Survivor

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.

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.

Replacing singer Dave Bickler with former Cobra vocalist Jimi Jamison paid off for Survivor, giving them three Top 20 singles from Jamison's debut on 1984's Vital Signs. His high harmonies, added to the group's well-maintained keyboard/guitar style, threw them into the ring with bands like Styx and Foreigner. Both "High on You" and "I Can't Hold Back" are built on congenial rock charm with an AOR dressiness, using the synthesizer to guide Jamison's energetic singing. Along the same lines as Journey's "Open Arms," the delicate but sternly sung ballad "The Search Is Over" gave them a number four single in May of 1985, bettered only by the number two placing of "Burning Heart" from the Rocky IV soundtrack a year later.

Too Hot to Sleep is the seventh album from rock band Survivor, released in 1988. It was a relative commercial disappointment, reaching only #187 on the Billboard album charts, though "Across The Miles" is one of their biggest AC chart hits. After this album, founders Frankie Sullivan and Jim Peterik put the band on indefinite hiatus, while lead vocalist Jimi Jamison would continue to tour under the Survivor name. Drummer Marc Droubay and bassist Stephen Ellis were replaced by studio musicians on the album. The lineup of Sullivan and Jamison would not reunite until 2000.

No ordinary artist. No ordinary covers album. From the day he conceived the project to the moment he counted off the first song in the studio, Walter Trout had a bolder plan for Survivor Blues. "I'm riding in my car sometimes," says the US blues titan. "I've got a blues station on – and here's another band doing Got My Mojo Workin'. And there's a little voice in me that says, 'Does the world need another version of that song?' So I came up with an idea. I didn't want to do Stormy Monday or Messin' With The Kid. I didn't want to do the blues greatest hits. I wanted to do old, obscure songs that have hardly been covered. And that's how Survivor Blues started…" Returning with a covers album represents an eye-opening curveball from a bluesman whose original songcraft has never been more acclaimed. Even now, the critical wildfire from 2017's all-star release, We're All In This Together, shows no sign of burning out, leading Trout across the planet to auspicious sell-out venues and scoring a head-spinning haul of statuettes.

Caught in the Game had Survivor focusing on a harder rock & roll sound, with greater emphasis stemming from the guitar and percussion, but this new formula didn't fare well commercially and the band failed to put any of the album's songs onto the charts. With Frankie Sullivan finally expressing himself with his guitar playing, the album does manage to establish a vibrant and dominant punch through most of the cuts, but because of this, there's a shortage of musical flow and melodic consistency that becomes apparent after the first few tracks. Efforts such as "What Do You Really Think" and "I Never Stopped Loving You" are Survivor's best examples of their straight-ahead rock fair, but they're canceled out by non-abrasive fillers like "Slander" and "Santa Ana Winds," which have the band playing well below their capacity.

Premonition is the second album by American rock band Survivor, released in August 1981 in the United States and February 1982 elsewhere. It was the first album to use the Survivor script logo. The album, along with many other Survivor albums, was briefly taken out of print. The album includes the singles "Poor Man's Son" (#33, US Chart), one of the songs that would be part of their live set list, and "Summer Nights" (#62, US Chart).

Survivor is the second solo album by The Guess Who and Bachman–Turner Overdrive's guitarist and singer Randy Bachman, released in 1978 on Polydor. It is a concept album about the rock and roll stars who have come and gone.

1982 was an interesting year for mainstream rock. Listeners were still a few years away from the chart-topping pop-metal bands, and a few years removed from the oft-indulgent '70s rock era. As a result, people were left with an era that was mostly populated by bands that wore headbands and largely modeled their sound after Foreigner. In other words – bands that attempted to appeal to both the pop and rock audiences, by combining arena-worthy choruses and tough guitar riffs, topped off with a healthy scoop of melody. A perfect example would be Survivor, and their third release overall, Eye of the Tiger. With the group's first two releases barely causing a ripple on the charts, it was Tiger that catapulted the band to the top, thanks to the chart-topping title track, which was used as the theme song to the hit movie Rocky III the same year.