ADD LINK! FNA Records Present:TOP NOTCH was one of those 80s and 90s melodic rock / AOR bands who reached the interest of a major label, to watch it all go away with the arrival of Seattle bands. Top Notch’s quality songwriting led them to being managed by Alan Oken & David Liebert, who handled Guns N’ Roses, Alice Cooper and Bryan Adams, and the band eventually signed a development deal with Polygram Records. But the music business is a bitter pill, and nothing happened.
Formed in the mid-Eighties, Top Notch developed a hard rock sound focused on melody with blazing guitar solos. At the time, guitarist Eric Kellogg was connected with many prolific songwriters such as Peter Frampton, Martin Briley, Mark Tanner (Nelson, Eddie Money) and Steve Plunkett of Autograph. Steve Plunkett and Eric Kellogg developed a close relationship and went on to write many songs together that are featured on this release as well as Steve Plunkett’s solo album.
On “Mean & Smooth” we have all TOP NOTCH recordings, material with a very good sound quality and a US 80s melodic hard rock sound akin Hurricane, Autograph, Black ‘N Blue, etc…
01 Doing Something Right
02 What’s Your Daddy Gonna Say
03 You’re The Only One For Me
04 She’s Hot
05 Make Me Believe
06 Mean And Smooth
07 Through The Night
08 I’m Not Dreamin’
09 She’s All Talk
10 Long Way From Home BONUS TRACK
11 Razor’s Edge (Live 11 10 89) BONUS TRACK
12 Heavy Pettin’ (by Next Of Kin) BONUS TRACK