REO Speedwagon

She doesn’t like the tough guys
They think that they can do anything they please
But they’re gonna get a surprise
When she brings them to their knees

There are records that light up a band's career almost without warning, arriving like meteorites to flood their musical planet with the most nourishing water, capable of instantly generating new life and even bypassing the fateful primordial soup. Such is the case of "High Infidelity", the ninth outing from America's REO Speedwagon, an album that suddenly steered the band led by Kevin Cronin (vocals, guitar and keyboards) toward an Adult Oriented Rock formula that was, for the most part, a far cry from the hard rock that had defined the eight albums they released throughout the 1970s. It all starts with a cover that's a statement in itself, its famous shot capturing an adultery just consummated in what appears to be a hotel room or a high-rise apartment.

High infidelity, indeed. The phrase is clearly a double meaning, first spelling out the band's aforementioned break from the beefier riffs of their past in favor of pop phrasing, powered on this occasion by magnetic keyboards, deeply sensual solos and an amiably crowd-pleasing vocal style.
Driving home the band's cathartic streak is also the image of an analyst's couch, on which Cronin's relationship troubles are laid bare — a scene that would set the template for the video of the hit "Keep On Loving You", the first single lifted from "High Infidelity", dashed off by the frontman himself during a rocky patch in his love life and elevated melodically by the downright epic solo from the unforgettable Gary Richrath, who passed away in 2015. It's a ballad containing every stereotype of the instant-classic power ballads of the 1980s, first performed by Cronin on piano shortly after discovering his wife had been unfaithful: "I walked into rehearsal and sat down at the piano, which I rarely do because I'm a guitar player, and started playing. The guys in the band looked at me like I was from another planet. Everyone immediately sensed how much that song meant to me, and Gary walked over and plugged his guitar into the amp. A moment later, the record was number one on the charts and everyone was calling 'Keep on Loving You' a power ballad, acting as if we'd had some grand strategy for success that had even made the writing of that song possible, when in reality it had all been an accident", Cronin said at the time.

There's also a curious story behind the band's name, chosen after Doughty spotted, written on a chalkboard, the model designation of the REO Speed Wagon truck designed in 1915 by Ransom Eli Olds — a name that, rather than being pronounced as a single word as the automaker intended, i.e. "REE-oh", ended up being spelled out letter by letter by the band, hence "R-E-O". Their first performance under this improbable moniker took place, of all places, at a Zeta Beta Tau fraternity party, followed by a string of Youngbloods and Moby Grape covers played by REO in the bars around their college campus — a purebred brat-pack beginning if ever there was one.
"High Infidelity" is a simply perfect album from the first to the last of its ten songs, so much so that it topped the Billboard chart for fifteen weeks, selling ten million copies in the United States. In the UK it peaked at number six, a great result for American arena rock, given that the genre never really caught on much over there. "It was a real leap into the unknown. For years we'd worked hard, with slow, gradual growth", keyboardist Doughty said in various interviews about the album's release. Drummer Alan Gratzer went even further: "Then 'High Infidelity' came along and the curve just shot up, straight to the top. It was hard to believe. Suddenly we were filling baseball stadiums and people were snatching our hats off our heads".

What really launched Speedwagon's brand of American pop rock into orbit, however, were the singles — besides the aforementioned "Keep On Loving You", also "Take It On The Run", "Don't Let Him Go" and "In Your Letter". The second-to-last of these opens the dance on a landmark LP for AOR and rock as a whole, proving once again that it's always possible to marry a "hard" spirit with a softer approach, mostly devoted to timeless melody, without ever tipping into kitsch, and capable of burrowing into your head and never leaving. After all, Neal Doughty's synth line is still captivating today, a genuine marvel paired with Richrath's blazing riffs that amplify its impact, while Cronin's vocals sound as eager to please as they are achingly desperate.

Equally irresistible is the stride of "Follow My Heart", written by Richrath and second guitarist Tom Kelly, another dazzling gem whose refrain and inevitable solo will echo forever through America's grandest arenas and beyond. Playful and leaning more into certain surf-rock devices is instead the carefree "In Your Letter", written solely by Richrath and given extra kick by Cronin's sixties-style piano, which spices things up between one note and the next.
Among the songs made for singing at the top of your lungs is certainly "Take It On the Run", the album's other ballad — or power ballad, if you prefer — on a record with no dips in quality. Then there's the irreverent "Tough Guys", which pokes fun at men who are tough only on the surface, straight out of the strictly-eighties American imagination — the studs-and-tattoos types who melt like putty at the first sign of romantic, or purely sexual, trouble.
And what to make of the cheeky "Out Of Season", or the only track sung by bassist Bruce Hall, "Someone Tonight", complete with the inevitable background harmonies and guitars restlessly weaving together between verses?
Finally there's "I Wish You Were There", written by Cronin with Gratzer, yet another rock love letter full of impossible promises and shattered dreams.

The success of "High Infidelity" would remain, for the band, essentially a one-off. The follow-up, "Good Trouble", released in 1982, only managed a faint commercial echo thanks to the hit "Keep The Fire Burnin'", while "Wheels Are Turnin'", released in 1984, repeated its predecessor's path with another top-ten earworm: "Can't Fight This Feeling".
Flashes of light alternating with breakups, rekindlings, further falls, tours with friends Styx and Journey, farewells, and even, in 2009, a Christmas album, "Not So Silent Night…Christmas With REO Speedwagon". It wasn't until March 7, 2026 that REO Speedwagon reunited their classic lineup — Cronin, Doughty, Hall and Gratzer — to open an exhibition honoring Richrath at the Peoria Riverfront Museum in Illinois. A moving reunion for a band that wrote a thoroughly memorable — and in some ways melodically eternal — chapter in the story of American rock.

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05/07/2026