During an era when rock & roll had largely abandoned its foundational influences, the Georgia Satellites burst onto the charts in 1986 with the unexpected hit single "Keep Your Hands to Yourself," reasserting the music’s origins. That track delivered the same raw drive and sharp wit as a vintage Chuck Berry number. Far from limiting themselves to stripped-down revivalism, the band drew its direct style in equal measure from Berry, the Rolling Stones, the Faces, Little Feat, and AC/DC, all filtered through a Southern backwoods perspective. At their strongest, the Satellites functioned as a reliably potent rock & roll unit propelled by the timeless yet original compositions of lead singer and guitarist Dan Baird. Powered by the single, their debut major-label album achieved solid sales, whereas the 1988 follow-up Open All Night failed to connect; programmers at radio and MTV had dismissed the group as a novelty act, a rustic interruption amid Bon Jovi’s polished pop-metal and Peter Gabriel’s reflective pop. Even though Open All Night proved only marginally less compelling than its predecessor, interest had already evaporated by release. One additional record, 1989’s In the Land of Salvation and Sin, preceded the band’s dissolution. Three years afterward, guitarist Rick Richards enlisted in Izzy Stradlin’s Ju Ju Hounds, while Baird launched a solo career that yielded a modest 1992 hit, “I Love You Period.” After issuing 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. In the mid-’90s the Georgia Satellites reconvened without Baird and delivered Shaken Not Stirred in 1997.
