<p>Paul Rees fell in love with AOR when it began with Boston in 1976, the polished, ramped-up hits that were briefly the music of the American heartland. His book ‘Raised On Radio: Power Ballads, Cocaine &amp; Payola – the AOR Glory Years 1976-1986’ remembers the age when records were launched via car stereos, their eternally appealing sound and the preposterous lives of the people who wrote and played them – Bon Jovi, Pat Benatar, Asia, REO Speedwagon, Don Henley and Toto among them. “It’s happy music,” he points out. “Music that makes you raise a quizzical eyebrow.” In the mix …</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>… the original AOR sound: “Led Zeppelin hard rock with Eagles harmonies and a stratospheric high-tenor voca|”</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>… the absolute power of producers like Mutt Lange (a man raised on radio jingles)</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>… Pat Benatar, the former married bank clerk who wanted to be Robert Plant in a leotard</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>… “AOR stars were all salesmen who talked in quotes”</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>... the many reasons Don Henley fired people on a whim&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>… Def Leppard’s vision of America built on AOR and cowboy movies</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>… “Chicago and the Tubes never played on their records”</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>… “he ended up butterball-naked in a cocaine threesome sting with two disguised police women”</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>… the producer who had his trout pond realigned as he couldn’t work looking at a garden that wasn’t symmetrical</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>… the story of Toto’s Africa: “tape loops strung round chair-backs and a quick flick through a geography book”</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>… “if this record’s a hit I’ll run naked down Sunset Boulevard”.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p><strong>Order a copy of ‘Raised On Radio: Power Ballads, Cocaine &amp; Payola – the AOR Glory Years 1976-1986’ here: </strong><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Raised-Radio-Paul-Rees/dp/1408721112" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.amazon.co.uk/Raised-Radio-Paul-Rees/dp/1408721112</a></p><p>&nbsp;</p><p><strong>Help us to keep the conversation going: </strong><a href="https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear</a></p><p><br></p><hr><p style='color:grey; font-size:0.75em;'> Hosted on Acast. See <a style='color:grey;' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer' href='https://acast.com/privacy'>acast.com/privacy</a> for more information.</p>