Bad English
Encyclopedia
Bad English was an American/British
hard rock
supergroup
formed in 1988, reuniting keyboardist
Jonathan Cain
with singer John Waite
and bassist Ricky Phillips
, his former bandmates in The Babys
.
. John Waite missed a shot and Jonathan Cain made a comment on how bad his "" was (referring to the spin a player puts on the cue ball) and the band decided to use the phrase. The name is also thought to be a reference to The Babys
, since the name was misspelled and an example of bad English.
Jonathan Cain
and guitarist Neal Schon
, who had enjoyed enormous success in Journey
, continued on to form Bad English with Waite after Journey disbanded. The first album, eponymously titled, was a big seller with three hit singles, including the number one
hit "When I See You Smile
" written by Diane Warren
, the top 10 hit "Price of Love," and "Possession." Another track from the debut album, the AOR song "Best of What I Got", was featured in the soundtrack to 1989's Tango and Cash.
The band's second album, 1991's "Backlash" came and went without any fanfare. The only single, "Straight To Your Heart," just missed the Top 40, peaking at #42. Ricky Phillips writes on his website that the group had parted company before the second album had been mixed
. Both Phillips and guitarist Neal Schon expressed frustration with the "pop" side of the band's songs and wanted a harder edge. In the end, it proved to be the band's undoing as everyone left to pursue other projects.
In later interviews Waite revealed that although he loved playing to stadium-sized audiences, he was uncomfortable with the corporate rock image that he felt the band had presented and has been a solo artist ever since.
Bad English drummer
Deen Castronovo
later went on to join a reformed Journey
with singer Steve Augeri
, Neal Schon
, Jonathan Cain
, and Ross Valory
. He also played on Ozzy Osbourne
's album Ozzmosis
in 1995
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
hard rock
Hard rock
Hard rock is a loosely defined genre of rock music which has its earliest roots in mid-1960s garage rock, blues rock and psychedelic rock...
supergroup
Supergroup (music)
In the late 1960s, the term supergroup was coined to describe "a rock music group whose performers are already famous from having performed individually or in other groups"....
formed in 1988, reuniting keyboardist
Keyboardist
A keyboardist is a musician who plays keyboard instruments. Until the early 1960s musicians who played keyboards were generally classified as either pianists or organists. Since the mid-1960s, a plethora of new musical instruments with keyboards have come into common usage, requiring a more...
Jonathan Cain
Jonathan Cain
Jonathan Cain is an American musician, best known for his work with The Babys, Journey and Bad English.-Early life:...
with singer John Waite
John Waite
John Charles Waite is an English rock singer and musician. He was lead vocalist for The Babys and Bad English. As a solo artist, he scored several international hits, including 1984's "Missing You", a top ten hit on the US Billboard Hot 100 and the UK Singles Chart, reaching #1 in the...
and bassist Ricky Phillips
Ricky Phillips
Ricky Phillips is an American bass guitarist and the current bass player for the rock band Styx. He has also played in Nasty Habit, The Babys, Bad English, and Coverdale-Page....
, his former bandmates in The Babys
The Babys
The Babys were a British rock/pop group best known for their songs "Isn't It Time," and "Every Time I Think of You." Both songs were composed by Jack Conrad and Ray Kennedy, and reached #13 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart in the late 1970s...
.
History
The members decided on a name for the band while playing poolPocket billiards
Pool, also more formally known as pocket billiards or pool billiards , is the family of cue sports and games played on a pool table having six receptacles called pockets along the , into which balls are deposited as the main goal of play. Popular versions include eight-ball and nine-ball...
. John Waite missed a shot and Jonathan Cain made a comment on how bad his "" was (referring to the spin a player puts on the cue ball) and the band decided to use the phrase. The name is also thought to be a reference to The Babys
The Babys
The Babys were a British rock/pop group best known for their songs "Isn't It Time," and "Every Time I Think of You." Both songs were composed by Jack Conrad and Ray Kennedy, and reached #13 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart in the late 1970s...
, since the name was misspelled and an example of bad English.
Jonathan Cain
Jonathan Cain
Jonathan Cain is an American musician, best known for his work with The Babys, Journey and Bad English.-Early life:...
and guitarist Neal Schon
Neal Schon
Neal George Joseph Schon is an American rock guitarist, songwriter, and vocalist best known for his work with the band Journey. He is the only member to have recorded on all of Journey's albums...
, who had enjoyed enormous success in Journey
Journey (band)
Journey is an American rock band formed in 1973 in San Francisco by former members of Santana. The band has gone through several phases; its strongest commercial success occurred between the 1978 and 1987, after which it temporarily disbanded...
, continued on to form Bad English with Waite after Journey disbanded. The first album, eponymously titled, was a big seller with three hit singles, including the number one
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
hit "When I See You Smile
When I See You Smile
When I See You Smile is the second single of American/British hard rock band Bad English, taken from their self-titled debut album of the same name, released in 1989....
" written by Diane Warren
Diane Warren
Diane Eve Warren , is a US songwriter. Her songs have received six Academy Award nominations, five Golden Globe nominations, including one win and seven Grammy Award nominations, including one win. She was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2001...
, the top 10 hit "Price of Love," and "Possession." Another track from the debut album, the AOR song "Best of What I Got", was featured in the soundtrack to 1989's Tango and Cash.
The band's second album, 1991's "Backlash" came and went without any fanfare. The only single, "Straight To Your Heart," just missed the Top 40, peaking at #42. Ricky Phillips writes on his website that the group had parted company before the second album had been mixed
Audio mixing (recorded music)
In audio recording, audio mixing is the process by which multiple recorded sounds are combined into one or more channels, most commonly two-channel stereo. In the process, the source signals' level, frequency content, dynamics, and panoramic position are manipulated and effects such as reverb may...
. Both Phillips and guitarist Neal Schon expressed frustration with the "pop" side of the band's songs and wanted a harder edge. In the end, it proved to be the band's undoing as everyone left to pursue other projects.
In later interviews Waite revealed that although he loved playing to stadium-sized audiences, he was uncomfortable with the corporate rock image that he felt the band had presented and has been a solo artist ever since.
Bad English drummer
Drummer
A drummer is a musician who is capable of playing drums, which includes but is not limited to a drum kit and accessory based hardware which includes an assortment of pedals and standing support mechanisms, marching percussion and/or any musical instrument that is struck within the context of a...
Deen Castronovo
Deen Castronovo
Deen Castronovo is an Italian American drummer who has played in various bands, including Kandles at Nine, Cacophony, Bad English, Journey, The Enemy, Wild Dogs, Dr. Mastermind, Hardline, Planet Us, Soul Sirkus, Social Distortion, and Black Sabbath bassist Geezer Butler's G/Z/R, as well as in...
later went on to join a reformed Journey
Journey (band)
Journey is an American rock band formed in 1973 in San Francisco by former members of Santana. The band has gone through several phases; its strongest commercial success occurred between the 1978 and 1987, after which it temporarily disbanded...
with singer Steve Augeri
Steve Augeri
Steve Augeri is an American rock singer best known for his work with Tall Stories, Tyketto, and Journey.-Career:...
, Neal Schon
Neal Schon
Neal George Joseph Schon is an American rock guitarist, songwriter, and vocalist best known for his work with the band Journey. He is the only member to have recorded on all of Journey's albums...
, Jonathan Cain
Jonathan Cain
Jonathan Cain is an American musician, best known for his work with The Babys, Journey and Bad English.-Early life:...
, and Ross Valory
Ross Valory
Ross Lamont Valory is Journey's noted bass player. He and Neal Schon are the only original members of the band still performing with the group. Aside from his termination from the group during the Raised on Radio album sessions in 1986, Ross has played on all of Journey's albums...
. He also played on Ozzy Osbourne
Ozzy Osbourne
John Michael "Ozzy" Osbourne is an English vocalist, whose musical career has spanned over 40 years. Osbourne rose to prominence as lead singer of the pioneering English heavy metal band Black Sabbath, whose radically different, intentionally dark, harder sound helped spawn the heavy metal...
's album Ozzmosis
Ozzmosis
-Personnel:Musicians*Ozzy Osbourne – vocals*Zakk Wylde – guitar*Geezer Butler – bass*Deen Castronovo – drums*Rick Wakeman – keyboardsAdditional personnel*Michael Beinhorn – production, keyboards...
in 1995
1995 in music
This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1995.- January–February :*January 18 – Jerry Garcia crashes his rented BMW into a guard rail near Mill Valley, California, USA, but is not injured in the accident....
.
Studio albums
| Year | Album details | Peak chart positions | Certifications Music recording sales certification Music recording sales certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped or sold a certain number of copies, where the threshold quantity varies by type and by nation or territory .Almost all countries follow variations of the RIAA certification categories,... (sales threshold) |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US Billboard 200 The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists... |
AUS ARIA Charts The ARIA charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling singles and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA commenced compiling its own charts in-house from the week ending 26 June... |
CAN Canadian Albums Chart The Canadian Albums Chart is the official album sales chart in Canada. It is compiled every Wednesday by U.S.-based music sales tracking company Nielsen Soundscan, and published every Thursday by Jam! Canoe and Billboard, along with its sister charts the Canadian Singles Chart and the Canadian BDS... |
SWE Sverigetopplistan Sverigetopplistan, earlier known as Topplistan and Hitlistan and other names, is since October 2007 the Swedish national record chart, based on sales data from Swedish Recording Industry Association .... |
SWI Swiss Music Charts The Swiss Music Charts are Switzerland's main music sales charts. The charts are a record of the highest-selling singles and albums in various genres in Switzerland.The Swiss Charts include:* Singles Top 75... |
UK UK Albums Chart The UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled every week by The Official Charts Company and broadcast on a Sunday on BBC Radio 1 , and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website .To qualify for the UK albums chart... |
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| 1989 | Bad English Bad English (album) Bad English is the self-titled platinum-selling debut album by American rock supergroup Bad English, released in 1989.The band scored two huge hits on the Billboard charts including the #1 hit "When I See You Smile" and #5 hit "Price of Love"...
|
21 | 12 | 34 | 39 | — | 74 |
Recording Industry Association of America The Recording Industry Association of America is a trade organization that represents the recording industry distributors in the United States... : Platinum Canadian Recording Industry Association Music Canada is a Toronto-based, non-profit trade organization that was founded 9 April 1963 to represent the interests of companies that record, artists, manufacture, production, promotion and distribution of music in Canada... : Gold |
|
| 1991 | Backlash
|
72 | — | 34 | 21 | 30 | 64 | ||
| "—" denotes releases that did not chart | |||||||||
Compilation albums
| Year | Album details |
|---|---|
| 2003 | Greatest Hits
|
Singles
| Year | Single | Peak chart positions | Certifications Music recording sales certification Music recording sales certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped or sold a certain number of copies, where the threshold quantity varies by type and by nation or territory .Almost all countries follow variations of the RIAA certification categories,... (sales threshold) |
Album | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US Billboard Hot 100 The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday... |
US AC |
US Main |
AUS ARIA Charts The ARIA charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling singles and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA commenced compiling its own charts in-house from the week ending 26 June... |
UK UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ... |
NL |
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| 1988 | "Forget Me Not" | 45 | — | 2 | — | — | — | Bad English | |
| 1989 | "When I See You Smile When I See You Smile When I See You Smile is the second single of American/British hard rock band Bad English, taken from their self-titled debut album of the same name, released in 1989.... " |
1 | 11 | 10 | 4 | 61 | — |
|
|
| 1990 | "Price of Love" | 5 | — | 30 | 44 | 80 | — | ||
| "Heaven Is a 4 Letter Word" | 66 | — | 12 | — | — | — | |||
| "Possession" | 21 | — | — | — | — | — | |||
| 1991 | "Straight to Your Heart" | 42 | — | 9 | — | — | 41 | Backlash | |
| "Time Stood Still" (Bad English featuring John Waite John Waite John Charles Waite is an English rock singer and musician. He was lead vocalist for The Babys and Bad English. As a solo artist, he scored several international hits, including 1984's "Missing You", a top ten hit on the US Billboard Hot 100 and the UK Singles Chart, reaching #1 in the... ) |
— | — | — | — | — | 19 | |||
| "—" denotes releases that did not chart or not released to that country | |||||||||