Ok, so we all know soft-rock kicks arse (or do we? :shock: ) well I love it! The beards, the sound, everything.

So if you are the same as me....name your favorite 70s/early 80s soft-rock favs. Artists, albums, etc.! Whoooooooooooooo!

Here's ours:
Rupert Holmes (first album especially!)
Christopher Cross
Stephen Bishop
Player

john denver and james taylor

Neil Diamond
(Oh My)Rod Stewart

I would have to go with the band Bread or Chicago. Bread pretty much set the standard for soft rock bands and songs.

Chicago; or just plain Peter Cetera.

I like The Carpenters.

Rupert Holmes
Dan Fogelberg
Olivia Newton John (she started out soft)
Serigo Mendez
Steely Dan (they were kinda smooth for many of their tunes)
Michael Mc Donald (and on that subject Doobie Brothers)
Air Supply
Chuck Mangionie

Other than that I can only name specific tunes:
Kiss you all over
How Long Has This Been Going On
Music Box Dancer
Love's Theme

Chicago
Elton John
Genesis/Phil Collins

Curt Boettcher's The Millenium (their 60's recordings, especially the 1968 album Begin are mindblowing, I have the 3 cd set of all the Millenium's recorded output.)

Steely Dan

And I love watching the Yacht Rock series on youtube which has actors playing real Soft Rock musicians in fake scenarios and storylines losley based on real songs and stories. It's hilarious.

Cat Stevens

Agreeing with some other posters, I liked John Denver and the Carpenters a lot as a child. My personal preffered era is the early - mid 1990s, though. I like the 1980s too.

I do too. Karen died five days before I was born, so they're kinda before my time, but I can't help it. Her voice is just so amazing.

Cat Stevens

My mom loves his stuff. I don't like everything he's done but he has some very good music. I think the best song he ever did was the one he wrote for the movie Harold and Maude called Don't Be Shy. A few years back a really good Cat Stevens best of was released, it's a full length cd (79:00) and has pretty much all his best material.

I like most of what other people have mentioned plus I like some of these when I get to that certain drunk plateau.

The Little River Band
England Dan and John Ford-Coley
10cc
Gary Wright
Leo Sayer
Olivia Newton-John

I like Genesis

I only like Genesis stuff up till 1980's Duke album and I have to say I think most of 1979's And Then There Were Three is pretty weak. 1981's Abacab has a few cuts I don't mind but after the early 80's stuff they totally lose me and I've never liked any of Phil or Mike's solo stuff.

My favorite Genesis stuff is the Peter Gabriel era when Genesis were more of a pogressive rock band with elements of folk and psychadelic (1967 - 1975.) I also like a lot of Peter Gabriel's solo stuff and some of Steve Hackett and Tony Bank's solo stuff but I think Tony would have been wise to have worked intsturmental rather than bring in outside singers and trying to sing on some of his stuff.

I tooootally agree! I love Gabriel era Genesis! Foxtrot, Nursery Crime, Selling England By The Pound and The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway being some of my faves. I also adore Steve Hackett, I think I have pretty much all of his solo albums. I also couldn't agree with you more about Tony Banks. Everything I've heard of his, the music is stunning until the vocals kick in. I'm the same way about Steve Howe's solo stuff, sublime guitar work and stellar arrangements but when he tries to sing! Blech! Just shut up and play! Obviously I'm talking about Beginnings and not brilliant albums like The Steve Howe Album and Natural Timbre. O.k. I guess it's out now. I'm a prog fan. May as well throw King Crimson on the pile as they are also on my favored list. I simply adore Starless and Bible Black. I also love Islands but critics knock that one for some reason. Do I dare venture into Gentle Giant or is that going to far?

*EDIT* I meant to ask you since you brought up Phil Collins, if you like Brand X? It just makes it that much more sad when you here the schlock Phil Collins puts out now compared with the awesome stuff he did with Brand X.

Brand X, that's getting into fusion stuff. I don't mind their stuff but I tend to get my fusion fix from Mahavishnu Orchestra and Bill Bruford's late 70's solo albums.

I agree about Yes' Steve Howe solo stuff, listening to him sing lead is painful. Fortunatley he has alot of solo albums that are instrumental or at least don't have much of his vocals. I also love his psych rock stuff he did pre-Yes in Tomorrow and Bodast.

As for prog I love Yes in all their permutations (seen them live four times with three different lineups,) most of King Crimson's stuff and pre early 80's Genesis like I already said.

There are some prog bands that don't really make it for me, apart from a couple of songs I can't get into ELP, Rush or Gentle Giant. Alot of the U.S. prog stuff I find especially dire. Starcastle, Styx, Kansas... ect. I think is awful.

Oh I LOVE Mahavishnu! John McLaughlin is one HELL of a guitar player! Whoever thinks "Clapton is God" should listen to Mr. McLaughlin. I think they'll be in for a bit of an epiphany. That is if they can keep up. And speaking of Mahavishnu, Billy Cobham does some splendid solo work. One of my favorites is with him and George Duke, the Live On Tour In Europe album. Brilliant! Oh and about the whole prog/fusion thing, I do tend to lump those together as I love both genres and they are closely related (sort of). However the only reason I mentioned Brand X was because of the of Phil Collins reference, not to indicate that they are prog. Just so's you know I'm not all dumb about music n' stuff. I'm not exactly a devoted fusion fan but there are some artists that I do enjoy when the mood strikes me like Return To Forever, Weather Report and more modern and more straightforward jazz, Sex Mob and Medeski, Martin & Wood. Again I mention I have to be in the mood because some fusion as some prog can get a little "busy" and start to grate on my nerves. As far as bands like Kansas and Styx I don't see how they got lumped into the progressive genre. They pretty much belong in the "suck" genre if you ask me. Another band that I actually like that are (mis)labeled as progressive is Saga. Why are they considered progressive? I don't get it. They sound like regular pop/rock to me. :shrug:

I've found the best fusion I've heard is on Bill Bruford's late 70's stuff. It's a lot less overloaded than alot of fusion stuff I've heard. Some of the pieces like Sahara of Snow wouldn't sound out of place on one of Zappa's instrumental albums.