LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Bob Seger: Silver Bullet Band
built 234 days ago
By the end of the summer, Seger had returned to rock & roll with a new backing band, releasing Mongrel at the end of the year. For 1971's Brand New Morning, he disbanded his group and recorded a singer/songwriter effort. Following its release, he began performing with the duo Dave Teegarden and Skip "Van Winkle" Knape, and the duo provided support on 1972's Smokin' O.P.'s, which was the first release on Palladium Records, a label he formed with Andrews. The album failed to sell, as did Back in '72 (1973) and Seven (1974), and he moved back to Capitol Records for 1975's Beautiful Loser. For the recording of Beautiful Loser, Seger formed the Silver Bullet Band, which consisted of guitarist Drew Abbott, bassist Chris Campbell, keyboardist Robyn Robbins, saxophonist Alto Reed, and drummer Charlie Allen Martin. Seger supported Beautiful Loser with an extensive tour with the Silver Bullet Band, and while it didn't make the album a hit, it provided a widespread grassroots following across the country.
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After years of local Detroit-area success, recording and performing in the mid-1960s, Seger achieved superstar status by the mid-1970s and continuing through the 1980s with the Silver Bullet Band. A roots rocker with a classic raspy, shouting voice, Seger was first inspired by Little Richard and Elvis Presley. He wrote and recorded songs that dealt with blue-collar themes. Seger has recorded many rock and roll hits, including "Night Moves", "We've Got Tonight", "Like a Rock" and ... co-wrote the Eagles number one hit "Heartache Tonight." His iconic signature song "Old Time Rock and Roll" was named one of the Songs of the Century in 2001. With a career spanning five decades, Seger continues to perform and record today.
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Seger only achieved deserved commercial success upon returning to Capitol when Beautiful Loser reached the lower reaches of the US album charts (number 131). Now fronting the Silver Bullet Band - Drew Abbott (guitar), Robyn Robbins (keyboards), Alto Reed (saxophone), Chris Campbell (bass) and Charlie Allen Martin (drums) - Seger reinforced his in-concert popularity with the exciting Live Bullet, which was in turn followed by Night Moves, his first platinum disc. The title track reached the US Top 5 in 1977, a feat "Still The Same" repeated the following year. The latter hit was culled from the triple-platinum album, Stranger In Town, which ... included "Hollywood Nights", "We've Got Tonite", and "Old Time Rock & Roll". By couching simple sentiments in traditional, R&B-based rock, the set confirmed Seger's ability to articulate the aspirations of blue-collar America, a feature enhanced by his punishing tour schedule. Against The Wind topped the US album charts for six weeks, while another live set, Nine Tonight, allowed the artist time to recharge creative energies.
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Seger returned with The Distance in 1982. The Distance was the first album since Seven to be recorded with the addition of session musicians, which caused guitarist Abbott to quit the band in frustration. Over the course of the next decade, the membership of the Silver Bullet Band shifted constantly. While The Distance featured "Shame on the Moon," his biggest hit single to date, its sales plateaued at a million copies, suggesting that his popularity was beginning to level off. Seger ... began to drastically reduce his recording and touring schedules -- he only released one other album, 1986's Like a Rock, during the '80s. Like a Rock and its supporting tour were both successes, paving the way for "Shakedown," a song taken from the soundtrack to Beverly Hills Cop II, to become Seger's lone number one hit in 1987.
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In 1975, Seger's returned to Capitol Records plus released the book Beautiful Loser. In April 1976 Seger and the Silver Bullet Band had an still bigger commercial breakthrough by means of the album Live Bullet, recorded over two nights in Detroit's Cobo Hall in September 1975. Merely three nights before in Chicago, Seger had played before 50 people in a bar. Night Moves was Seger's first Top 10 album in the Billboard 200, plus from side to side not on time 2006 had sold in excess of 6 million copies in the U.
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Seger recruited Jimmy Iovine and several studio musicians for The Distance, which stalled at number 5 and prompted the departure of guitarist Abbott, the first of several line-up changes in the Silver Bullet Band. Among Seger's later hit singles were the Rodney Crowell song "Shame On The Moon" (a number 2 hit at the start of 1983), "Even Now", "Understanding" (from the movie Teachers), "American Storm", "Like A Rock', and 1987"s number 1 hit "Shakedown", taken from the soundtrack of Beverly Hills Cop II. However, while Seger was rightly seen as a major artist in the USA he was unable to appeal to anything more than a cult audience in the rest of the world.
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