Making The Grade (1984) Dorian Walker, Judd Nelson, Jonna Lee, Gordon Jump

The Allnighter is the second solo studio album by Glenn Frey, the guitarist and co-lead vocalist for the Eagles. The album was released in mid 1984 on MCA in the United States and the United Kingdom, two years after Frey's modestly successful debut album, No Fun Aloud and four years after the demise of the Eagles. It was and still is Frey's most successful solo album throughout his whole solo career, having reached #22 on the Billboard charts, and releasing two Top 20 singles with "Smuggler's Blues" and "Sexy Girl". The album achieved Gold status in the US. It is generally regarded as the culmination of the smoother, more adult-oriented sound of Frey's solo work.

One imagines that this collection was aimed at the total neophyte listener – taken in any other context, this is an odd collection of single sides by one of the premiere singles bands of the 1960s and early '70s. Does it start at the beginning, with either "I'm the Face" or "I Can't Explain"? No. Does it encompass many of the freestanding singles issued by this band through 1972? No. Does it even offer any of the less well-known single sides from that period? No – apart from the three-and-a-half-minute single edit of "Won't Get Fooled Again," which was hardly a sterling example of the format or the genre. Instead, listeners get all of the most familiar hits, albeit in their original mono mixes where relevant: "Substitute," "I'm a Boy," "Pictures of Lily," "I Can See for Miles," "Pinball Wizard," "Squeeze Box," etc. The best of it overlaps with Meaty Beaty Big and Bouncy.

Don't Break the Oath is the second studio album by Danish heavy metal band Mercyful Fate, released in 1984. The style Mercyful Fate employed on Don't Break the Oath resembled a mixture of heavy metal with progressive elements, lyrically preoccupied with Satan and the occult and distinguished by King Diamond's theatrical falsetto vocals. Although very influential to future black metal bands due to its lyrical content, the music itself is more reminiscent of traditional heavy metal. The album was remastered and subsequently re-issued on Roadrunner Records in 1997. This reissue came with the bonus track "Death Kiss (Demo)", which would eventually evolve into the album's lead-off track, "A Dangerous Meeting". Metal Rules named this the greatest extreme metal album of all time.

Stevie Ray Vaughan's second album, Couldn't Stand the Weather, pretty much did everything a second album should do: it confirmed that the acclaimed debut was no fluke, while matching, if not bettering, the sales of its predecessor, thereby cementing Vaughan's status as a giant of modern blues. So why does it feel like a letdown? Perhaps because it simply offers more of the same, all the while relying heavily on covers. Of the eight songs, half are covers, while two of his four originals are instrumentals – not necessarily a bad thing, but it gives the impression that Vaughan threw the album together in a rush, even if he didn't. Nevertheless, Couldn't Stand the Weather feels a bit like a holding pattern, since there's no elaboration on Double Trouble's core sound and no great strides forward, whether it's in Vaughan's songwriting or musicianship.

The music marks a distinct departure from the busy bebop style Gillespie is more closely associated with, as he turns his attention to laid-back music with a funk/smooth jazz feel.