- Canadian hard rock band formed in 1979, from Calgary Alberta Canada. The original members were Mike Reno (lead vocals), Paul Dean (guitar, backing vocals), Doug Johnson (keyboards, backing vocals), Scott Smith (bass guitar, backing vocals), and Matt Frenette (drums). Smith died in 2000 (swept overboard while sailing and lost at sea), and was replaced by Spider Sinnaeve – all other members remain with the band today. All members contributed to songwriting.
- Reno and Dean were members of several bands before meeting one another at a nightclub. They got together for a jam session and decided to form a new band. Frenette was already in a band with Dean, and he joined the new group. Dean invited Smith and Johnson to join, and the band was complete. The name of the group came from a dream – Dean was with his bandmates and their girlfriends, and the ladies were reading a fashion magazine with a Cover Girl advertisement. Dean dreamed about it that night, with Cover Girl becoming Cover Boy, and ultimately becoming Loverboy. They made their concert debut opening for KISS in November 1979.
- They were rejected by all American record labels, but in 1980 they were signed by a Canadian label. Their debut album, the self titled Loverboy, was released late that year. It was their first of 4 multi-platinum albums. Their hit single from the album was the rocker Turn Me Loose, peaking at #6 on the Top Rock Songs chart.
- Loverboy’s follow-up album, Get Lucky, was released in 1981. It became their biggest selling album, with over 4 million copies sold in the U.S. Their biggest hit from the album was the power pop classic Working For The Weekend – it made it to #2 on the Mainstream Rock chart, and #29 on the Hot 100. The album won 6 Juno awards (the Canadian music industry’s highest honor) for the band.
- They maintained their run of popularity with 1983’s Keep It Up. The album included Hot Girls In Love, peaking at #2 on the Mainstream Rock chart, and Queen of the Broken Hearts, which made it to #11 on the same chart.
- In 1984, Reno recorded a duet with Ann Wilson from the band Heart – Almost Paradise was the love theme for the soundtrack of the film Footloose, and it topped the Adult Contemporary chart, and reached #7 on the Hot 100. Also that year, Loverboy recorded the theme for the United States Olympic Team – Nothing’s Gonna Stop You Now. The following year, Lovin’ Every Minute of It was released. Two top 10 hits came from the album – the title track, and the power ballad This Could Be The Night.
- Their last album of the 80s, Wildside, was not as successful as their previous work – the song Notorious was a minor hit, and Dean and Reno started to disagree on the management of the band. By 1988, the band officially split.
- In October 1991, the band played a benefit concert and enjoyed it so much that they decided to reform the group. They toured periodically over the next decade and released a studio album of new music in 1997, as well as several compilation albums. In November 2000, Smith died in a boating accident. He was replaced by Sinnaeve, and the band has continued to tour and record music – their most recent studio album was released in 2014, and they perform regularly today.
- In 2009, Loverboy was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame.
- Ready to morph back to 1980, when MTV was all about the music, and rock stars had feathered hair and red leather pants? Watch the band’s video of Turn Me Loose. “I gotta do it my way…or no way at all!”