As this blog will clearly demonstrate, I'm a huge sucker for classic AOR. Hailing from Winnipeg, Manitoba, Harlequin were one of the genre's most under-appreciated acts. During their original run in the late '70s, early '80s, the band released four studio albums packed to the gills with one AOR-approved ear worm after the other.
"Innocence" opens Love Crimes, the quintet's sophomore album, and it's the sort of pulsating, feel-good rocker that rock radio programmers went absolutely cuckoo for during the time of its release. Produced by Jack Douglas (Aerosmith, Clutch), the track sounds like a million bucks, with George Belanger's vocals and Gary Golden's keyboard lines sitting perfectly in the mix alongside the song's punchy guitar riffs. Oh, and those melodies! They are absolutely "to-die-for" status. If you tell me the chorus doesn't lodge itself into your brain after playing the video above, I won't believe you.
Despite the song's obvious hook-heavy qualities, "Innocence" never found a home on American radio. Maybe things would have been different if say, Journey or Night Ranger recorded the song and released it as a single. But like fellow Canadian AOR-minded rockers Streetheart and Prism, US success just wasn't in the cards for Harlequin.
