After a steady decline in both inspiration, mental stability, and commercial appeal throughout the second half of the '70s, metal icons Black Sabbath were reborn with 1980's Heaven and Hell. The album would be their first with new vocalist Ronnie James Dio, whose passionate, controlled wail broke new ground for the band and helped drive a comeback. 1981's Mob Rules was a quick follow-up to Heaven and Hell, continuing the momentum of that record's energy as well as its shift away from dark metal to more commercial hard rock…

The music and singing are pleasant enough on this Montrealer's second outing. He avoids embarrassments like "Mama Coco" from the following year's Storm at Sunup, but lyrics are not his strong point. This release includes two of his stronger tunes in "People Gotta Move" and the title track. His heart is in the right place, as in a tribute to Jim Croce. Still, Vannelli should have left social commentary to others, or joined forces with a better lyricist.

Not only is 1981's Moving Pictures Rush's best album, it is undeniably one of the greatest hard rock albums of all time. The new wave meets hard rock approach of Permanent Waves is honed to perfection – all seven of the tracks are classics (four are still featured regularly in concert and on classic rock radio). While other hard rock bands at the time experimented unsuccessfully with other musical styles, Rush were one of the few to successfully cross over…

In terms of hit singles and precise musical vision, it would have been difficult for anyone to have to follow-up the brilliant Spirits Having Flown album, but these industry veterans created a real gem in Living Eyes which seems to have gotten lost in the maze that is their deep catalog…

Peter, Sue and Marc were a Swiss music group from Bern. The members were Peter Reber (born 1949, vocals / piano / guitar), Sue Schell (born 1950 in New York, vocals), and Marc Dietrich (born 1948, vocals / guitar). They represented Switzerland at the Eurovision Song Contest[1] four times (and in four different languages, French in ESC 1971 with "Les illusions de nos vingt ans", English in 1976 with "Djambo, Djambo", German in 1979 with "Trödler und Co", Italian in 1981 with "Io senza te") and sold over 2 million records in Switzerland…

Behind the Gardens - Behind the Wall - Under the Tree . . . . is a studio album by new-age artist Andreas Vollenweider, released in 1981. It is almost entirely instrumental, and centers on Vollenweider on harp…