My man Billy released his Greatest Hits - Volume 1 & Volume ll album September 2, 1985. It has since been certified Double Diamond, selling over 11.5 million copies. It is tied with Pink Floyd's The Wall and Led Zeppelin's Led Zeppelin IV for the third most certified album of all time.
It was released with two previously un-issued songs: You're Only Human (Second Wind) and The Night is Still Young.
Billy Joel's Greatest Hits album Volume 1 and Volume 2 became the fourth album in history to become certified as Double-Diamond for sales over 20 million copies, April 12, 1999. It follows Michael Jackson's Thriller, the Eagles - Their Greatest Hits: 1971-1975 and Pink Floyd's The Wall.
The Night Is Still Young and You're Only Human (Second Wind) were previously unreleased but have since been released as singles.
Soyuz TM-7 crew (L-R): Jean-Loup Chretien, Alexander Volkov, Sergei Krikalev
Mission patch
Soyuz TM-7, launched November 26, 1988, was the seventh manned mission to the Mir space station. Its crew consisted of Commander Alexander Volkov, Sergei Krikalev and Jean-Loup Chretien (CNES). Then French president Francois Mitterand viewed the launch with Pink Floyd's David Gilmour and Nick Mason.
Chretien became the first non-American/non-Soviet person to conduct an EVA when he went outside Mir with Volkov for 6 hours to install a French experimental structure.
Chretien returned to Earth a month later on Soyuz TM-6, but Volkov and Krikalyov remained on board as part of Mir EO-4 expedition and returned in April 1989 with Valeri Polyakov.
Styx released their eleventh studio album, Kilroy Was Here, February 22, 1983. The concept album, which is based on a dystopian future where rock music is outlawed, was in part a mocking reponse to fundamentalist Christian groups, who managed to persuade the Arkansas State Senate to pass a bill requiring that all albums containing "back-masking" be labeled. Styx was among other groups such as the Beatles, ELO, Pink Floyd and Queen.
According to wikipedia.com, the fifth track Heavy Metal Poisoning, contains the two mottoes found on the U.S. one-dollar bill back masked.
This is the last album of original material to be released by the "classic" lineup of Dennis DeYoung, Tommy Shaw, James Young, and twins John and Chuck Panozzo.
The biggest hit from teh album was Mr. Roboto, which reach #3 on the Billboard charts.
Alan Parsons, born December 20, 1948 in London, England, is the mind behind The Alan Parsons Project and engineer extraordinare behind The Beatles' Abbey Road and Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon.
It is his partnership with Eric Woolfson, better known as The Alan Parsons Project, that I enjoy most. Got all their albums! Parsons has been nominated for a Grammy 11 times, two times each in 1976 and 1979.
This month is the 33rd anniversary of Vulture Culture's release in 1984. The first Alan Parsons Project tune I remember hearing on the radio was Damned if I Do, Damned if I Don't from Eve. Several years later, I heard Time from Turn of a Friendly Card. We all remember that one!
