KIHNTAGIOUS was the great lost Greg Kihn Band album. First of all, let me say musically I thought it was one of our strongest. The songwriting was better, the grooves were deeper, and the lyrics were a cut above. The band worked hard on Kihntagious and we were excited when it came out. Now here’s a little lesson in the music business that you probably didn’t know. It’s painful lesson but as the White House would say, “It’s a teaching moment.”
It was during this period that Beserkley Reords was distributed by WEA (Warners/Elektra/Asylum.) We had signed a deal with Elektra but Warner Brothers and Asylum bought them out before the ink was dry. Jeopardy was a huge hit for them right out of the box so they were anxious to put out the next one.
One of the most commercial and rockin’ songs we ever produced was Reunited on Kihntagious and deserved to be a major hit. Reunited was a red hot rocker with great words and a killer guitar riff. Everybody agreed it was a hit and we spent a fortune making the video for it (a take-off on the Wizard of Oz, complete with Munchkins.)
But something happened that doomed Reunited from the get-go. Somehow it had become known that EMI was interested in signing the GKB for big dough. When Elektra found out they dropped Reunited like a hot potato. That was the end of all our WEA support. As a result, instead of being our next major hit follow-up to Jeopardy, Reunited was relegated to the slag heap, video and all.
There are some great songs on this album that should have been hits. I always loved Rock and Make-up. Stand together was great live. Confrontation Music was one of my favorites too. All these songs were lost when Elektra found out we were leaving to sign with EMI.
We still perform Reunited live to this day but it never gets the attention it deserved back in the day. It still rocks the house though.
You must be logged in to post a comment.