Ah, hair metal. Where would the 1980s be without you? The genre is one of the strangest in recent memory, a mixture of head-banging and glam. Tough guys with sleeveless shirts and feathery blow-dried locks. Really, what was everyone thinking? Well, a lot of the songs to come from these glamorous bands were pretty great.
Videos by American Songwriter
Here below, we wanted to showcase a trio of hair metal songs that both make our eyes roll and also put a smile on our faces. Three guilty-pleasure songs, if you will, from the genre that still at times gets stuck in our heads. Indeed, these are three embarrassing hair metal songs we actually still love.
[RELATED: 3 Embarrassing Classic Rock Songs]
“Every Rose Has Its Thorn” from Open Up and Say… Ahh! by Poison (1988)
For a band named Poison, this song is pretty palatable. An acoustic-driven number, the track hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and in between shredding guitar solos, lead singer Bret Michaels sings about the perils of love. Michaels was inspired to write the song, he said, when he was in a laundromat waiting for his clothes to dry. He called up his girlfriend at the time but heard a man’s voice in the background, devastating him. Then he penned this track about the downside of love. While easy listening, we have to admit it’s also rather cheesy.
“Pour Some Sugar on Me” from Hysteria by Def Leppard (1987)
A beloved song from the 1980s, this track has a blistering rock edge to it while also being a regular choice for weekday striptease shows. While there’s nothing wrong with that, it’s unlikely that was the mission at the outset for Def Leppard. For a bunch of guys with long hair and tank tops (or no shirts at all) preening around like roosters, this is an odd song and refrain to repeat over and over. Pour some sugar on me! But in another way it sums up the glamorous hair metal era just the same.
“Runaway” from Bon Jovi by Bon Jovi (1984)
This overly serious song boasts an overly serious music video that seems almost like a parody of itself. Lead singer Jon Bon Jovi has talked about the regret he’s felt over this video, saying, “I’m not a filmmaker. Some of [the music videos] we really got right, and others we didn’t. God knows things like ‘Runaway’ and some of those early ones were just dreck!” The song itself about “a daddy’s girl” is strange enough, but the video just puts it over the top, relentless synthesizer and all.
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