Forgotten Music #8: Platinum Blonde - "Standing in the Dark"

And Post #100 of my blog goes to another installment of Forgotten Music, originally from my LiveJournal account:

My first Canadian band, time to school you non-Canucks on our music. Platinum Blonde were huge in Canada in the mid 80s, spawning 7 top 40 hits and and 3 platinum LPs. They never really caught on anywhere else, though they did try the US market in with their 1987 album Contact, but never managed to crack the Top 40 there. Platinum Blonde merged the jangly style of 80s rock with the look of hair metal. Some critics called them the Canadian Duran Duran, but Platinum Blonde had the look, but not the musical chops that the Durans had. I'm featuring this band to pay tribute to Kenny McLean, who joined the band for 1985's Alien Shores album. He played bass for the band. McLean was also part of a short lived new wave band called The Deserters, who released two albums in the early 80s. Kenny passed away two weeks ago just after releasing his third solo album.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnJ_xyFI0pQ



"Standing in the Dark" came out on the 1983 album of the same name. While it just barely missed the Top 40 charts, it's one of the bands best known songs. It has the drive the band was known for: chunky/jangly 80s power pop guitar with Mark Holmes trademark vocals driving the song along. As lyrics go, there's not much here, but the song is pretty fun as it is. Weird personal trivia: Standing in the Dark and Alien Shores were often on the school gym stereo back when I used to work out in the high school weightroom. A certain cohort that might read this blog may remember hearing them often...