REO Speedwagon first formed in 1968, but 1976 was the beginning of the veteran group’s winning streak, as both ’77’s Live: You Get What You Play For and ’78’s You Can Tune a Piano but You Can’t Tuna Fish were REO’s first to earn gold and platinum certification. Another live album, Live Again, was also issued in 1978, followed up a year later by another gold-certified hit, Nine Lives. Although REO was slowly inching their way to big-time success, no one could have predicted the massive hit that their next album turned out to be, Hi Infidelity. Issued at the tail-end of 1980, it became one of ’81’s biggest albums — spawning one of the best-known power ballads of all-time, “Keep on Loving You,” as well as such popular rock radio hits as “Don’t Let Him Go” and “Take It on the Run.” Hi Infidelity would eventually go on to sell more than nine million copies — catapulting REO to arena headlining status. REO continued to score further hit albums (1982’s Good Trouble, ’84’s Wheels Are Turnin’) and singles (“Keep the Fire Burnin’,” and “Can’t Fight This Feeling”). The ’90’s saw the emergence of countless REO compilations. More recently, in 2009, REO released Not So Silent Night…Christmas with REO Speedwagon. REO continues to tour the world.
