I still think that the 1970s can be called The Golden Age Of TV Stars Making Records, but I won't ignore the renaissance that occurred in the 1980s. In this case I don't have a fabulous K-tel cassette nudging my memory but that's okay because I can actually remember when most of these actors released their albums.
There seems to be a difference between the stars of the '70s and the stars of the '80s when it comes to the category of actor-turned-singer. All of the guys with feathered hair were making records aimed primarily at teenaged girls. I don't know what the guys in the eighties were doing but I suspect the phrase vanity projects could be applied here.
Three of the actors in question were stars on prime time programs and the other two held court in the world of daytime soap operas. I suppose soap stars would have teen appeal, I always forget because I never liked soap operas as a youth. I hate the lighting and the painfully slow pace. Of course that only goes for daytime soaps, in seventh grade I was all over Dallas and Dynasty.
I will freely admit that somewhere in the eighties I did dabble in The Young And The Restless but that was for one reason and one reason only. Michael Damian. Remember his hit single? It was a remake of the David Essex song Rock On and it didn't rock at all. But Michael Damian was very good looking and often in Teen Beat and it made me tune in to The Young And The Restless. That phase didn't last very long because I wasn't willing to suffer fifty-five minutes of boredom for a glimpse of Danny Romalotti, especially when he was usually sharing the screen with Cricket. I'm sure I don't have to tell you that Danny and Cricket were a total mismatch.
Speaking of head-turning soap stars who made records, we can't forget about Jack Wagner. He didn't turn my head but apparently he did appeal to others. I can't stand the song All I Need but I won't speak ill about Jack Wagner because he was on Melrose Place. There was a time in the mid-nineties when both NoK and myself worked nights so every Monday I would set the VCR for Melrose Place and we would converge in my living room after work to review the tape. The only person we loved more than Dr. Peter Burns was Amanda Woodward. Loved her! So even though I am very bitter because All I Need has been going through my head for several hours now, I will leave Jack Wagner alone.
If the soap opera stars aren't your deal, maybe you will join me in my preference for the Prime Time Tough Guys. First up, Don Johnson's timeless classic Heartbeat. I don't have the Heartbeat album but I have the 45 for his first single, also titled Heartbeat. (Purchased used many years later, I didn't need it when it was new. I didn't watch Miami Vice.) Anyway, Don's looking for a heartbeat. Beating like his. Brilliant!
I hope someday to own the Heartbeat LP because I looked at the inner sleeve several years ago and it was hilarious. Don Johnson had many special guest stars on the album and each guest star got their own little cartoon face next to their name on the main list of participants. So next to each song, instead of listing their names it would show the cartoon heads of the personnel. Of course that means you either have to memorize the master list or constantly refer back when you need to know who is playing guitar. I thought it was kind of cute.
That may have also been the album that featured his duet with Barbra Streisand. They were dating at the time of the duet but no matter how you get her on your record, having a song with Barbra is a pretty good break. Less fortunate in his recording career was Don Johnson's Miami Vice co-star, Philip Michael Thomas. All I know about his turn as a singer is that he also released an album during the Miami Vice craze and it didn't hit as big as Don's record. Okay, I don't think it hit at all. Poor Philip Michael Thomas, spending the rest of his career known simply as The Other Guy From Miami Vice.
Last, but certainly not least, we have my favorite tough guy on the list. In the interest of accuracy I will mention that he was not known as a tough guy when his album was released but he went on to become an action hero so I will feel free to call him a tough guy. I am talking about Bruce! Willis! I love Bruce Willis. I love his albums. I loved Moonlighting and I loved David Addison and I loved his wine cooler commercials and I love The Return Of Bruno.
I only discovered that I owned the second Bruce Willis album when I was indexing my records last year and I was delighted. In seventh grade I had a pinup of Bruce Willis in my locker. I remember that it came from some sort of oddball music/movie magazine because there is no way my regular teen magazines ever would have had a Bruce Willis pinup. That would have cut into the space allotted for John Stamos.
Speaking of John Stamos, did he ever make a record? EQ thought he did but I can't find a listing. I remember when he toured with the Beach Boys as their drummer, does that count? I don't think it does. That's okay, plenty of people got left off this list. I skipped over Eddie Murphy because I think it's best to forget about Party All The Time and just embrace his comedy albums. David Hasselhoff was omitted because his singing career was more robust in the 1990s. Rick Springfield was disqualified because he went from pop star to soap star and then back to pop star.
I forgot all about John Schneider until my visit to Tomato Nation. He and Tom Wopat both made albums and if memory serves, they both made country albums. Soap star Gloria Loring didn't make the cut because I couldn't stand her mid-eighties hit. I can't even remember what it was called. And to me Gloria Loring will always be the person who co-wrote the theme song for The Facts Of Life with Alan Thicke.
Actually it was written with Alan Thicke and someone named Al Burton. I had to look up who the third co-writer was and when I did that I discovered that Alan Thicke also made a record in the eighties. Then I remembered that Lisa Whelchel from The Facts Of Life made at least one album. Uh-oh. I'm not sure but I think Kim Fields was another cast member from that show who tried her hand at recording.
I am starting to think that the recorded evidence is stacked too high to just call this a renaissance. It may be safe to call the 1980s The Second Golden Age Of TV Stars Making Records. Although in this case we'll call it Golden Age Two: Quantity Over Quality, because there is no way that Alan Thicke and Don Johnson are better than Shaun Cassidy.