Big Life

by Night Ranger

Overview

Night Ranger was riding high on the success of Midnight Madness and Seven Wishes, a pair of albums that actually brought the arena rockers into arenas. They had stardom and they knew they wanted to keep the Big Life -- which is exactly why their 1987 follow-up to Seven Wishes sounds so stilted. In many ways, the record's first single encapsulates what was wrong with the album. Functioning as both the lead single and the theme to the Michael J. Fox yuppie comedy, "The Secret of My Success" found Night Ranger turning down the metal in favor of glossy, radio-ready pop hooks that never quite hooked. It's not that Night Ranger were strangers to radio-friendly pop -- after all, this is the band that wrote the classic "Sister Christian" -- but the formula outweighed the inspiration and melodies this time around. Audiences could sense it, too. Granted, the public's taste was beginning to shift to the harder rock of Guns N' Roses and the alt-rock of U2 and R.E.M., but pop-metal was still the name of the game in 1987, thanks to Def Leppard and Whitesnake. Thing is, Night Ranger didn't have the hooks in either the rocker or ballad department on Big Life, and the respective singles ("The Secret of My Success," "Hearts Away") flopped along with the rest of the album. Though they later rebounded artistically, such a poor performance marked the end of Night Ranger's time as hitmakers. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Product Details

Release Date:	05/27/2016
Label:	Imports
UPC:	4988031147528

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Night Ranger   Primary Artist
Max Haskett   Vocals (Background)
Kevin Chalfant   Vocals (Background)
Kelly Keagy   Drums,Vocals
Jack Blades   Bass,Vocals
Jeff Watson   Guitar
Brad Gillis   Guitar,Vocals (Background)
Bill Champlin   Vocals (Background)
David Foster   Keyboards
Alan Gerald   Keyboards

Technical Credits

Kelly Keagy   Composer,Producer
Jack Blades   Composer,Producer
Jeff Watson   Producer
Night Ranger   Producer
Michael Landau   Composer
Tom Keane   Composer
Brad Gillis   Composer,Producer
Tommy Keane   Composer
Wally Buck   Producer,Assistant Engineer
Kevin Elson   Mixing,Engineer,Producer
David Foster   Composer,Producer
Alan Fitzgerald   Composer
Alan Gerald   Producer
Alan "Fitz" Gerald   Composer
Tom Size   Assistant Engineer
Rick Hulbrook   Engineer
Frank Pekoc   Assistant Engineer