Bruce Springsteen - The River

Today (October 17th) marks the thirty-fifth anniversary of The River, the double-length fifth studio album from Bruce Springsteen. This multi-Platinum 1980 release flowed to number 65 in Ireland, number 31 in West Germany, number 28 in Japan, number 8 in Australia, number 5 in Spain, number 3 in France, number 2 in the Netherlands, New Zealand, Sweden and the UK, and number 1 in Canada and Norway. Here in the US, it spent one hundred and eight weeks on the Billboard Album charts that included four weeks at the number 1 spot.

Michael Stanley Band - Heartland

Today (September 8th) marks the thirty-fifth anniversary of Heartland, the fifth studio album from the Michael Stanley Band. The 1980 release, the band's first on the EMI America label, spent thirty-two weeks total on the US Billboard album chart, peaking at number 86.

Aretha Franklin - Who's Zoomin' Who?

This month marks the thirtieth anniversary of Who's Zoomin' Who?, the thirty-first studio album from Aretha Franklin. This Platinum seller, produced by Narada (Michael Walden) from 1985 spent fifty-one weeks on the US Billboard Album chart, peaking at number 13. It also went to number 49 in the UK, number 15 in Australia, number 13 in Canada and number 3 on the US Billboard R&B chart. Rolling Stone magazine ranked it number 86 on its list of the 100 Greatest Albums of the 1980's.

Steel Breeze - Heart on the Line

This month marks the thirtieth anniversary of Heart on the Line, the second studio album from California's Steel Breeze. For this album the group had gone through some line-up changes, adding Kevin Chalfant on vocals and Loren Haas on keyboards (both formerly of the band 707), and J. Schock on drums.

Unlike their self-titled 1982 debut Steel Breeze (click here for that review), the 1983 follow-up was a little tough to track down to listen to for this review. But, once again, the Internet did not let me down (thanks, YouTubers).

Bruce Springsteen - Darkness on the Edge of Town

Welcome to another edition of Seventies Sunday.

Today (June 2nd) marks the thirty-fifth anniversary of Darkness on the Edge of Town, the fourth studio album from New Jersey rocker Bruce Springsteen. Despite a three year period since 1975’s Born To Run (click here for that review), this multi-Platinum seller from 1978 went to number 75 in Ireland, number 16 in the UK, number 12 in Norway, number 11 in New Zealand, number 9 in Australia and Sweden, number 7 in Canada, number 5 on the US Billboard Hot 200, and number 4 in the Netherlands. It actually remained on the US charts for ninety-seven weeks in total.

Bruce Springsteen - Born to Run

Welcome to another edition of Seventies Saturday.

In 1975, Bruce Springsteen released his third studio album, the hugely successful Born to Run. The record helped him break through to a more national and international audience. It was his best selling record up to that point in his career, going Platinum in the UK, Canada, Australia and the US (a number of times over in the later three). It debuted its first week on the US Billboard 200 album charts at number 84, moved to number 8 the following week, spent the next two weeks at number 4 and finally reached number 3 by its fifth week of release. The 30th anniversary edition released in 2005 reached number 18 on the same charts. The album was also a critical success, earning high marks from numerous music publications. Rolling Stone magazine ranked it number 18 on its list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All-Time. VH-1 ranked it at number 27 on its Greatest Albums of All-Time list. Many fans consider it one of Springsteen's greatest works to date.