It was a golden year for melodic rock. In January 1984 came the debut album from a young band out of New Jersey named Bon Jovi, and in the months that followed, so many other great albums arrived. Survivor, with new singer Jimi Jamison, hit a new peak with Vital Signs. Bryan Adams released Reckless, the album that would make him a superstar. Pat Benatar’s Tropico was a thing of beauty.
There were also fine albums that somehow flew under the radar or slipped through the cracks, but which later became cult classics – Dakota’s Runaway, and self-titled debuts from Giuffria, White Sister and Boston spin-off Orion The Hunter. At the other end of the spectrum, there were huge hit singles for Night Ranger with Sister Christian and John Waite with Missing You. And at the end of the year came the release of two monumental power ballads, both of which would top the US chart: Foreigner’s I Want To Know What Love Is and REO Speedwagon’s Can’t Fight This Feeling.
