The Left Banke was a baroque pop band from Manhattan that made their debut on the charts in 1966 with the sweet classic, "Walk Away Renee," which hit #5 and became a Rock & Roll Hall of Fame song. Their follow-up, "Pretty Ballerina," also did well, landing at #15. Outside of a blip on the chart at #98 with "Desiree" in 1967, the band was never heard from again. Going through some of their other songs, I can understand why. While nothing is horrible, nothing particularly stands out. Perhaps they set too high a bar with the magical harmonies in "Walk Away Renee." There is one track, however, that I stumbled across that deserved chart action, the infectious "She May Call You Up Tonight." The band broke up in 1969 after releasing just two albums, although they did release an attempted comeback LP in 1986. Primary songwriter and pianist Michael Brown would later join a band called The Stories. He passed away in 2015.
Sammy Hagar's career starts way back in 1973 when he became the lead singer for Montrose. He went solo in 1976 and released several albums before and after his time in Van Halen. Along the way, he also recorded as part of a supergroup called Hagar, Schon (Journey), Aaronson (Stories), and Shrieve (Santana) in 1984. In 1987, as his tenure with Van Halen started to take off into the stratosphere, Hagar released "I Never Said Goodbye," his ninth solo effort. The album's name derives from an MTV contest. It yielded hits like "Give To Live" (#23) and "Eagles Fly" (#82). "Back Into You" is another terrific AOR track that I thought would have performed well. His then buddy Eddie Van Halen even played bass and sang backing vocals on the record. Some extra trivia - what was Hagar's best chart performance as a solo artist? That was in 1982, when "Your Love Is Driving Me Crazy" hit #13. Perhaps his better known classic, "I Can't Drive 55," went to #26 in 1984.
