Mainstream Success
When the first Mr. Mister album, I Wear the Face, was released by RCA Records in 1984, Page was offered the chance to replace Bobby Kimball as lead singer of Toto, and later was offered Peter Cetera's place in Chicago; he refused both offers.
Their second album, 1985's Welcome to the Real World—with lyrics from Page's cousin John Lang—was the breakthrough for Mr. Mister. All three singles were in the top 10, two of which hit No. 1 on the U.S. pop charts—"Kyrie" and "Broken Wings". The latter was inspired by the book of the same title by Khalil Gibran. They had several No. 1 MTV videos, and performed at the first MTV Spring Break show in 1986. That year, Mr. Mister had two Grammy Award nominations, including Best Pop Band (which was awarded to the "We Are the World" ensemble, USA for Africa).
During this time, Mr. Mister toured with other popular acts including Don Henley, The Bangles, Eurythmics, Tina Turner, and Adam Ant. The band's third album was Go On..., which the band said was "some of the best stuff we ever did," showing a much more mature band and a sound that hinted at progressive rock. Nevertheless, Go On... was not a commercial success.
During the 1980s, the group wrote and/or performed songs for several movies, including the title song for Stand and Deliver.
Guitarist Steve Farris left around 1989. The band began working on a fourth album, Pull, with session guitarists Buzz Feiten, Trevor Rabin, Doug Macaskill and Peter McRea. The album was completed in 1990, but RCA Records decided not to release it. Soon afterward, the band broke up. The album remained unreleased for 20 years—though one track ("Waiting in My Dreams") appeared on a 2001 greatest hits collection by the band. On November 23, 2010 the remastered album was finally released by the band - in collaboration with Sony music - on Richard Page's independent label, Little Dume Recordings. The album is also available from Sony on iTunes and other digital distribution channels.
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Famous quotes containing the words mainstream and/or success:
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“One general builds his success on ten thousand bleaching bones.”
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