winger

Winger is an American rock band from New York City that gained popularity during the late 1980s and early 1990s. They are best known for their charting singles "Seventeen", "Headed for a Heartbreak", and "Miles Away".

History

Winger was formed in 1987 by Kip Winger (bass, lead vocals), after he did some backing vocals on Twisted Sister's 5th album Love Is for Suckers. Kip was a former member of Alice Cooper's band as was Reb Beach (lead & rhythm guitars). Paul Taylor (rhythm guitar, keyboards) was also a natural recruit for Winger, having also played with Alice Cooper's band. To round out the line up they recruited former Dixie Dregs drummer Rod Morgenstein. The band's first choice of name was Sahara, but that name was taken by another band, so they all decided on Winger instead. Although they changed the name to Winger, the word Sahara can still be seen on the lower right corner of the debut album's cover.

The band recorded three studio albums. The debut album, Winger, was released on August 10, 1988 on Atlantic Records. The record was a success, achieving platinum status in the United States, and gold in Japan and Canada. Radio and MTV hits from the album included "Madalaine", "Seventeen", "Headed for a Heartbreak", and "Hungry".

In 1990, the band was nominated for an American Music Award for "Best New Heavy Metal Band". Shortly after, Winger released its second album In the Heart of the Young, which went platinum in the U.S. and gold in Japan. Hit radio tracks and MTV videos included "Can't Get Enuff", "Miles Away" and "Easy Come Easy Go".

Winger followed the release of its second album with a 13 month world tour, playing over 230 dates with Kiss, Scorpions, ZZ Top, Extreme and Slaughter. Paul Taylor left the band after the tour.

Their third studio album, Pull, was recorded in 1992/1993 as a three-piece band. It was originally going to be called "Blind Revolution Mad", after the opening song. At some point though, the title was changed to Pull. Reportedly Kip Winger, anticipating that critics would dismiss the album out of hand, re-named it "Pull" as a tongue-in-cheek reference to the CD being used by critics as a skeet shooting target. The album was produced by Mike Shipley, but was not as successful as the previous album. On the following tour John Roth (rhythm guitar) was called in to replace Paul Taylor.

After the Pull tour, the band broke up. Kip Winger embarked on a solo career and the other members worked on other projects.

In 2001 the band returned to the studio to record the song "On the Inside" for The Very Best of Winger. In 2002 they reunited to tour the US and Canada on a bill with Poison, but once again disbanded afterwards.

Kip performed as the lead singer for the Alan Parsons Live Project, for their July 16, 2005 show at the Common Ground Music Festival in Lansing, Michigan USA. [1] [2]

In May 2006 a press release announced that Winger has reformed to record another album and tour Europe. The album IV was released in Europe in October and the nine-country "Winger IV Tour" ran in the last two weeks of the same month.

Criticism

Winger was the subject of constant ridicule in MTV's animated series Beavis and Butt-head during the mid 1990s. The neighbor boy Stewart, who was always trying (unsuccessfully) to be accepted by Beavis and Butt-head, was usually depicted wearing a Winger T-shirt, as opposed to the heavier Metallica and AC/DC shirts worn by the title characters. Beavis and Butt-head thought of them as 'wussies'. According to the documentary "Taint of Greatness: Part 2" on the Mike Judge Collection Volume 2 DVD, this was due to Winger telling MTV he would not let the show make fun of him. This has been cited as a reason for the band losing popularity. About the same time Lars Ulrich of Metallica could be seen throwing dart on a poster of Kip Winger in the video for Nothing Else Matters. When asked about this Kip Winger once stated: "Our band was known to musicians, and a lot of musicians showed up to see me play - watching trying to figure out how I'm playing - we were like the 'hair band' Dream Theater -- That is why it's the great irony that we ended up on that geeky guy's shirt on Beavis & Butthead, because Metallica couldn't play what we play, they couldn't do it, they literally - technically couldn't do it. And I'll fucking challenge those chumps to that any day of the week that they couldn't go back and play our shit, but we could play theirs with our hands tied behind our back. And so, I was a little t'd off about that, but in the end, none of that shit matters..." [3]

Winger has also been ridiculed by the band Beatallica, whose music is a melding of The Beatles and Metallica. Beatallica ridicule glam metal generally in their lyrics, Winger being a singular example. The Betallica song 'For Horsemen' includes the line "Your girlfriend takes you to a lame-ass, poser Winger concert; fucking forget her!" Further lyrics in the song reference the fact that Winger was on the softer side of 80's metal ("Hey, dude...never turn it down! You must pound her; I mean Kip Winger."). [4]

On the Korn album Follow the Leader, there is a track called All in the Family which is a kind of rap battle between the lead singer and Fred Durst of Limp Bizkit. This battle has the two singers insulting each other in turn. In one line, Fred Durst says that Jonathan Davis's favorite band is Winger.

Band members

Line-ups

Discography

Albums

• Winger-(Sahara) (1988)
• In the Heart of the Young (1990)
• Pull (1993)
• The Very Best of Winger (2001)
• IV (2006)
• Demo Anthology (March, 2007)

Videos

• The Videos, Vol. 1 (1989)
• In the Heart of the Young, Vol. 1 (1990)
• In the Heart of the Young, Vol. 2 (1991)
• Live in Tokyo (1991)
• The Making of Pull (1993)
• The Making of Winger IV (2006)

Chart positions

The chart positions are referring to Billboard's "The Billboard 200" chart for albums.

Albums

Singles

Music Videos

• "Madalaine" (Winger (Sahara)
• "Seventeen" (Winger (Sahara)
• "Headed for a Heartbreak" (Winger (Sahara)
• "Hungry" (Winger (Sahara)
• "Can't Get Enuff" (In the Heart of the Young)
• "Miles Away" (In the Heart of the Young)
• "Silent Night" (In the Heart of the Young, Vol. 2)
• "Easy Come, Easy Go" (In the Heart of the Young)
• "You Are the Saint, I Am the Sinner" (In the Heart of the Young)
• "Down Incognito" (Pull)
• "Spell I'm Under" (Pull)
• "In My Veins" (Pull)
• "Who's the One" (Pull)

Rare and unreleased tracks

• "Blue Murder" – Leftover from the first Winger album
• "Out for the Count" – Only released on The Karate Kid Part III Soundtrack in 1989
• "Battle Stations" – Only released on the Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey Soundtrack in 1991.
• "All I Ever Wanted" – Leftover from In the Heart of the Young. Released as a B-side to the single "Miles Away".
• "Never" – Leftover from In the Heart of the Young. Released as a B-side
• "Now and Forever" – Leftover from Pull
• "Written in the Wind" – Demo for Pull
• "Without Warning" – Demo for Pull
• "Hell to Pay" – Japanese bonus track for Pull.
• "Hour of Need" – Demo for Pull. It later turned into "In My Veins" from that same album.

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Winger

External links

Main Sites

• Official Website
• Myspace Page

See also

• Kip Winger
• Reb Beach
• Rod Morgenstein

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