That sounds oddly specific and completely relatable.

It's called GTA vice City

@@SENATORPAIN1I’d rather go see a Love Fist concert than an Autograph concert lmao

one of those plots that you definitely saw more than once, but can't tell exactly where :D

I cannot comprehend how insanely accurate this is. You're hilarious.

@@jacksonteller3973 Well said. I got all the first three albums and you need to know all the background Stories about the band. How shitty they were treated by the record company and how fast they had to release another record. That's why they released a shitty album like That's The Stuff. But the third Album Loud and Clear is in my opinion still their best effort. Btw It's Not true what Todd is telling here. Steve Plunkett released in 2003 an Autograph Album with complete different band members.

yup, the ones where we all know "yeah these people never deserved better"

@@jacksonteller3973 I've got the more missing pieces Album and also the Buzz Album.

they just had bad luck with their image, and they weren't notorious drug addicts and woman abusers like motley crue. They weren't " cool" . And motley crue were talentless from day one.

​ 😶 . .. mm? Mm⁸

Oof That's a rare insult

I saw them open for Def Leppard in 1984 (I believe)... edit: on further reflection it must have been Van Halen they opened for that I saw.

Agreed. But the third of fourth opener.

Sounds like he was trying to rip you off.

@@troodon1096 Ha ha!

@@troodon1096. "I got this record for free, and I _still_ want a refund!"

"No price tag? I gUeSS iTs fReE"

He lives in California, so it's only 7 PM there.

It's not the middle of the night if you sleep during the day. Then it's the afternoon!

What a shadowy figure...

It is dark in California

​@@joshuarichmond2688 litterly been pitch black for over an hour 🤣

Not true they also had other hits such as “Turn Down The Stereo” and “Give Me The Aux Cord”

@@CantTellYou this comment wins the Internet for today.

Yes, but back then, we meant we were wondering how they got even one hit...

@@GrayvornI’m tellin ya. It’s 6 in the morning where I’m at and I’m in bed laughing my arse off.

Literally 1984

I suddenly want to take the ACT now...

Could have easily blinded that girl. 😉

That’s amazing

😂😂

I still just love the fact that there was an 80s band called “Silver Condor”.

Underrated game, could've been a classic if it wasnt a broken buggy mess

Oh god the memories. I love this bugged out, barely functional mess of a game with a firey passion.

Knew I heard this somewhere…

VRock is Top 3 GTA Radio Station. I would say it's VRock from Vice City, Radio X from San Andreas, and West Coast Classics from GTA V.

I'd replace West Coast Classics on that list with KDST in San Andreas, but otherwise agreed.

@@philly_sports1558 RadioX introduced me to so many good bands

Exactly. I know it because of vice city. So it puts me in Vice City

When that clip of the theme song came on, I audibly went "Eugh."

@@jbwarner8626 LOL same. Such a lame tv show (and theme song).

It did give David Lee Gallagher a steady job for 20 years as the English VA for Riku in the Kingdom Hearts series. And Jessica Biel had a brief stint as the actress who plays hot bimbos/pinup model. And the minor characters were acting debuts for some celebrities.

@@thirteenfury As far as I’m concerned, the show’s only cultural contribution was providing fodder for A Very Special Episode on Funny or Die. 7th Heaven makes Full House look like Frasier.

@@MichaelSmith-fq6hz LMAO

He helped somebody but himself died from drug related homicide

​@@soulbrother5435 Palpatine ironic

Irony is pretty ironic sometimes@@bootmii98

​@@KatarnCrusaderHave you ever heard of the tale of Darth Plageuis the wise?

I hadn’t gotten to the Coca-Cola part of the video yet and was thinking cocaine had a jingle. Which would’ve been even more 80’s if that was the case.

i'm so sorry for your struggles :(

now radio is dead

That is a pretty funny point, stations could have their cake (sell ads) and eat it too (have the content be an ad for their own product)

Yeah, I can think of a handful of radio songs just off the top of my head. By this point, they were usually playing off the nostalgia of a declining medium.

Kind of like doing a song about the DJ to get play in a club.

I want to imagine a modern equivalent, where some guy shamelessly sung the praises of iHeartRadio.

i'm integrating this into my belief system now, they're really such a Limozeen ass band 😂

Nothing wrong with that, it's a sign they don't take themselves too seriously. The people you have to watch out for are the ones who're like "NO! I love this song and it means so much to me that any criticism against it is tantamount to an attack on me personally!!"

I think Brickleberry made the best joke about that. "Steve, you saved my life and inspired me with your music, I love you. You're my favorite singer." "Butt Love is your favorite song and it saved your life?"

I love how it shows the age of his audience

@@jacksonteller3973 ...that's not what the series is about

Hey, I literally bought a copy of "I'm Good (Blue)" to jam to, and that was Todd's worst song of the year award. He's absolutely right that it is as vapid as it gets. But I still love it and I'm owning it. Deal with it! (And while you're at it, could you Turn up... The Radio!) 😄

To be fair, this was not a "hair metal" or 80's thing. Off the top of my head, Rock and Roll is Here to Stay, Rock Around the Clock. Jailhouse Rock. I'm not even to 1960 yet.

Reminds me of 'when loving lovers love'

Don't you mean "Rockin' the Rockity Räk Roque"🤔? 🪨🪨🪨🪨🙃

Only if it's a country ballad.

@@NatalieValentina6 Rockin’ the Rockity Rock Cock

He also produced Michael Bolton's infamous hair metal outing, Everybody's Crazy! I am not kidding.

Yeah just found this out, blew my mind.

As someone born in 1985 who ended up being a heavy metal nightclub DJ for about a decade: I too always forget this wasn't a Def Leppard song.

Ironically enough, Autograph's name was inspired by the Def Leppard song Photograph

Same. My sister use to play Def Leppard all the time, and it was on rock radio a ton, so when this would come up i rotation it just sounds so similar that I just figured it was from one of their early albums like high and dry or on through the night, both cool albums now that I am older.

I knew a guy who thought Journey's "Lovin Touchin Squeezin" was Rickie Lee Jones.

My girlfriend and I have been watching/playing a lot of KZfaq music quizzes (name the song in X seconds or whatever) and it's been kind of startling the sheer number of hair metal bands I've more or less forgotten. Not the songs, but the bands. The ones we remember either had a staggering run of hits (Def Leppard, GnR) or had That One Big Hit (Extreme) and then there are... the rest. I honestly didn't remember this song until it showed up on a quiz and, oh! Right! THAT ONE!

I turned it up in my car when it came up on Amazon Music the other day

Bro?

@R W short for brother, an exceedingly common way to address someone in a friendly manner

@@burgermind802 ohhh same thing as how girls use "like" every other word. got it thanks

@@trossk there is not a single way in which vocative “bro” is the same as discourse marker “like”, probably, other than that they’re both words, bro

that's so cool!

That's so awesome - I love when artists do that, it's so incredibly cool to kids.

Aww that's sweet

Absolute shade lmfao

In his Top 10 worst songs of 2022 video, he did briefly acknowledge Yung Gravy's sampling of Rick Astley, saying it was actually one of the better instances of sampling that year compared to the really bad ones we did get, especially with David Guetta and Bebe Rexha when they sampled Eiffle 65's "Blue" for "I'm Good."

That says things about how terrible was 2022 for sampling

I was a teenager in the 80s and am also all surprised it peaked at #29.

This song sounds era defining

Well damn, now I know where I want to go on vacation

Wait for real? That's hilarious. Keep on rocking, T&T. Sometimes its fun to read about the less scary implications of American cultural dominance.

No shit? That's freaking awesome!

He passed away april of last year.

@@zaiusbaltar7091 feel like I would’ve heard about that, did we work together?

@@carsonpace4000 no, i'm in canada, check wikipedia , also another comment on here from a long time fan mentioned it.

Cool

@@carsonpace4000 Apparently you wouldn’t have lol

Came looking for this comment! 16:09

I love fuck and roll? Fuck of ages?

I am a fuck I am an island

Oh God this is making too much sense and I feel like an idiot now...

So Twisted Sister were actually singing "I WANNA F*CK! F*CK!".

That's because the term "rock 'n' roll" is 1930s/40s AAVE slang for sex. Rock has always meant "sex"

I’m super curious, what’s your band’s name ? That sounds like a pretty awesome experience

🤣🤣👽

FUCK YEAH!! Get a fast car, crank the radio, drive like a mad man, the car explodes, get a new one, rinse and repeat. God, that game was awesome.

Yes

Yeah, except Joe Elliott never pretended it was anything but completely intentional. He was always open about it being a nod to Zeppelin. He was also about 17 when he came up with the name. These guys were fully adult industry professionals.

Winger was actually a decent band. If you like 80s rock you will probably like them. By the time they got going Nirvana had taken the world by storm.

Vito Bratta was a great tapper as well.

@@doomdimensiondweller5627 Ok Stewart 😂

@@rachel_sj I was going to mention that

Any relation to George Lynch from Dokken?

Its a great song, I agree. But i always have to do a corny dance move when i sing "day time,💁 night time,💁anytime"🤷 i kinda shrug and shake my head like I really mean it. Lol like im in kids bop.

Well, if nothing else, liking what you like despite what people say you should like is the cornerstone sentiment of Rock.🤟

teachers crush dreams and destroy childhoods.

Which is basically half the episode, LMAO! Paramount Plus brought that show back last year, by the way.

That’s a good way to put it

@@pervertedalchemist9944 Didn’t know about Paramount+ bringing back BTM

@@eyeheartsushi2212 Yeah, they brought back that, Yo! MTV Raps and Beavis And Butt-Head. All with new shows alongside the old ones.

They always need a sorta "happy ending". The remastered Styx episode jarring cause the whole band is really optimistic but DeYoung isn't even mentioned, and we all know the band isn't charting Top 40 hits anymore.

What band was Martin in?

@@jacksonteller3973if you like that classic Butch Walker production definitely check out August is Falling

@@jacksonteller3973 never heard of them, but I'll have to look them up! Thanx!

There are definitely metal elements in Martin's pop songwriting. From the huge emphasis on bass and groove to those impactful keyboard parts used as instrumental hooks. DUH-DAH-DAH-DUH Oh baby baby, how was I supposed to know...

Is it well remembered? Pretty much all the discussion I've seen around it is people clowning on it and talking about how cool it was when metal became dangerous again in the 90s, but that might just the crowd I'm hanging around

Good choice

He wrote the music for American Psycho the Musical!

Which musical?

​@@DestinyKillerSpring Awakening!

Its also kinda impossible not to.

Or the Mexican Pizza from Taco Bell...which she singlehandedly made them bring back.

The official pencil of rock ‘n’ roll

Also in that image features Brand X (a very fine Jazz fusion band that once had Phil Collins), Kayak (an underrated prog band from Netherlands) and Mick Ronson.

And he played guitar alongside Jeff Loomis on his solo debut. Not everyone gets to do that...

That's hilarious. I'm a Brit born in 1980. Recognised pretty much all but this one.

Same here. I do know the name from hard rock magazines, but even then, it was very clear this wasn't going to be my bag.

Same here. It never charted or got any radio airplay in the UK or Ireland in the mid-80s. Very good song, though. It might have done better had it come out in the late 80s, when Def Leppard were at their commercial peak.

Also British but born in late 88, and I only know it because it was on the radio in GTA: Vice City which I played a tonne of in my teens.

@@Jeevesie1988 Also played that game a lot and don't even recognize it from there. Probably didn't use that station at all lol.

The other one was All I got to take. A decent song, nut quite Turn up the radio but different.

Yea, I saw the thumbnail for this episode and I had no idea who "Autograph" was, or even the name of the song. But yea, I must have heard, and ignored, this song hundreds of times in the 80s. Not good enough to like, and not bad enough to hate. Just forgettable milquetoast rock. If anyone knew who Autograph were by the 1990s, it would have been their name on the poseur kid's T-shirt in Beavis & Butthead instead of Winger (another band I can't remember a single song from).

obviously you didn't live back then. Your friends must have been madonna fans

@@zaiusbaltar7091 I got 51 upvotes in less than a day. So obviously you didn't live back then. Nice try, kid. You probably listen to mumble rap.

i'm 53 but look 30. The video was on mtv day and night so there is no way metal fans of the day didn't know who the band were. It was a huge hit, blondes in black cars got some decent play on mtv too. Know your roots. Your 51 upvotes are from the 12 year old kids who think you know everything. Oh yeah sirius xm hair nation plays turn constantly and even classic rewind plays it occasionally. We're not talking D.A.D's sleeping my day away here. ( good song too )

@@zaiusbaltar7091 Nobody cares, weirdo.

Steve we all know you wrote this.

@@Nico-xf2rb Hehehe, nope it be me, not Steve. Wish he would respond, that would be cool!

Publishing is reportedly the big money in music, so with over 200 songs written for big artists I'd imagine he doesn't lose too much sleep over Autograph's obscurity.

I thought it was KISS...

I have such a hard time thinking of what music from this decade or the previous one anyone will ever have nostalgia for.

Pyromania was my gateway drug into metal.

Id also add shout at the devil (mötley Crüe) and metal health (quiet riot)

I’d say it’s a toss up between pyromania and hysteria. Def leppard is a step above hair metal fs

@@tylerharaf5901 Its because they weren’t really all hair metal. Their first two albums are NWOBHM.

Its a great album,, but I wouldn't use the word "timeless".. it couldn't be any more of its time..

Not at all. People know them for metal health and cum on feel the noize. Those hits were huge and are still staples of 80’s metal.

Nah, that was mostly learned after the fact. Metal Health and Come on Feel the Noise were both major hits people heard and liked before realizing Ozzy’s guitarist that died used to be in the group.

Their first 2 Japan-only albums (Quiet Riot I and II) with Randy Rhoads are on youtube

@@niXity9000 Thank you so much I didn't know!

Technically, by the traditional definition The Tubes are a two-hit wonder. Before "She's A Beauty" hit the Top 10, they hit #35 with "Don't Want to Wait Anymore". OTOH, nobody remembers the latter, so maybe Todd will make an exception.

I was SO waiting for him to mention this one. Now I'm a sad panda.

Hell. Pistol chainshot was the only way I managed this.

"Put on your red shoes, buddy. Let's dance."

@@Tyrathca pistol chainshot was the real mvp for the super attacks, especially with tranq rounds in a non lethal run

it's get a bad rap, i mean do we call grunge bands " slovenly dressed drug addict kill yourself metal " even though most of them died from self inflicted pity ? Hair metal is a derogatory term.

@@zaiusbaltar7091 As much as I like grunge musically, the attitude fucking sucked. It's the 90s, the economy's doing fine, the Cold War's over - just get over yourself and enjoy the good times. Irony took over Western society in the 90s and we've never gotten over it. Shit, can we be sincere and just enjoy life again without making everything into a smug joke, please?

@@rdrrr YES! So glad to see others here saying that. (Basically what you guys are saying here is a better-worded version of my own earlier comment, about "It's cheesy, but I'm from the '80s, so BRING ON THE CHEESE!") I can listen to '90s music now and recognise that the MUSIC kicks ass, but at the time I didn't like it because it was depressing _and it still is_ .Not that there isn't a place in music for negative emotions, but maybe not an entire radioful of it at the same time? In fact, Lindsay Ellis (whom Todd even mentions here, at the end) had a video from way back, about...I wish I could remember what it was! but I do remember that what she was reviewing was made in the '90s, and at one point she mentions all the actually positive things about that decade...then for contrast, goes off on a RANT about all of the problems of (at the time) modern day, and ends it with "SHUT UP, '90S! THINGS ARE SO MUCH *WORSE* NOW!" Damn. I FELT that. I felt that in my soul. Not well enough to remember the name of the video since I suck at names, but enough to remember that moment. :P Sometimes, although parody, irony, deconstruction, etc. can definitely be entertaining, smart and well made...there's just something to be said for stripping all that back and going back to the ORIGINAL version of a thing. For example, although I loves me some Terry Pratchett, sometimes I likes me some good old-fashioned cheesy D&D style fantasy. Person or party of colorful stereotypes on a quest, sword, dark forest, dragon, etc. Stuff like the movie "Willow" or the "Lone Wolf" gamebooks. It's like comfort-food entertainment. And there's definitely something to be said about just letting yourself go ahead and LOOK stupid, but not CARE. The "not caring" part will draw some people to you anyway. A huge part of actually BEING cool, after all, is the confidence to not give a crap what others think. Um, I didn't mean for this to come out as long as it did, so if you're still reading...thank you for coming to my Ted Talk? Heh.

Absolutely

Most of those Brand X albums are worth hearing as well, but I know Todd doesn't get jazz very much.

He also helmed Queensryche's brilliant Rage For Order album.

I know the name from Macabre's "Dahmer" album. Let's say that Hall and Oates thing caught me off guard there, hehe ...

both are known for being "fake" live albums with a good amount of studio overdubs

At least Priest makes some sense, I guess... the booth can only do so much in 1984.

The Spin Doctors and "Two Princes" would be an interesting OHW. The song that made it into every 90s teen comedy and then fell off the face of the earth.

​@@thirteenfury he did a Train Wreckords on the Spin Doctors' second album!

@@thirteenfury I saw the Spin Doctors play in a NYC bar in June 1989 before they got famous, and their setlist was basically their first album. Like with many other bands, a sign that "coming up with decent new material for the follow-up" would be a problem.

@@thirteenfury Not only has he done them on Trainwreckords, they're a two hit wonder. "Little Miss Can't Be Wrong?" And I actually still hear "Jimmy Olsen's Blues" on the radio sometimes.

The verve are ridiculously far from a one hit wonder.

I had a co-worker who saw that same tour. He said it was so funny when Autograph was playing. It was when this song was topping the rock radio charts, but when they were on stage the place was half empty with an indifferent audience. This song came on and suddenly the arena was packed with everybody singing along and pumping fists. After the song ended it was back to a half empty arena with an indifferent audience.

Be honest though, would you even remember their name if not for it being listed in every hair or metal collection commercial during the life of music MTV/VH1?

T-shirt band is right

That last bit is what happened to Enuff Z'nuff. They were a very solid power pop band with some legit alternative rock cred, but when they released their first album (which was the only successful one) the record company overplayed their glam rock image and marketed them as a hair metal band. It basically killed any real momentum the band could have had.

Well, Bad English was a Supergroup; that's why they got popular. The band's members were singer John Waite (who had a huge hit in the '80's called "Missing You"), bassist Ricky Phillips (who was in the band The Babys and is currently playing with Styx), and three members of Journey (Jonathan Cain, Neal Schon, and Deen Castronovo).

​@@brycedownpitchCan Bad English and John Waite create a double one hit wonders episode? You have a solo artist that joined a supergroup and both scored one massuve single

I got the heart of a lion And the wings of a bat Because it's midniiiight!!

I’m glad I’m not the only one to go “this is just a live-action Limozeen that accidentally spelled their band name right.”

Gotta love the ubiquitous product placement going on in music videos. That's a long running trend that needs to be explored, LOL!

yeah todd is insinuating the song sucks when it was a bigger hit than most other 80's metal bands had. He's off base with this one.

Does anything else from them get airplay? One hit wonder fits.

@@zaiusbaltar7091 he said he like the song though. he just thought that the band themselves were bad

That station is even softer than the one in my city if that's the case.

Hair Nation!🤘

@@gtt8428 Bro is down bad lmao, I'm not a girl, and the PFP i'm assuming you're thursting over is Tommy Wiseau, director of The Room, one of the worst films ever.

@@gtt8428 What joke? also I am fun at parties, all the boys love me.

@@gtt8428 WTF are you talking about bro, idk about "black beatles" or whatever, and Never Gonna give you up is an 80's song from a fairly unremembered british guy, so I highly doubt that the Rick Roll was a fucking Psy-op or whatever you're inferring.

@@gtt8428 Ok schitzo

Todd did a video about Mr. Big's "To Be With You", and their story is very similar to this one. A bunch of session musicians with an awful name, but one pretty good guitarist. Autograph signaled the beginning of hair metal's mainstream relevance; Mr. Big signaled its end.

Trainwreckords perhaps?

They were a one album wonder. The Hootie And The Blowfish of hair metal.

Well, they actually had TWO hits from that album: 'Bang Your Head' and 'Cum On Feel the Noize' (actual spelling, it was originally a Slade song). It's just that the first song was a moderate hit, while the second was a MONSTER hit.

That all came down to Kevin Du Brow's ego being so out of control that he basically destroyed the band. The albums that followed Metal Health before kevin was sacked had some really good songs on them it was just that the band couldn't stand being around him for any length of time which meant that touring for extended periods of time was basically out of the question. Frankie Benalli said as much when he was interviewed by eddie trunk a few years ago.

Quiet Riot followed the same path as The Knack: huge selling debut with #1 hit, panned by critics. Similar sounding follow-up album that gave critics the finger in the title and then a huge backlash and crash.

This... weirdly makes me feel worse about the pencil thing. Like, it's neither connected nor proportional, but _damn,_ poor dude's legacy includes a dumb joke about him not being able to read.

I think the La's are considered a one hit wonder in the UK, pretty much. So actually a good candidate all round. Mumm-Ra....did that even do top 40 in the UK? I'd consider them a no hit nothing! Talk Talk (who I love), that would be interesting as you're dead right, in the Us it's one and done, but absolutely not in the UK. They're considered pretty seminal here.

@@boomhaueruk yes you’re absolutely right about The La’s being a one bit wonder in the UK to, BUT the bands story is so fascinating that it would make for a great video & it’s a shock hardly anyone knows it more. Mumm-Ra yes you are right about them also, but I’d argue they are a one hit wonder as that song has become so famous purely for it being used in the end credits of 500 Days of Summer plus they really own that fact (I’ve seen em live and they reference it a lot haha) Plus yeah Talk Talk no argument there, also another band with a brilliant backstory

I don't think Talk Talk counts as a one-hit wonder in the US either, because they have a sizable enough cult following here as the fathers of post-rock.

How the fuck are Talk Talk obscure? "in the States" oh.