Mr Mike's High School Record Collection: Honeymoon Suite - The Big Prize (1985)

Freakin Suite! I think this is a modern picture of the band, it's hard to tell because the dude on the left looks like he's still in the 80's. Maybe it's like that Somewhere In Time movie where he time travelled.

A recent post by Frontrow reminded me of this great album that I literally listened to in High School. Before this record, I had never heard of Honeymoon Suite (though they had a hit with "New Girl Now" before then) and was floored by the amazing dynamics of the song "Feel It Again". Based on the strength of that song, I went out to my local Rainbow Records and bought the cassette.

The cassette cover did not give me much hope (a picture of some weirdos standing in front of Niagra Falls). But after playing it, the tape became a favorite that I listened to for months. Produced by Bruce Fairbairn (Loverboy, Aerosmith, Van Halen, Yes, Bon Jovi), I often think of this record as the prototype for the sound he broke Bon Jovi with. Smooth vocals with a touch of grit, polished guitars and keyboards plus a bass line that moves. While The Big Prize wasn't a multi-million seller the album remains a mid 80's pop rock legend (no basis in fact with that statement, it just sounded good). To cement my fandom, I saw the band play as opening act for Journey in 1986 and was impressed with their professionalism and sound.

The Canadian quintet was led by singer Johnny Dee and guitarist Danny Grehan. This record was the pinncacle of their career, the next album the band wrote less engaging songs and didn't sell. Even though it was produced by Ted Templeman.

1. Bad Attitude - The first single from the album was meant to follow up on the success of "New Girl Now". It was pretty much a rewrite of that hit, but hey, there are worse grooves for a band to get stuck in. Nice N' Crunchy guitars and a great anthemic chorus. "Bad Attitude" was featured in the final episode of Miami Vice (that's even more 80's than ever!). It just doesn't get better than this. At least until the next song.

2. Feel It Again - That's because "Feel It Again" is an all time favorite song of mine. The way the song shifts from moody verses to surging chorus is way rad (I'm running out of adjectives). I've written about this song before so I won't go on too long about it, just that it's a great great tune. This clip below looks like it came from Solid Gold. I wonder what happened to Rex Smith and Marilyn McCoo? They were the dream team!

3. Lost and Found - The tape picks up a little more speed with one of the synth heavy tracks. I really liked the synthesizer sound on this album courtesy of keyboardist Ray Coburn. Very glisteny and light.

4. What Does It Take - That keyboard sound I was talking about is used to even better effect on this classic power ballad. It shifts from a Piano sound to an Orchestra String Section sound to everything else in between to raise the drama. Great bracing chorus, I was surprised this song did not become a bigger hit. Grehan delivers a Neal Schon worthy soaring guitar solo here too. I remember this song playing over the credits of a John Cusack and Demi Moore movie. Remember when Demi Moore used to play rock singers all the time, she was a horrible lip sync-er and the singing voices never matched her real raspy sandpaper like speaking tone. Anyway, it was a dull movie but at least the end credits picked up because I heard this song.

5. One x One - Pretty good midtempo rock, at least the way I remember it. But that's about all I remember on this one, I think I fast forwarded it a lot.

6. Wounded - This one I do remember, I liked the hook. "Wounded / Shot-Down-Agaaiiiin!". Good midtempo rocker that builds up to a satisfying chorus.

7. Words In The Wind - I do not remember this song. At all. I am tempted to deny it's existence.

8. All Along You Knew - The fourth single was this gem with a guest appearance by Jethro Tull Floutist (is that right? He plays the Flute) Ian Anderson. Poor boy Johnny Dee fesses up to cheating on his girl. After a half hour of pleading for love, getting shot down and dumped on, puttin' up with bad attitudes-the tables have finally turned! Aha! This live version does not include Ian Anderson, I'm not sure from what time period it came from.

9. Once The Feeling - This was the song I often skipped to on the second side of the tape. It has classic Mr Mike written all over it, an upbeat anthemic rocker with charged guitars and swirling synths. And a little corny. Mr. Mike likes his anthems a touch overblown, thank you.

10. Take My Hand - I think this was a really slow song with a lot of synths again. You know, those hazy kind of synthesizers that say "Hey, I'm being deep because everything sounds like I'm talking in a fog." Could be wrong on this one though.

The Big Prize was pretty much it for the band in the US, they still exist and play shows but I think they're mainly in their homeland of Canada now. Sometimes they go by HMS like a boat or something. Much of their catalog is out of print, so I'll have to patiently wait until this disc shows up somewhere so I can Feel It Again one more time!