ROBERT TEPPER
Robert Tepper (born May 30, 1950) is an American songwriter and recording artist, best known for his hit song “No Easy Way Out” from the Rocky IV motion picture soundtrack. He paired up with fellow singer Benny Mardones, and together they wrote Mardones’ hit ballad “Into the Night”, which earned them a Grammy Awards nomination. Actor/director Sylvester Stallone was taken with Tepper’s song “No Easy Way Out”, which subsequently led to its inclusion in the movie Rocky IV. Tepper released two solo albums for Scotti Bros. Records, but both albums received little promotion from the label. In 1986, one year after Rocky IV, another song from Tepper’s debut album (titled No Easy Way Out) called “Angel of the City” became the main song of Stallone’s film Cobra. Also in 1986, he co-wrote the single “Le Bel Age” for Pat Benatar, which peaked at #54 on the Billboard charts. (More from Wikipedia)
Robert Tepper, Modern Madness – This Bayonne, NJ native began his musical career as a songwriter and bass guitarist for Benny Mardones; he co-wrote Mardones’ hit song “Into the Night”, a #11 hit on its original release in 1980 that also made the charts again a decade later. Sylvester Stallone selected the title song from Robert Tepper’s debut album No Easy Way Out, “No Easy Way Out” for the soundtrack of the 1985 film Rocky IV. This was the most successful of the Rocky films and, in fact, was the biggest selling sports movie of all time until overtaken by The Blind Side (2009), the hit movie that gave Sandra Bullock her Oscar. While “There’s No Easy Way Out” made it to the Top 30, Robert Tepper’s album was not a big seller. His follow-up album that I have, Modern Madness (1988) is a good rocking album that is well written and performed. I have seen the record show up on the Internet in a few slots, since it features Tori Amos among the background singers. Her under-rated debut effort Y Kant Tori Read – technically an album by the rock band Y Kant Tori Read rather than an album by Tori Amos individually like all of her later records – came out in the same year.
(December 2015)
* * *
Since I am down to a quarterly schedule rather than a monthly schedule, my annual list is a lot shorter, so I will try listing all of the people that I have discussed in some depth rather than just the Under Appreciated Rock Band and the Story of the Month. They are all punk rock bands of one kind or another this year (2015-2016), and the most recent post includes my overview of the early rap/hip hop scene that an old friend, George Konstantinow challenged me to write – probably so long ago that he might have forgotten.
December 2015 – 1990’s pop/punk band AMANDA JONES; Story of the Month on the early American singles by the Beatles; also, Rochelle Harper, Lisa Loeb, 3 Doors Down, Level with the Ground, Chris Stamey with Yo La Tengo, Meri Wilson, Bobby Brown, the Cruzados / the Plugz, Terence Trent d’Arby, An Emotional Fish, Bruce Hornsby and the Range, Hunters & Collectors, Looters, Shakespear’s Sister, Robert Tepper, Y Kant Tori Read / Tori Amos, Ugly Kid Joe, Paul Young, the Rolling Stones, Mandy Brix, the Joneses.
(Year 7 Review)
