This was the album that started it all for me.

Before Night Ranger’s Midnight Madness you could say I was a casual consumer of music. I listened to the radio, mostly Pop/Top 40. I bought 45s of songs I liked and a few albums from popular artists like Micheal Jackson, Quiet Riot and Cyndi Lauper. There’s nothing wrong with that, but I really was unaware of all that was out there.

I do remember hearing Sister Christian on the radio often though I can’t say I was a fan of the song and honestly I can not say I am now. Because of that Night Ranger was not on my radar. If my friend from Junior High had not invited me over to her house they might never have registered. As usual Shelia put on some records to listen to while we played board games. Midnight Madness was one that she put on. The first track (You Can Still) Rock in America was a solid rock tune but it was the second track Rumors in the Air that caught my ear and would not let go. I had Shelia play that song over and over again until she was good and sick of it. The rest of the album was pretty solid with great storytelling in the lyrics from Jack Blades and Kelly Keagy and two lead guitarists with vastly different styles that surprisingly gel from Brad Gillis and Jeff Watson.

At that point on I became one of the biggest Night Ranger fans on the planet and proceeded to develop a massive schoolgirl crush on the lead singer/bassist Jack Blades.From Night Ranger I started exploring hard rock/heavy metal groups; Ratt, Dokken, any music that was not given airplay on my Mom’s car radio. My family gotten Mtv not too long after my experience at Shiela’s and that really opened up another avenue for me to explore music (Headbanger’s Ball, and 120 Minutes).

As young as I was when I discovered Night Ranger (13/14) I did not get a chance to see them live during their prime but i did get to see and meet them during some reunion tours. Generally I’m pretty chill when I meet musicians that I admire because they are just people too. I will admit that I totally lost my shit each time I met Jack Blades…at least internally. I trust that I didn’t act like a complete moron. I’ll chalk it up to the gigantic schoolgirl crush thing.

I may not listen to Night Ranger as much as I did as when I was a youngster but they always will reserve a top spot in my favorite bands because without them I might not have discovered my deep love of music.