Georgia Satellites

In an era when mainstream rock had largely turned its back on foundational influences, the Georgia Satellites burst onto the charts in 1986 with the unexpected hit single "Keep Your Hands to Yourself," a track that forcefully recalled the music's origins. That song delivered the same hard-driving energy as a vintage Chuck Berry number while matching it in lyrical wit. Far from limiting themselves to purist roots-rock revivalism, the group fused elements drawn from Berry, the Rolling Stones, the Faces, Little Feat, and AC/DC, all filtered through a distinctly Southern rural sensibility. At peak form the Satellites simply embodied a first-rate rock & roll outfit, propelled by the timeless yet original compositions of frontman and guitarist Dan Baird. Bolstered by the success of that breakthrough single, the band's debut major-label release moved briskly, yet its 1988 follow-up, Open All Night, found little traction once programmers and MTV positioned the group as a novelty act—a raw, backwoods crew providing contrast to the glossy pop-metal of Bon Jovi and the reflective pop of Peter Gabriel. Although Open All Night proved only marginally less potent than the first album, interest had already faded by release. One further record, 1989's In the Land of Salvation and Sin, preceded the band's dissolution. Three years afterward guitarist Rick Richards signed on with Izzy Stradlin's Ju Ju Hounds, while Baird launched a solo path that yielded a modest late-1992 hit, "I Love You Period." Following his second solo album, Baird co-founded the Yayhoos in 1996; the group has issued two albums, the latest being 2006's Put the Hammer Down. Without Baird's participation, the Georgia Satellites reconvened during the mid-1990s and delivered Shaken Not Stirred in 1997.