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Cars- Shake It Up 40th anniversary- Greg Hawkes, the late Ric Ocasek

The Cars' "Shake It Up" was their first album to contain a Top Ten Billboard  hit in the title song, so 1981's "Shake It Up", with its peak at #9 on Billboard  album sales chart as well as #34 for the entire year, was seen by many  as a return to high performance by the Boston band. Keyboard player Greg Hawkes joins me In the Studio with archival interview by Cars bandleader the late Ric Ocasek on "Shake It Up" fortieth anniversary.
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J Geils Band- Freeze Frame- Peter Wolf

Prior to the Fall 1981 release Freeze Frame , Boston's J Geils Band had released ten albums while touring relentlessly. Yet the hard-driving jump'n'jiving lead singer Peter Wolf admits that all they really had to show for the effort was half a million dollars in debt....(more)
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Stevie Nicks- Bella Donna

In July 1981, Stevie Nicks already was in arguably America's most popular band, Fleetwood Mac, but her first solo album then, "Bella Donna", took her career to another level entirely, a fact that was by no means guaranteed and which came at some cost.  Stevie spells it all out quite candidly In the Studio while revealing the stories and characters behind "Edge of Seventeen", "Leather and Lace" with Don Henley, and the timeless duet with Tom Petty on his "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around".
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Foreigner- 4- Mick Jones, Lou Gramm, Kelly Hansen

Foreigner "4" fortieth anniversary interview includes band founder/ guitarist Mick Jones, original singer Lou Gramm, and current singer Kelly Hansen.
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Phil Collins- Face Value

Of his cinderella  first solo album "Face Value" forty years ago, Phil Collins recalls the real-life betrayal and heartbreak which inspired "In the Air Tonight", "I Missed Again"; and why he did not include another original, "How Can You Sit There?", on Face Value nor it's follow up, Hello I Must Be Going, but opted instead to give it to the soundtrack of the 1984 movie Against All Odds, going on to become Phil Collins' first #1 hit.
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Rush- Moving Pictures- Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson, the late Neil Peart

"Music was changing," Rush lead singer/composer Geddy Lee tells us in this In the Studio  episode, and without Lee, guitarist/composer Alex Lifeson, and drummer/lyricist the late Neil Peart embracing the fresh musical ideas in the crosswinds of the early Eighties on "Moving Pictures" with songs "Tom Sawyer","Red Barchetta","Limelight", "Vital Signs", and "Witch Hunt", it is doubtful that a path to mainstream success would have been cleared for later major bands...
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Styx- Paradise Theatre- Tommy Shaw, James Young

If I told you that over forty years ago  one of America's top music acts released a concept album that  identified growing cracks in the foundation of our society and presciently predicted everything we find today, who would you guess it was? Bob Dylan? Neil Young? Crosby Stills and Nash? I doubt that Styx would come to mind to many, but that is precisely what "Paradise Theater"  was, part lament, part warning. Current members Tommy Shaw, JY, & Lawrence Gowan all weigh in as does ex-member Dennis DeYoung on "Paradise Theater" 's fortieth anniversary.