Hotel

During the closing years of the 1970s an American rock group known as Hotel came together, only to be repeatedly charged with employing excessive force on modest material—an image captured in the remark about “taking a hammer to crack a nutshell.” The sextet, devoted to ornate and densely textured AOR, comprised Tommy Caton on guitar and vocals, Marc Phillips on keyboards and vocals, Michael Reid on guitar and vocals, George Creasman on bass and vocals, Lee Bargeon on keyboards and vocals, and Michael Cadenhead on drums and percussion. Issued by MCA Records in 1979, the band’s first album proved an unsatisfying affair whose lavish instrumental overlays overshadowed its underlying compositions. A follow-up arrived twelve months afterward under the title Half Moon Silver; while an advance over its predecessor, the record likewise fell short of placing Hotel among the leading lights of the AOR field.