Night Ranger

Night Ranger is an American hard rock band from San Francisco, California. The band formed in 1982 and experienced a surge of popularity during the 1980s with the release of several successful albums and hit singles. Guitarist Brad Gillis and drummer Kelly Keagy have been the band's only constant members, though bassist Jack Blades performed on all but one of their albums. Other current members of the band include guitarist Keri Kelli and keyboardist Eric Levy.

The band's first five albums sold more than 10 million copies worldwide and the group has sold 17 million albums total. The quintet is best known for the power ballad "Sister Christian", which peaked at number five on the Billboard Hot 100 in June 1984, along with several other top 40 hit singles in the 1980s, including "Don't Tell Me You Love Me", "When You Close Your Eyes", "Sentimental Street", "Four in the Morning (I Can't Take Any More)", and "Goodbye".

After their success waned in the late 1980s, the band split up in 1989, and its members pursued other musical endeavors, including group and solo efforts. Brad Gillis and Kelly Keagy teamed up with bassist Gary Moon and released an album in 1995 under the Night Ranger moniker without the other original members, but the band reunited with Blades, Watson and Fitzgerald in 1996 to release two new albums in the latter half of the decade. Though there have been lineup changes since that time, the band continues to record and tour.

The group's origin can be traced to Rubicon, a pop/funk group led by former Sly and the Family Stone saxophonist Jerry Martini. After Rubicon's demise in 1979, bassist Jack Blades formed a trio with two other Rubicon members, drummer Kelly Keagy and guitarist Brad Gillis. Performing under the name Stereo, the threesome added former Montrose keyboardist Alan Fitzgerald in 1980. Fitzgerald recommended enlisting a second virtuoso guitarist and Jeff Watson was added to the group. As Stereo, the band played small clubs around San Francisco such as the Palms in the Tenderloin neighborhood. By late that year, the band changed their name to "Ranger" and began opening for acts such as Sammy Hagar.

In 1982 the band changed its name to Night Ranger after a country band, the Rangers, claimed a trademark infringement. By this point, they had recorded their debut album Dawn Patrol for Boardwalk Records and done opening stints for ZZ Top and Ozzy Osbourne; the latter had employed Brad Gillis as a replacement guitarist for the recently deceased Randy Rhoads, in the spring and summer of 1982. After Boardwalk folded, producer Bruce Bird secured Night Ranger a deal with MCA on their Camel subsidiary in 1983.

Rolling Stone magazine took a swipe at Night Ranger's "formula" of "sub-Broadway" ballads. Other critics were even less flattering, with terms such as "poseurs" and "pomp-rockers" put forth in various music guides, but favorable critics, such as Hit Parader, underscored Jack Blades' puppy-dog appeal, which won over female fans, while Gillis and Watson's dueling guitars pleased the same male audience that guitar-driven bands such as Van Halen had already begun to cultivate. Both guitarists also featured prominently in magazines such as Guitar for the Practicing Musician.

Dawn Patrol's first single, "Don't Tell Me You Love Me", received a boost through its MTV video airplay, and peaked modestly at number 40 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. "Sing Me Away", a concert favorite sung by Keagy, fell short of the top 40 at a peak position of number 54, though it also was featured on MTV.

Night Ranger's popularity rose sharply with their second album, 1983's Midnight Madness, which pushed the band from opening act to headliner status by the summer of 1984. Apart from the album's first single "(You Can Still) Rock in America", Midnight Madness spun off two hit ballads: "When You Close Your Eyes" (number 14) and "Sister Christian" (number five), written and sung by Kelly Keagy for his younger sister Christine. "Sister Christian" proved to be the band's milestone—as well as a millstone since the song pigeonholed the group as a "Power Ballad" band after its release. According to a later interview with Gillis, "Sister Christian" was actually completed in 1982, but he said the band chose not to release it on Dawn Patrol because they were afraid of losing their hard rock credibility.