1984

30/11 U2: The Unforgettable Fire (1984)
Song: The Unforgettable Fire
Video: Official video
As with Metallica, U2 belongs to the biggest impacting bands on Cajs music life so it's the right way to end this celebration of his 30th birthday with 30 albums that also are 30 years old. And we could have done it with the most successful single from this very popular album by U2 but honestly - if we should pick one of the best songs from this album then that's not even a candidate. The title track on the other hand, well that's just better than an orgasm! And it puts an end to this video special for November - hope you enjoyed it!

29/11 Metallica: Ride The Lightning (1984)
Song: For Whom The Bell Tolls
Video: Partly live, unofficial video
As we're almost at the end I'm guessing a few of you wondered if we had forgot about Metallica on this list, but of course not! Metallica is one of the big bands in Cajs music life so we save the good things for the end and seeing how this is one of the most classic albums by the band (if we can say that about Metallica - aren't them all classics?) it's a treat we've saved for this day.

28/11 Queensrÿche: The Warning (1984)
Song: Warning
Video: Live clip
So we hadn't presented you with all debut albums yet, but after this one (the eleventh on the list) enough's enough. However, there are several more on the "B-side" on your left and all these debuts really shows how much talent that presented itself to the world in 1984. Another band that debuted this year was fates Warning and they're considered as one of the big three in progressive heavy metal along with Queensrÿche (and Dream Theater). With 'The Warning' this band really showed they had what it took already on their debut and this clip of Warning shows they had it live as well.

27/11 The Cure: The Top (1984)
Song: The Caterpillar
Video: Live clip
Without The Cure there just wouldn't excist something called goth today. Without The Cure there just wouldn't exist something called EMO. Without The Cure, would we even have movies like The Crow and Edward Scissorhands? Probably not! This is the fifth album by the band and probably the most anonymous album they ever did… with one exception - the single: The Caterpillar is probably the most characteristic single the band ever did.

26/11 Madonna: Like A Virgin (1984)
Song: Like A Virgin
Video: Official video
Just like with Bruce Springsteen we now has a case of the "besties" on this list as we present the best selling female artist not just in 1984 but in the whole 80's. Madonna cemented her position as "the queen of pop" with this second album that generated five hit singles and the title track of the album was the biggest of them all. The album has sold in over 20 million copies, how much airplay the single has got is just speculation.

25/11 R.E.M.: Reckoning (1984)
Song: So. Central Rain (I'm Sorry)
Video: Official video
R.E.M. was one of the worlds biggest bands in the 90's but before that they made a few albums in the 80's that helped them get that fan-base and 'Reckoning' was the commercial breakthrough for the band and the video track of the day was the lead single that made it to 85th on the Billboard charts.

24/11 Bruce Springsteen: Born in the U.S.A. (1984)
Song: Born In The U.S.A.
Video: Official video
It's a strange thing to brag about - being born in the USA but The Boss Springsteen did just that in 1984 and it became both his careers and the years most successful album. Hallowed might be about hard rock and not this kind of blue collar working class rock shit but the fact is that Hallowed's also a music magazine and we can't just "forget" about the best selling album of 1984, can we?

23/11 Steve Perry: Street Talk (1984)
Song: Oh Sherrie
Video: Official video
Journey vocalist Steve Perry had planned a solo album during the hiatus the band made in the mid 80's and his solo debut was well received, as was the single Oh Sherrie that climbed as high as third on the Billboards. Journey fans still miss Steve Perry in the band, 20 years after his departure, but his solo career has been nowhere near the success of this debut in the past 20 years.

22/11 Toto: Isolation (1984)
Song: Stranger In Town
Video: Official video
The giants of AOR keeps coming on a line at the moment and Toto is definitely one of the real giants withing the arena rock. Stranger In Town is perhaps not the biggest hit the band did, though, and 'Isolation' might not be their most famous album but it's the only album they did with fergie Frederiksen on vocals and it was successful in both Sweden and Norway with top tens in both countries. The album was, however, biggest in Japan, reaching number two on their charts.

21/11 Foreigner: Agent Provocateur (1984)
Song: I Want To Know What Love Is
Video: Official video
Everyone that has been in love must have heard I Want To Know What Love Is. If you haven't, you've missed everything what love is about! It's that simple. 'Agent Provocateur' is the most successful album by the band seen solely to the charts and I Want To Know What Love Is is their undisputed hit single. Following a few successful album, things took a turn for the worse after this album though.

20/11 Dokken: Tooth and Nail (1984)
Song: Alone Again
Video: Official video
Dokken released their second album in 1984 and after the less successful debut from 1981 this album gave them their breakthrough with over a million sold copies, a top 50 spot on the Billboards and a hit single in todays video song. Alone Again is still their most successful single and this album helped the next two albums gain the success they did, making Dokken a name most hard rock fans reconised.

19/11 Alphaville: Forever Young (1984)
Song: Big In Japan
Video: Official video
Europe might only have released their single in Japan but Alphaville actually had Japan in their title for the first single of 'Forever Young'. Despite it being their debut, 'Forever Young' is the most successful release from the band with three major hit singles (and a somewhat successful fourth single after that) and a well charted, well selling record. Big In Japan was the most successful single of the album but the following two also made it to number one in Sweden.

18/11 Europe: Wings of Tomorrow (1984)
Song: Dreamer
Video: TV-appearance
Europe was actually successful in Sweden before their major hit The Final Countdown made them world famous and 'Wings Of Tomorrow' made it to the top 20 on the Swedish charts. It's always been the ballads that has become most classic for the band (The Final Countdown excepted), so also with this track.

17/11 Dio: The Last in Line (1984)
Song: Last In Line
Video: Official video
It would have been a way too easy pun just to put this video at the 30th of November and make it the last in line so surprise surprise here we get the big voice from the small man in the middle instead. When Dio returned to doing things under his own name in the 80's after some successful years with Elf, Rainbow and Black Sabbath he delivered some of his biggest classics, which besides todays video song includes Holy Diver, Rainbow In The Dark, hungry For Heaven, King Of Rock and another song from this album - We Rock!

16/11 Twisted Sister: Stay Hungry (1984)
Song: I Wanna Rock
Video: Official video
It was with this third album that Twisted Sister really became public knowledge and nothing before or since has been as successful as their 1984 release 'Stay Hungry'. I blame most of the success on the two biggest hits the band did, We're Not Gonna Take It and the video track of the day - I Wanna Rock! The album made multi platinum and several millions of copies has been sold of the album.

15/11 Scorpions: Love at First Sting (1984)
Song: Rock You Like A Hurricane
Video: Official video
I tell you what because I'm sure we all know about Scorpions by now - this is their most successful album in The US and despite most Europeans think first of Wind Of Change and the 90's, Americans still love their Rock you Like A Hurricane most and it's a song that still gets plenty of airtime on radio and is frequently played at sports events and especially air shows.

14/11 Grave Digger: Heavy Metal Breakdown (1984)
Song: Heavy Metal breakdown
Video: Live clip
Chris Boltendahl is a living proof of the fact that metal vocalist can be successful without ever reaching a clean tone. His "special" voice has been heard for 30 years now despite still being as awful as it was back on their debut. But as years gone by, grave Digger has also become on the biggest 80's metal bands and this is where it all started.

13/11 Running wild: Gates to Purgatory (1984)
Song: Genghis Kahn
Video: Live clipp
They might be the most famous pirates from Germany but back in 1984 when they released their debut they hadn't yet converted in to full pirate mode, that came three years later on their famous 'Under Jolly Roger' album. However, they were robbing quite heavily back with this album too, just watch the video and feel them steal four minutes of your life without you even noticing.

12/11 Warlock: Burning the Witches (1984)
Song: Without You
Video: Live clip
Our seventh successive debut album from 1984 comes from Germany and Warlock were Doro Pesch rapidly became the queen of heavy metal, a title she still holds without slightest competition. 'Burning The Witches' may have been self-produced but it soon got picked up by Vertigo and that helped the band massively reaching Billboard charts and success with following albums.

11/11 Bathory: Bathory (1984)
Song: Satan My Master
Video: Picture video
This with picture videos is not really what I like to put in these video specials but there are simply no music videos or live clipps with Bathory from this album and regardless what you think about their music, as a metal publication we just can't deny the importance this album had on black metal - hence it's given on a 1984 anniversary list.

10/11 Red Hot Chili Peppers: The Red Hot Chili Peppers (1984)
Song: True Men Don't Kill Coyotes
Video: Official video
They might have 30 years as a band but the past 20 of them has been really successful and it all started here with this album. The most recognised song from the album is probably Get Up And Jump but this psychedelic video for True Men Don't Kill Coyotes is so hilarious you just can't miss it!

9/11 Ratt: Out of the Cellar (1984)
Song: Round And Round
Video: Official video
Along with thrash, the upcoming thing in the mid 80's was hair metal and ratt was one of the early bands to catch the ride. With their 1984 debut album they didn't just got their highest charted single with Round And Round but also their highest charted album (together with the second album) making 'Out Of The Cellar' their undisputed numbe rone album.

8/11 Anthrax: Fistful of Metal (1984)
Song: Deathrider
Video: Official video
Anthrax counts as one of "the big four" thrash acts from the Bay Area but is the one that has had the most benefit from that epithet. In steep competition with bands like Exodus, Death Angel, Testament and several others, Scott Ian and his friends made the cut and in the early 00's they gained new publicity with the help from Al-Qaeda (showing us that the old saying "there's no such thing as bad publicity" is still true).

7/11 W.A.S.P.: W.A.S.P. (1984)
Song: I Wanna Be Somebody
Video: Official video
With the self-titled debut from W.A.S.P. came a mass hysteria with the public that endorsed the album well and helping their career flourish from that point. We Are Satans People or not, the band has yet to triumph the hit single of this album but I've always wondered why they didn't put another E in the title because that had made it twice as fun!

6/11 Bon Jovi: Bon Jovi (1984)
Song: Runaway
Video: Official video
As one of the biggest name in hard rock history, Bon Jovi is definitely a band familiar with most music lovers out there. In 1984 it all started with their eponymous album and the single Runaway and soon they released two of the best selling albums in the world in 'New Jersey' and 'Slippery When Wet'. However, as hinted in the presentation text, this is not the only debut released in 1984. The following days you'll see a pretty impressive list of debutants all coming out in 1984.

5/11 Spinal Tap: This Is Spinal Tap (1984)
Song:
Video: Trailer
Remember remember the fifth of november… The mockumentary This Is Spinal Tap has become a classic within the metal movie community and along with the movie came a soundtrack that really was recorded by the band Spinal Tap. Harry Shearer, who starred in the band, has been a permanent vocal actor for The Simpsons since the early years and he has even been himself with the rest of Spinal Tap in one episode of the show.

4/11 Iron Maiden: Powerslave (1984)
Song: Aces High
Video: Official video
The biggest bands in heavy metal all released an album in 1984. Judas Priest and Saxon we've ween already - Iron Maiden is the band of the day and they were the band that got the mix right when it came to music, theme and looks. Judas Priest had the looks, saxon had the theme but Maiden had it all. This Aces high video starts with a speech by Winston Churchill and the song is about the aerial fights between the Brittish and Germans during world war two.

3/11 Saxon: Crusader (1984)
Song: A Little Bit Of What You Fancy
Video: Live clip
The heavy metal veterans that presented the war theme for real in hard rock released their sixth studio album in 1984 and as usual most songs on this album are about war. However, this video track is not a war song but it's still a pretty charging song.

2/11 Judas Priest: Defenders of the Faith (1984)
Song: Freewheel Burning
Video: Official video
If you put all the classic Judas Priest songs on a list and ranks the most classic of them all, Freewheel Burning is definitely up there on the top ten with tracks like Metal Gods, Breaking The Law, Painkiller and some others. This video gives you a good idea about how video games used to look 30 years ago… a bit different compared to the World Of Warcrafts and Grand Theft Auto V's of today.

1/11 Van Halen: 1984 (1984)
Song: Jump
Video: Official video
Let's start this video special with the album that has the year itself in it's title, which when you think about it feels like the natural choice. Jump is one of the most famous van Halen songs and the easily recognised keyboards makes it impossible to confuse with something else. Welcome to 1984 and our video special!