songs from the earlier era: Millennium Collection: The Best Of Night Ranger and, in 2004, a DVD with five the most famous video clips of the band. In 2004 Michael Lardie joined them as a touring keyboardist.

In 2011 the CD Somewhere in California was released with the single Growin 'up in California. That year the band also played live in Europe at Rock the Nation concerts with Journey, Foreigner and Kansas. In 2014, the group released the album High Road and went on a subsequent tour. On May 30, 2014, guitarist Joel Hoekstra auditioned for Whitesnake to apply for the position of second guitarist in the group, vacated by the departure of Doug Aldrich. His move to Whitesnake was announced on August 21, 2014. The band is currently playing with Keri Kelli until a new permanent member is found.

Discography

Studio albums

year title Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements
(Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)
Remarks
DE DE AT AT CH CH UK UK US US
1982 Dawn Patrol - - - - US38 (69 weeks)
US
First published: November 1982
1983 Midnight Madness DE58 (3 weeks)
DE
- - - US15th
platinum
platinum

(69 weeks)US
First published: October 1983
1985 7 wishes - - - - US10
platinum
platinum

(45 weeks)US
First published: May 1985
1987 Big life - - - - US28
gold
gold

(18 weeks)US
First published: March 23, 1987
1988 Man in motion - - - - US81 (9 weeks)
US
First published: September 27, 1988
2011 Somewhere in California - - - - US179 (1 week)
US
First published: June 21, 2011
2014 High road - - CH54 (1 week)
CH
- US105 (1 week)
US
First published: June 6, 2014
2017 Don't let up DE85 (1 week)
DE
- CH44 (1 week)
CH
- -
First published: March 24, 2017

gray hatching : no chart data available for this year

More albums

  • 1989: Greatest Hits (US:goldgold)
  • 1990: Live in Japan
  • 1995: Feeding off the Mojo
  • 1997: Rock in Japan
  • 1997: Neverland
  • 1998: Seven
  • 1998: Rock Masterpiece Collection
  • 1998: Keep Rockin ': Best Selection 97-98
  • 2000: The Millennium Collection
  • 2005: Hits, Acoustic & Rarities
  • 2006: The Best of: Live
  • 2007: Night Ranger Live
  • 2007: Hole in the Sun
  • 2007: Extended Versions
  • 2008: Rockin 'Shibuya 2007
  • 2012: 24 strings & a drummer

Singles

year Title
album
Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements
(Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes)
Remarks
DE DE AT AT CH CH UK UK US US
1983 Don't Tell Me You Love Me
Dawn Patrol
- - CH9 (4 weeks)
CH
- US40 (11 weeks)
US
First published: January 1983
Sing Me Away
Dawn Patrol
- - - - US54 (9 weeks)
US
First published: March 1983
(You Can Still) Rock in America
Midnight Madness
- - - - US51 (12 weeks)
US
First published: November 1983
1984 Sister Christian
Midnight Madness
DE67 (3 weeks)
DE
- - - US5 (24 weeks)
US
First published: March 1984
When You Close Your Eyes
Midnight Madness
- - - - US14 (17 weeks)
US
First published: June 1984
1985 Sentimental Street
7 Wishes
- - - - US8 (17 weeks)
US
First published: May 1985
Four in the Morning (I Can't Take Anymore)
7 Wishes
- - - - US19 (13 weeks)
US
First published: August 1985
Goodbye
7 Wishes
- - - - US17 (18 weeks)
US
First published: October 1985
1987 The Secret of My Success
Big Life
- - - - US64 (8 weeks)
US
First published: March 1987
Hearts Away
Big Life
- - - - US90 (3 weeks)
US
First published: June 1987
1988 I Did It for Love
Man in Motion
- - - - US75 (5 weeks)
US
First published: October 1988

Web links

swell

  1. Whitesnake Recruit Night Ranger Guitarist Joel Hoekstra , sleazeroxx.com, accessed August 28, 2014
  2. a b Chart sources: DE CH US
  3. Awards: US