REO Speedwagon‘s catalog and career have been marked by dizzying highs and big setbacks.
They welcomed frontman Kevin Cronin into the fold with 1972’s gold-selling R.E.O./T.W.O., which should have quickly set REO Speedwagon on a path to the multiplatinum successes that defined their career. Instead, Cronin left after one album and remained out of the lineup for four long years – and three albums, none of which initially charted.
Cronin returned and helped REO Speedwagon score their first-ever Hot 100 song with a live version of “Ridin’ the Storm Out.” Its parent album, 1973’s Ridin’ the Storm Out, eventually went platinum based largely on interest from this single – even though Cronin wasn’t in the lineup for that studio project.
READ MORE: How a Road Trip Inspired REO Speedwagon’s ‘Roll With the Changes’
Finally, REO Speedwagon earned wide notice with 1978’s Top 30 hit You Can Tune a Piano, but You Can’t Tuna Fish, which sold more than two million copies after spinning off the radio favorites “Roll with the Changes” and “Time for Me to Fly.” But then 1979’s slightly retrograde Nine Lives stalled outside the Top 30, producing no hit songs.
They became superstars with 1980’s chart-topping multi-million-selling Hi Infidelity, only to rush out 1982’s platinum-selling Good Trouble to lesser interest. They rebounded with 1984’s Wheels Are Turnin,’ going platinum again behind the chart-topping “Can’t Fight This Feeling,” but then splintered when Cronin and guitarist Gary Richrath bickered through sessions for 1987’s gold-selling Life as We Know It.
REO Speedwagon continued forward with a core trio of Cronin, co-founding keyboardist Neal Doughty and long-time bassist Bruce Hall, releasing three more non-holiday LPs before retiring the name. Here’s a ranked look back at every album, beginning with REO Speedwagon’s pre-Cronin self-titled debut:
REO Speedwagon Albums Ranked
REO Speedwagon’s catalog and career have been marked by dizzying highs and big setbacks. Here’s a ranked look back.
Gallery Credit: Nick DeRiso
