Damn Yankees

DAMN YANKEES
Formed 1989, U.S.A.

Albums:
1990 Damn Yankees
1992 Don't Tread
2002 The Essentials
2003 High Enough & Other Hits

DVDs:
1992 Uprising

History:
An unlikely mish-mash of personalities, the Damn Yankees super group managed to resurrect several waning careers. The hype and success was short lived however, and like so many bands in the early 90s they just faded away.
Los Angeles, California was where Damn Yankees was put together by Styx's Tommy Shaw (guitar/vocals), the Motor City Madman Ted Nugent (guitar/vocals), Night Ranger's Jack Blades (bass/vocals) and drummer Michael Cartellone. With the name recognition of the members, the debut album managed to work its way to #13 on the Billboard charts while selling over two million copies. Singles "Coming Of Age" and "Come Again" would chart, but it was the power balled "High Enough" (which peaked at #3) which propelled the band.

The follow-up Don't Tread spawned the hit singles "Where You Goin' Now" and "Silence Is Broken", but album sales failed miserably compared to the debut. In 1993 Damn Yankees realized that they were commercially unviable in a changing musical state and disbanded, with members returning to their previous careers.
In 2000 Damn Yankees reformed to work on a new album with Brother Cane's Damon Johnson and Night Ranger's Kelly Keagy replacing Shaw and Cartellone respectively. As worked progressed both Shaw and Cartellone would return to the band and the album recording was wrapped up. However the band was horrified with the final mix of the album and it remains unreleased to this very day. Keagy returned to Night Ranger and Cartellone became the drummer for southern rock legends Lynyrd Skynyrd.