This Week's Forgotten Gem of the '80s - Russ Ballard's "In the Night"

Some songs from the '80s - maybe, for example, Herbie Hancock's "Rockit" or Harold Faltermeyer's "Axel F" (the theme to Beverly Hills Cop) - personify the era's music so much that it's impossible to tell if they invented or simply perfected the '80s mystique. I put former Argent frontman and under-the-radar songwriter-for-hire Russ Ballard's "In the Night" into such a category, as this blustery but enjoyable track would have been featured on Miami Vice even if that iconic show, God forbid, had never existed.

Ballard should have enjoyed more outright success as a solo artist, but somehow his songs have always had a tendency to garner more attention through cover versions. The same can be said for this stylish mainstream rock song, which may be slightly more known through original KISS lead guitarist Ace Frehley's comeback 1987 release, Frehley's Comet. Even so, Ballard has always possessed one of rock's cleanest, most penetrating tenors, and for some reason his style seemed to find its most fitting home in the brief mid-'80s window that enabled Crockett and Tubbs to attain pop culture immortality.

Album Cover Image Courtesy of Renaissance