Night Ranger

Night Ranger biography

Night Ranger is an American rock band from San Francisco that gained popularity during the 1980s with a series of albums and singles. The band's first five albums sold more than 10 million copies worldwide. The quintet is perhaps best known for the power ballad "Sister Christian", which peaked at #5 in June 1984.

After their success waned in the late 1980s, the band split up in 1989 and its members pursued other musical endeavours including group and solo efforts. Several members released an album without original singer/bassist Jack Blades in 1995, but the band soon re-united to release two new albums in the latter half of the decade. Despite the departure of original keyboardist Alan Fitzgerald and guitarist Jeff Watson, the band has continued to tour and remains very popular in Asian countries, especially Japan.

Beginnings

The group's origin can be traced to Rubicon, a pop/funk group led by Jerry Martini, who gained fame as a member of Sly and the Family Stone. After Rubicon's demise in 1979, bassist Jack Blades formed a hard rock trio with two other Rubicon members, drummer Kelly Keagy and guitarist Brad Gillis. Performing under the name Stereo, the threesome added keyboardist Alan Fitzgerald, a former member of Montrose, in 1980. Fitzgerald soon recommended enlisting a second virtuoso guitarist, so Jeff Watson, who led his own band in Northern California, was added to the group. The seeds were sown for a new melodic hard rock band, initially called simply Ranger.

1980s

In 1982 the band changed its name to Night Ranger after a country band, The Rangers, claimed a trademark infringement. By this point, they had recorded Dawn Patrol for Boardwalk Records and done opening stints for ZZ Top and Ozzy Osbourne; the latter had employed Brad Gillis as a stand-in guitarist for the recently deceased Randy Rhoads in the spring and summer of 1982. After Boardwalk folded, producer Bruce Bird secured Night Ranger a deal with MCA on their Camel subsidiary in 1983.

Their first three albums struck a balance between hard rockers laden with sexual innuendo and accessible pop ballads to guarantee airplay. Dawn Patrol, Midnight Madness, and Seven Wishes all reached RIAA Platinum status and garnered the band international fame. 1987's Big Life fell short of Platinum at around 800,000 copies. Thereafter, the group's fortunes began to decline.

Night Ranger's overall image tended to be somewhat cleaner than MTV contemporaries like Mötley Crüe or Ratt which helped the band flourish during a decade characterized by PMRC controversy. Moreover, their anthem "(You Can Still) Rock In America" appealed to a patriotic trend in 1980s rock pushed forward by both Ted Nugent and Sammy Hagar (Jack Blades would later form a popular supergroup with Nugent called Damn Yankees).

Negative criticism abounded during the band's heyday; Rolling Stone's review of Seven Wishes took a swipe at Night Ranger's "formula" of "sub-Broadway" ballads. Other critics were even less flattering, with terms such as "poseurs" and "pomp-rockers" put forth in various music guides. But favourable critics, such as Hit Parader, underscored Jack Blades' puppy-dog appeal, which won over female fans, while Gillis and Watson's duelling guitars pleased the same male audience that guitar-driven bands such as Van Halen had already begun to cultivate. Both guitarists also featured prominently in magazines like "Guitar for the Practicing Musician." Dawn Patrol's first single, "Don't Tell Me You Love Me", received a boost through its MTV video airplay and peaked modestly at #40 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. "Sing Me Away," a concert favourite sung by Keagy, failed to chart even though it also featured on MTV. Night Ranger's hold solidified with their second album, Midnight Madness, which pushed the band from opening act to headliner status by the summer of 1984. Apart from "Rock in America," Midnight Madness spun off two hit ballads: "When You Close Your Eyes" (#14) and "Sister Christian", (#5) written and sung by Kelly Keagy for his younger sister, Christine. "Sister Christian" proved to be the band's milestone -as well as a millstone- as it turned out.

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