The Top Ten Hair Bands of All Time

I actually was just starting to play guitar when hair metal was really popular and learned the songs of many of these bands. I actually performed some of these with various group incarnations live when I was much younger. It appears that hair metal might be starting to make a comeback. Here are the bands that I feel were the top ten hair bands of all time.

The first band that comes to mind is Poison. The heart of this band is Brett Michaels on Vocals, C.C. Deville on guitar, Bobby Dall on bass guitar and Rikki Rockett on drums. They did have two additional members on guitar during a hiatus of Deville in the late 1990s, but the original line up is back together and jamming. They were very heavy into make up. I actually recall a couple teachers seeing album covers and thinking they were girls because of the large amount of make up that they wore. Some of their biggest hits were Talk Dirty to Me. I Wont Forget You, Fallen Angel, and Every Rose has its thorn. My favorite is Talk Dirty to me. It is ridiculously easy to play on guitar, like most of their stuff, and is one of the first songs that I learned.

Motley Crue is actually one of my favorite bands in general. They had a pretty good run during the years of hair metal and are returning to the tour with their new album Saints of Los Angeles. There has been a couple line up changes at drummer and one at lead vocals, but the core group is back together. The core group consists of Vince Neil on vocals, Nikki Sixx on bass guitar, Mick Mars on electric guitar and Mick Mars on lead guitars. Mick Mars has heavily inspired my playing. He is a really into the old school delta style blues like I am. At first Motley Crue had a bit of a hard core look complete with many satanic props on stage. Many bands did this for shock value at the time, but got more glam later in the 1980s. Some of their biggest hits include, Live Wire, Looks that Kill, Home Sweet Home, Wild Side, and Dr Feelgood. My favorite is On with the Show

Dokken really was not a hair metal band but often gets classified as one. Most of their songs deal with lost love. As a disclosure I will say that I am a guitarist and think George Lynch made the band. Don Dokken really was not that great of a singer, so the band did not get the credit that their music really should have. I think if George Lynch had been with say Ozzy Osbourne that he would have gotten much more credit than he gets now. The original group was the best know. The line up consisted of Don Dokken on vocals, George Lynch on guitar, Jeff Pilson on bass guitar, and Mick Brown on drums. Some of their greatest hits include Dream Warriors, Its not Love, Into the Fire, and Alone again.

Stryper is probably one of the most unique bands of the hair metal days. They were the only heavy metal group that I can think of whose music centered on Christianity and love for Jesus Christ. Musically I think the band was often very underrated compared to their contemporaries. I think Michael Sweet was one of the best vocalist in hair metal and the guitar solos and rhythms were as good as many bands. Originally they wore all yellow and black costumes. There final album before they disbanded then reunited was called Against the Law. Supposedly their faith stayed the same, but they moved away from the Christian lyrics and dumped the yellow and black costumes. The core line up featured Michael Sweet on lead Vocals and guitar, his brother Robert Sweet on Drums, Tim Gaines on bass guitar, and Oz Fox on guitar. Some of their biggest hits included Soldiers under Command, Together as One, Free, Calling on You and Honestly. One of my favorite songs by them is Holding on. It is not as popular as many of their other songs but I really like the message. It talks about everyone being hurt and love coming and going, but Gods love is always there. You are holding on to the one from above.

Ok kiss is my favorite hard rock and hair metal band. They originally went with a make up look. In 1983 the band took off the make up and then became more of a hair metal band for a part of their history. This is the part that I will focus on there. The guitarist changed three times during the 1980s with Vinnie Vincent, Mark St. John, and finally Bruce Kulick playing lead guitar. The rest of the band remained constant. Paul Stanley played rhythm guitar and lead vocals, Gene Simmons played bass guitar and lead vocals and Eric Carr was on drums and occasionally added a lead vocal. Some of their biggest hits of this time period included Heavens on Fire, Tears are Falling, Reason to live, Crazy Nights and Forever. In the late 1990s the original line up of Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons, Peter Criss and Ace Frehley would record an album together and launch a couple world tours.

Cinderella was also really popular in the hair metal genre. They were a bit like poison but were more musically talented. They really had a heavy blues sound in their music. The core line up consisted of Tom Keifer on lead guitars and lead vocals, Jeff LaBar, on lead guitars, Eric Brittingham on bass guitar, and Fred Coury on drums. Some of the most popular songs include Nobody's fool, Shake Me, Gypsy Road, and Shelter Me. I will say that Keifer does not get the credit he deserves for his guitar playing.

Jon Bon Jovi has really ran the gamut of music. During this time he definitely was a hair metal artist, but later did several country music duets. While I would consider him one of the biggest examples of a wanna be cowboy I will say he does sing country music fairly well. This is especially true when you consider he is a Yankee. He was a solo artist for the most part. In addition to vocals he also played guitar and was a pretty good writer. Some of his biggest hits from his hair metal days include Living on a Prayer, Shot through the Heart, Bad Medicine, Born to Be my Baby, and Blaze of Glory. My favorite is probably Shot through the Heart. I learned to play it on guitar. The music is good and most people seemed to like it when it is played live.

Whitesnake was a hair metal band of the 1980s. They were not always a hair metal band, but shifted to that style in the hey day of hair metal and make the list for that reason. David Coverdale was the founder of the band and pretty much one of the few mainstays. The lineup through their hair days consisted of David Coverdale on vocals, Adrian Vandenberg on lead guitars, Rudy Sarzo on bass, and Tommy Aldrige on drums. Vivian Campbell was in the band on lead guitars. He and Adrian Vandenberg had some issues and he ended up leaving the bad and was replaced with guitarist Steve Vai. I must admit the band really had it together musically as Campbell, Vandenberg, Campbell and Vai are all considered some of the best at their instrument. Some of the best songs include, Still of the Night, Is this Love, Here I go Again, and Now You're Gone.

Warrant was another pretty popular band of this time period. They had the standard glam musical style and really did not use much blues style on their albums. They had some pretty good success and some hit singles and videos. The main line up of the band consisted of Janie Lane on lead vocals, Eric Turner and Joey Allen on lead guitar, Jerry Dixon on bass guitar and Steven Sweet on drums. Some of the biggest hits include Down Boys, Heaven, Sometimes she Cries, I saw Red and Uncle Tom's Cabin.

Firehouse caught on a bit late in the hair band phase but had some great hits of the time. They are another band that really did not have much of a blues sound to them. The line up consisted of C.J. Snare on vocals, guitarists Bill Leverty, bassist Perry Richardson, and drummer Michael Foster. Co-guitarist Cosby Ellis left the band prior to their big payoff and multi-platinum first album, but co-wrote most of the material. Their most popular songs are Don't Treat me Bad, Love of a Lifetime and When I look into your eyes. The latter two songs epitomize the hard rock power ballad.

Sources

I have listened to all of the above songs, read various articles and owned some form of this music.