Never ones to challenge rock & roll conventions by making up their own rules to begin with, Irish hard rockers Mama's Boys also weren't about to question the "sage" advice of their new label backers at Jive Records, who steered them like cattle toward the hair metal promised land/slaughterhouse throughout the recording of 1985's Power and Passion…

"Nikita" is a love song by English musician Elton John from his 19th studio album, Ice on Fire (1985). It was released as the album's lead single on 30 September 1985, charting at number three on the UK Singles Chart, peaking at number seven in the United States, and reaching the top 10 worldwide, topping the charts of eight countries…

Andreas Vollenweider's Book of Roses marries concept to contemporary instrumentalism, and blends the music of numerous cultures into the composer's already worldly sound. Separated into four chapters (where each song is an "episode"), the album chronicles the journey of a young girl from dances in grand ballrooms, through mysterious woods full of magical jugglers, to an eventual meeting with the Sphinx…

Sade's second album improved on the performance of her debut, as "Sweetest Taboo" was a huge hit and "Never as Good as the First Time" landed in both the R&B and pop Top 20. She was once again the personification of cool, laid-back singing, seldom extending or embellishing lyrics, registering emotion, or projecting her voice…

For their ninth album, Procol Harum turned to production by the veteran songwriting team of Leiber and Stoller, who had written the first single ("Poison Ivy") by Procol predecessor band, the Paramounts…

This record was a collaboration between Philip Oakey, the big-voiced lead singer of the techno-pop band the Human League, and Giorgio Moroder, the Italian-born father of disco who spent the '80s writing synth-based pop and film music. It is a testimony to Moroder's fame as a composer that he was able to earn equal billing with Oakey for a record he co-wrote and produced, but for which he supplied no more than "occasional synthesizers" as a musician…