Now Hear This - Gorky Park

Before you get your hopes up, no, this post is not about the soundtrack from the 1983 William Hurt movie of the same name. Today I'm talking about the glam rock/hair band Gorky Park.

The band originally formed in Soviet Russia (insert Yakov Smirnoff joke of choice here) in 1987. That same year, they came over the the US looking for a record deal, which they were able to score with help from Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora.

In 1989, they released a self-titled album and its first single "Bang".

This song got quite a bit of air play on MTV, which is how I first found them. The song has a catchy chorus and you can easily imagine an arena crowd chanting along. The video stayed in MTV's Top 15 for two months, topping out at number 3.

If you were old enough in the 80s, you no doubt remember the cold war and a time when it seemed like someone could "push the button" at any time to kick off a nuclear war. The US wasn't quite so friendly with Russia then so for a Soviet band to gain popularity in the US seemed like a big deal to me at the time.

The band's second single, "Try to Find Me" (Billboard #81) was the required on every hair/glam rock album power ballad. The song "Within Your Eyes" may not be a ballad but it's definitely a better candidate to find its way on to a mixtape.

It was the third single "Peace in Our Time" that really made them stand out for me because it features guest vocals by Bon Jovi! In the late 80s, you couldn't get much bigger. Both of these songs found their was to radio. I also dig their cover of The Who's "My Generation".

Although they released three more albums during the 90s, they never managed to match their initial success. With grunge on its way in and the third and fourth albums only being released in Russia I never knew they had more albums until the internet came along.

The first album will always stick with me. Anytime I listen to it it immediately takes me back to the late 80s when the world was a much different place.