Information/Write-up
The success of the debut Loverboy album caught many folk off guard. It was, of course, a near picture perfect melding of fresh sounding hard rock and AOR, blessed with a contemporary sheen that separated them from the rest of the pack. It was no surprise their music - embraced by radio both at home in Canada and the USA – raced up the charts, selling like hot cakes, pushing the album to double platinum. They also hit the road, racking up hundreds of gigs and supporting many of the big names of the time, in the largest of venues. Best of all, this was a rags to riches story with the band fully embracing their new found glory. Reconvening in their home city of Vancouver, the band set about recording their follow up album, ‘Get Lucky’. Enlisting the same production team as their debut album – that’s Bruce Fairbairn with engineers Bob Rock and Mike Fraser – and recorded mainly in Mushroom Studios, followed by Little Mountain, the band crafted a solid follow-up, rich with melody and hooks to die for. Vocalist Mike Reno by now had carved out an impressive vocal identity, allowing the band to fully punch home the riffs and all the musical accoutrements that you would want. Released in October 1981, the album quickly climbed the charts, reaching #7 in the US. It was rich with quality material, such as ‘When It’s Over’, ‘Jump’ and the epic ‘Gangs In The Street’. But it was the album’s 1st single, the lead-off track ‘Working For The Weekend’, which reached #2 on the Billboard chart, that cemented their reputation as a band with talent to spare and a depth that could not be denied.
Get Lucky is the second studio album by Canadian hard rock band Loverboy, released on October 7, 1981, by Columbia Records. The album reached number 7 on the Billboard 200 album chart, remaining on the chart for over two years, and has sold over 4 million copies in the United States. It featured the singles "Working for the Weekend", "When It's Over", "Lucky Ones", and "Take Me to the Top".
According to Scott Smith's notes on the Greatest Hits album Big Ones, the song "Take Me to the Top" is actually the demo version "complete with out of tune bass" because the band couldn't quite capture the sound in the studio.
The album was re-released as a digitally remastered CD in July 2006 to commemorate the 25th anniversary of its original release. The remastered album featured four bonus tracks, all of which are previously unreleased demos.
Artwork
The cover of the album depicts the posterior of someone wearing tight red leather pants, with a man's arm and hand in the foreground with index and middle finger crossed. The model wearing the leather pants was 13-year-old Tymara Kennedy, daughter of photographer David Michael Kennedy who shot the cover.[4] The photo credit on the album stated "Bottom by: T.K.", which was sometimes interpreted as the publishing shorthand for the term to come.[4] The use of red leather pants originated from Reno selecting a few items from a leather shop owned by the husband of the band manager's publicist.
Until 2014, various claims about the identity of the person wearing the leather pants were made. These included Mike Reno, the band's lead singer, who "just went along with" such claims,[6] and Paul Dean, both of whom wore red leather pants during the concert tour for the album. At other times, both were ambiguous about the identity of the model. In a 2012 interview, Reno stated that the model was the photographer's daughter, a claim repeated in a 2013 interview. CBC Music confirmed the identity of the model in an interview with Steven Keller in August 2014. According to Kennedy, his stylist found only one pair of red leather pants while shopping in New York City before the photo shoot in 1981. They fit none of the band members or models on the set. At home later that day, his daughter returned from school, saw the pants, and asked to try them. They fit her, and Kennedy decided to use her as the model.
It is unknown whose hand and arm are in the picture. According to a 2015 article in The Toronto Star newspaper, an "Argentinian male model, six foot five" was hired "on the basis of his big hands". Tymara Kennedy died in an automobile crash in 1991, with the cover to this album as her only modelling credit.
The cover was chosen as one of the 50 greatest Canadian album covers by CBC Music staff in 2014.
The cover of American singer Joan As Police Woman's 2020 album Cover Two is an homage to this Loverboy album.
Mike Reno: lead vocals
Paul Dean: guitar, backing vocals
Doug Johnson: keyboards
Scott Smith: bass
Matt Frenette: drums
Nancy Nash: backing vocals on "When It's Over"
Produced by Bruce Fairbairn
Engineered by Keith Stein and Rob Porter
Mixed by Bob Rock and Mike Fraser
Mastered by George Marino
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