Loverboy
Loverboy is based in Vancouver and was driven to the top by the management of Lou Blair and Hall of Fame inductee Bruce Allen, Loverboy defines the sound of the 1980s with singles, albums, and film soundtracks. According to Mike Reno the name came from a dream by guitarist Paul Dean that he had after his bandmates and their girlfriends were browsing through fashion magazines where Cover Girl became Cover Boy which morphed into Loverboy and the name stuck!
Originally rejected by all the major record labels in the United States, the band signed with Columbia Records of Canada, and on March 20, 1980, Loverboy went into the studio with producer Bruce Fairbairn and engineer Bob Rock to record what would be its self-titled debut album.
Over that summer, the record became a huge hit with eventually over one million records sold in Canada alone. The album made its American debut in November 1980, and would go on to sell over two million copies in the US. The band went on a touring spree that year putting on over 200 shows with bands such as Cheap Trick, ZZ Top, Kansas, and Def Leppard. Their debut single, “Turn Me Loose”, went on to hit No. 7 on the Canadian charts and No. 35 on the US Billboard Hot 100 in early 1981. “The Kid Is Hot Tonite” was also a single.
The band’s follow-up album, Get Lucky, released in October 1981 when it was opening for Journey, included the hit tracks “Working for the Weekend”, “When It’s Over” and “Lucky Ones”. It became the group’s best selling album in the U.S., reaching No. 7 on the Billboard album chart and selling over four million copies. In the same year Loverboy received six Juno Awards (Canada’s highest award for music) in one year, a record that still stands today Loverboy’s third album, Keep It Up in 1983 indeed kept it up. The record’s first single “Hot Girls in Love” became their most successful to that date, reaching No. 11 on the US Billboard Hot 100. The video for the song as well as for the follow-up single “Queen of the Broken Hearts” were hugely popular on MTV. Selling records and breaking records is just a way of life for a band that continues to tour and delight audiences to this day.
