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10 Greatest Power Ballads from the ’80s

by darreno on December 3rd, 2008

10. “I’ll be There For You” by Bon Jovi
Released: 1989
Peak Chart Ranking: No.1

This notable Power Ballad from “The ‘Jove” and his cronies remains a band staple and audience favourite almost 20 years after its original release. Hitting No. 1 in May of 1989 it has the dubious honour of having been dumped from the top spot after just one week by the fluffy pastry that was “Forever Your Girl” by the unendurable Paula Abdul.

What’s interesting about this song is that some have suggested it was an early warning glimpse of what the hard rockin’ New Jersey hairbanders would eventually devolve into - a set of saccharine, adult contemporary quasi-rock crooners who sell out show after show to middle aged suburban housewives the world over.

9. “Love Bites” by Def Leppard
Released: 1988
Peak Chart Ranking: No.1

Following the huge buzz the band earned for its hard rocking romp “Pour Some Sugar on Me” Def Leppard Released ‘Love Bites” from its “Hysteria” in August of ‘88 and it quickly topped the charts. It was unceremoniously trumped just a week later, though by UB40’s “Red Red Wine.”
It was the band’s only Number 1 hit.

8. “Open Arms” by Journey
Released: 1982
Peak Chart Ranking: No.2

Depicting two lovers trying to reconcile by starting anew with “open arms,” Journey’s ballad appeared on the band’s seventh album “Escape.”

Apparently, Journey guitarist Neal Schon “hated” the song and legend tells that he said it “sounds kinda Mary Poppins” while lead singer Steve Perry stated he “felt so proud of the song.” While the truth is probably somewhere in between these two extremes, “Open Arms” has earned its share of accolades. VH1 ranked the tune as the greatest power ballad of all time and it has often been dubbed with the monikers “prom song,” and “wedding anthem.”

7. “Patience” by Guns N’ Roses
Released: 1988
Peak Chart Ranking: No. 4

Released on the “G N’ R Lies” EP in 1988 and as a single in 1989, “Patience” was a trendsetter in the hard rock genre for its all-acoustic instrumentation and for the fact that it made it safe for metalheads to show sensitivity and vulnerability.

Many believe that the inspiration for the song was the tumultuous romance between lead singer Axl Rose and his now-ex wife Erin Everly, although this has never been confirmed by Rose or the songwriter (Izzy Stradlin).

In recent years, die-hard fans of the band have read a little more into the song and the video than was probably ever intended by the band. Now that Rose is the only remaining member from the original Gunners lineup, fans say that the final parts of the video depicting a sad and lonely Rose sitting alone in his home watching older Guns N’ Roses videos were in fact a prescient harbinger of things to come.

6. “Alone” by Heart
Released: 1987
Peak Chart Ranking: No.1

Released as the first single from this bad-a-ss band’s ninth studio album “Bad Animals,” Heart shoved aside the screeching insufferable drek that was Whitney Houston’s “I Wanna Dance with Somebody” from the top spot in the summer of 1987. It was their biggest hit.

In 2007 Celine Dion covered this song for her album “Taking Chances.” Needless to say Celine is no Ann or Nancy Wilson.

5. “Wanted Dead or Alive” by Bon Jovi
Released: 1987
Peak Chart Ranking: No.7

This, the third release from The ‘Jove’s third album “Slippery When Wet,” put the New Jersey rockers into legend status, as it made them the first hard rock band to have three top ten hits.

Reportedly the band has said this song is an ode to the rugged westerners of America’s yesteryear. Many fans, however, have interpret the cited “Steel Horse” the singer rides in the song as either a metaphor for the railway bringing a close to the frontier or as an “Easy Rider”-esque interpretation of American’s inherent wanderlust.

In keeping with traditional power ballad themes, “Wanted Dead or Alive” evokes a lost love - in this song it just happens to be the way of life of the frontiersman.

4. “Can’t Fight This Feeling” by REO Speedwagon
Released: 1984
Peak Chart Ranking: No.1

“Can’t Fight This Feeling” was the band’s second Number 1 hit, reaching the pinnacle spot for three weeks in October of 1985. Released in 1984 as an entry on the album “Wheels Are Turnin’,” the song recounts the story of a man falling in love with a girl he’s been friends with for a long time.

“Can’t Fight this Feeling” has the distinction of being the song that dethroned the brooding (and brilliant) “Careless Whisper” by George Michael from the top spot.

3. “Here I Go Again” by Whitesnake
Released:1982 & 1987
Peak Chart Ranking: No.1

Believe it or not this “Here I Go Again” was actually Released on an album by the band in 1982, but was Released to much more success in its eponymous 1987 album.

Eventually hitting Number 1 on the Billboard Charts in October of ‘87, the song written by David Coverdale, is famously regarded for its iconic video featuring actress Tawny Kitaen’s (and later wife) in her wearing white lingerie dancing atop the singers Jaguar.

2. “I Want to Know What Love Is” by Foreigner
Released:1984
Peak Chart Ranking: No.1

Written by Mick Jones for his then future wife Ann Dexter-Jones, “I Want to Know What Love is” hit Number 1 in both the UK and the U.S. and remains Foreigner’s most successful release to-date. The massive hit was the first single Released from its 1984 album “Agent Provocateur.” It reached the top of the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 on February 2, 1985, where it stayed for two weeks.

Despite being a change of tack for the traditionally harder band, this syrupy ballad garnered the band a tonne of radio play and cultivated a whole new mainstream audience for the band.

The grapevine says that lead singer Lou Gramm expressed disappointment over the song suggesting it put Foreigner in a different category of music that he didn’t feel was the real heartbeat of the band.

1. “Every Rose Has its Thorn” by Poison
Released:1988|
Peak Chart Ranking: No.1

According to fans this is the zenith of Glam Rock Ballads; according to Dee Snider of Twisted Sister it was a sign of the pop metal scene selling out to the mainstream by “turning acoustic.” Audiences agreed with the former catapulting this, the third single from Poison’s second album “Open Up And Say…Ahh!,” to Number 1 in the United States for Three weeks in late ‘88 and early ‘89.

Legend tells that the song was originally penned by lead singer Bret Micheals as a response to a failed love affair with a Los Angeles stripper. Supposedly, the band had been playing at a cowboy bar called “The Ritz” in Dallas, Texas, when, following the show, Michaels called the woman at her apartment and heard a man’s voice in the background. Heartbroken, Michaels subsequently wrote the song with an acoustic guitar in a Laundromat.

The song starts quietly and features two intricate guitar solos, one mellow and one fast. “Every Rose Has Its Thorn” was named number 34 on VH1’s “100 Greatest Songs of the ’80s.”

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