Poll: The Best Mid-80s UK Band's American Sellout Record

Our discussion of Judas Priest's earlier albums in another thread got me to thinking about those mid-80s albums where several UK bands tried to make it big in the US market. Which one is your favorite and why?

For me, I love The Ultimate Sin. Lightning Strikes, the title track, Shot In The Dark are huge favorites. Jake E. Lee is ripping it up on this album and Randy Castillo's drums are thunderous. There are a couple of crap tracks that haven't aged well, but overall I love it. Ozzy has completely disowned this album, but he has crapped out far worse than this since this platter.

Here's The Ultimate Ozzy "concert" from that era:

I'd probably say The Cult - Electric.

Surprised that Def Leppard - Pyromania isn't up on the list.

Boris2008 wrote:

I'd probably say The Cult - Electric.

Surprised that Def Leppard - Pyromania isn't up on the list.

Good choices!

I don't really consider SiT to be a sell-out record.

The presence of Jake E. Lee makes Ozzy's choice a contender.

Saxon's choice has good songs, but more are average at best. Which is strange because they have had similar "commercial" tunes on just about every the album before it.

Turbo is at least better than the Saxon album, IMHDO. Just cause Halford sings like well, Halford. Just like Dio, Halford could sing the Yellow Pages or a French cusine menu and make it sound good

The Maiden album has the better written songs of all the choices given in the poll and they did that "synth guitar thang" WAY better and cohesive than Priest's offering. My choice.

As far as Leppard's sellout, I'd give "Hysteria" that honor over "Pyromania" At least "Pyromania" resembled the two before it with some balls here and there.

Temple of Blood wrote:

I don't really consider SiT to be a sell-out record.

I can understand that (perhaps cosign it), but it was a bit of a departure from the previous albums. Like already said by myself, Maiden utilized guitar synth into the songs and didn't make it sound like a gimmick. Unlike Priest, who IMHDO sounded like kids playing with brand new toys in front of the tree on Christmas morning.

The Ultimate Sin gets my vote. I love that album so much. It's such a huge part of my youth, I can still remember every inch of my room growing up whenever I hear a track off of this album.

The reason Ozzy has "disowned" the album is that he doesn't want to pay royalties to Phil Soussan, co-writer of "Shot In The Dark". That the same reason he discontinued "Just Say Ozzy" and "Live & Loud", as they feature said song.

I thought SIT was a stretch on this, but I threw it in because of the synth guitars. I really love that album though.

kmorg wrote:

The Ultimate Sin gets my vote. I love that album so much. It's such a huge part of my youth, I can still remember every inch of my room growing up whenever I hear a track off of this album.

The reason Ozzy has "disowned" the album is that he doesn't want to pay royalties to Phil Soussan, co-writer of "Shot In The Dark". That the same reason he discontinued "Just Say Ozzy" and "Live & Loud", as they feature said song.

I thought that too about Phil Soussan, but it's not true. See Phil's comments here:

http://playitloudforever.wordpress.com/2012/07/19/ozzy-osbourne-the-ultimate-sin-1986/

Out of the list given above, The Ultimate Sin gets my vote.

Witchfinder wrote:

I thought SIT was a stretch on this, but I threw it in because of the synth guitars. I really love that album though.

It is a stretch to call it a sell out album... best album on that list!

How about Def Leppard's Pyromania? Also Raven's Pack IS Back. Either could have been on that list as well.

I voted Saxon - Innocence Is No Excuse. Great record.

Witchfinder wrote:

kmorg wrote:

The Ultimate Sin gets my vote. I love that album so much. It's such a huge part of my youth, I can still remember every inch of my room growing up whenever I hear a track off of this album.

The reason Ozzy has "disowned" the album is that he doesn't want to pay royalties to Phil Soussan, co-writer of "Shot In The Dark". That the same reason he discontinued "Just Say Ozzy" and "Live & Loud", as they feature said song.

I thought that too about Phil Soussan, but it's not true. See Phil's comments here:

http://playitloudforever.wordpress.com/2012/07/19/ozzy-osbourne-the-ultimate-sin-1986/

Wow, that is very surprising. It makes even less sense to discontinue those titles now. Weird.

The only one of those I don't listen to is Turbo. SiT is my favorite Maiden album.

Somewhere In Time is definitely not a "sell-out" record in any shape or form. Maiden had already conquered the US market and were selling out arenas on the Powerslave tour prior to this.

I just picked SiT because on that list it's my fave...

Somewhere in Time, never personally interested me, but if Pyromania was in that list, it would have gotten my sure vote. The Ultimate Sin is a great album as well hence my vote.

I think that the only reason that Somewhere in Time could ever be considered a sellout record is the fact that Bruce had been telling everyone who would listen that 'You can't make eavy metal with synthesizers' and then they did just that!

Boris2008 wrote:

I think that the only reason that Somewhere in Time could ever be considered a sellout record is the fact that Bruce had been telling everyone who would listen that 'You can't make eavy metal with synthesizers' and then they did just that!

hahaha true possible. But was a weak record as compared to the previous two.

Somewhere In Time ! My favorite of those listed above whether considered a sell out or not. Fantastic album (and I got to see them for the first and only time on this tour) !

I'd have to go with Maiden. The Ultimate Sin would be my next pick, but it has some filler (Thank God for the Bomb, anyone?), while every song is killer on Somewhere in Time.

And like just about everyone else has said, I wouldn't consider Somewhere in Time a sellout album... just a slight departure in execution; it's still very Maiden.

Somewhere in time, although I personally don't think it is a sellout record. Sounds like maiden to me (which is always a good thing)!

Somewhere in Time was not a sellout. But even if it was, it's still great!

Perhaps we don't consider it a sellout today, but I remember vividly that is exactly what we labeled SiT when it was new. Maiden using synths??!! NO WAY!! lol