Is Night Ranger’s Sister Christian the greatest rock ballad of all time?

Kingston Lake sez hellz yeah!

When compared to the otherworldly rock anthem “Don’t tell me you love me” it was the perfect juxtaposition in style. It deserves consideration.

kingstonlake wrote:When compared to the otherworldly rock anthem “Don’t tell me you love me” it was the perfect juxtaposition in style. It deserves consideration.

Aw, man, now you’re just taking all the fun out of this thread.

I think you’ve miscategorized it. It’s a POWER ballad as opposed to a ROCK ballad. Definitely not the greatest ROCK ballad, but the argument for POWER ballad could be made.

Motown Spartan wrote:I think you’ve miscategorized it. It’s a POWER ballad as opposed to a ROCK ballad. Definitely not the greatest ROCK ballad, but the argument for POWER ballad could be made.

Mind blown.

"Sister Christian" is the best power ballad of all-time. Other contenders might be:

"I Remember You" - Skid Row
"Alone Again" - Dokken
"Home Sweet Home" - Motley Crue
"Never Say Goodbye" - Bon Jovi
"Love Bites" - Def Leppard

I will say that "Sister Christian" has one major flaw though.. and that is the missing cymbal crash at 3:38.

There has to be a cymbal crash there. It's almost unforgivable.

Robert J Sakimano wrote:I will say that "Sister Christian" has one major flaw though.. and that is the missing cymbal crash at 3:38.

There has to be a cymbal crash there. It's almost unforgivable.

I can’t disagree with you, but when the vocals come back in at 3:39 you can’t have the decay of the cymbal crash on top of the vocals AT ALL. How do you remedy that? A couple extra silent beats before the vocals? You can’t choke the cymbal there, it wouldn’t have the same impact.

Robert J Sakimano wrote: "Sister Christian" is the best power ballad of all-time. Other contenders might be:

"I Remember You" - Skid Row
"Alone Again" - Dokken
"Home Sweet Home" - Motley Crue
"Never Say Goodbye" - Bon Jovi
"Love Bites" - Def Leppard

+1 on Dokken. Even though Don Dokken is a douche bag.

kingstonlake wrote:

Robert J Sakimano wrote: "Sister Christian" is the best power ballad of all-time. Other contenders might be:

"I Remember You" - Skid Row
"Alone Again" - Dokken
"Home Sweet Home" - Motley Crue
"Never Say Goodbye" - Bon Jovi
"Love Bites" - Def Leppard

+1 on Dokken. Even though Don Dokken is a douche bag.

yeah, but "Alone Again" fits the criteria.

Motown Spartan wrote:

Robert J Sakimano wrote:I will say that "Sister Christian" has one major flaw though.. and that is the missing cymbal crash at 3:38.

There has to be a cymbal crash there. It's almost unforgivable.

I can’t disagree with you, but when the vocals come back in at 3:39 you can’t have the decay of the cymbal crash on top of the vocals AT ALL. How do you remedy that? A couple extra silent beats before the vocals? You can’t choke the cymbal there, it wouldn’t have the same impact.  

yeah, when the vocals come in right there, it does resolve the melody of the song. I like your idea of a couple of extra beats allowing the crash to dissipate. And, you're right - no cymbal choke there. Gotta be a crash.

me and my buddies debated this endlessly back in the day. Driving around drinking Miller High Life pony bottles. We were wearing jeans, band t-shirts.. mullets. Good times.

Robert J Sakimano wrote:

Motown Spartan wrote:

I can’t disagree with you, but when the vocals come back in at 3:39 you can’t have the decay of the cymbal crash on top of the vocals AT ALL. How do you remedy that? A couple extra silent beats before the vocals? You can’t choke the cymbal there, it wouldn’t have the same impact.  

yeah, when the vocals come in right there, it does resolve the melody of the song. I like your idea of a couple of extra beats allowing the crash to dissipate. And, you're right - no cymbal choke there. Gotta be a crash.

me and my buddies debated this endlessly back in the day. Driving around drinking Miller High Life pony bottles. We were wearing jeans, band t-shirts.. mullets. Good times.

I just re-listened to that part about 10 times with my eyes closed envisioning this. Fucking beautiful scene man!!

Motown Spartan wrote:

Robert J Sakimano wrote:
yeah, when the vocals come in right there, it does resolve the melody of the song. I like your idea of a couple of extra beats allowing the crash to dissipate. And, you're right - no cymbal choke there. Gotta be a crash.

me and my buddies debated this endlessly back in the day. Driving around drinking Miller High Life pony bottles. We were wearing jeans, band t-shirts.. mullets. Good times.

I just re-listened to that part about 10 times with my eyes closed envisioning this. Fucking beautiful scene man!!

So cool. Me and my buddies had a lot of great times when we were kids. Drink beer, chase girls (not sure what we would've done had we caught one), music cranked.. summer workouts getting ready for football seasons. All the important stuff

Best scene in Boogie Nights.

Motown Spartan wrote:I think you’ve miscategorized it. It’s a POWER ballad as opposed to a ROCK ballad. Definitely not the greatest ROCK ballad, but the argument for POWER ballad could be made.

I stand corrupted.

tGreenWay wrote:

Motown Spartan wrote:I think you’ve miscategorized it. It’s a POWER ballad as opposed to a ROCK ballad. Definitely not the greatest ROCK ballad, but the argument for POWER ballad could be made.

I stand corrupted.

Actually less of a stand and more of a slouch....

I.B. Fine wrote:

tGreenWay wrote:



I stand corrupted.

Actually less of a stand and more of a slouch....

Only my belly sags. Well, my belly and my manboobs. It’s just my belly and my manboobs that sag. And my ass. But that’s it; only my belly and my manboobs and my ass sag, and that’s it. My belly, my manboobs, and my ass all sag, and that’s it. And my eyelids. But that’s it; just my belly, and my manboobs, my ass, and my eyelids.

I'll never forgive them for the absence of a cymbal crash.

Mistakes were made.

Robert J Sakimano wrote:I'll never forgive them for the absence of a cymbal crash.

Mistakes were made.

We’ve been over this Bob. The vocals simply must come in during silence. The cymbal crash would be appropriate as long as you’re willing to still add the pregnant pause afterwards. It’s not as simple as adding a cymbal crash.