Survivor S20

Survivor is the eponymous debut album by American rock band Survivor, recorded in 1979 and released in February 1980. It is their only album with original drummer Gary Smith and bassist Dennis Keith Johnson. The album lightly impacted the charts, managing a placement of #169 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the Spring of 1980. However, the opening track "Somewhere In America" was a regional hit in the Chicago area, and the song "Youngblood", with its dramatic guitar intro, proved to be something of a blueprint for the band's smash hit of two years later, "Eye of the Tiger". The single "Rebel Girl" was recorded about a year after the album sessions, though the Japanese release of the album on CD includes it as song number six. The model on the cover of the album is Kim Basinger.

Survivor is the eponymous debut album by American rock band Survivor, recorded in 1979 and released in February 1980. It is their only album with original drummer Gary Smith and bassist Dennis Keith Johnson. The album lightly impacted the charts, managing a placement of #169 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the Spring of 1980. However, the opening track "Somewhere In America" was a regional hit in the Chicago area, and the song "Youngblood", with its dramatic guitar intro, proved to be something of a blueprint for the band's smash hit of two years later, "Eye of the Tiger". The single "Rebel Girl" was recorded about a year after the album sessions, though the Japanese release of the album on CD includes it as song number six. The model on the cover of the album is Kim Basinger.

Survivor's Greatest Hits, a bare-bones, ten-song collection, was released in 1989 and quickly disappeared – vanished, out of print. It was later replaced by an identically titled 12-song collection in 1993 that is far superior because it includes "American Heartbeat" – the other hit from 1982's Eye of the Tiger album – as well as lyrics and basic liner notes. Neither compilation includes any photos, which reinforces the cruel critical notion that this Chicago pop/rock quintet was yet another faceless AOR act. Other U.S.-based bands lumped in this "corporate rock" category included Foreigner, Journey, REO Speedwagon, and Styx.