First Glance by April Wine

First Glance, the seventh studio album from Canada's April Wine, was the late-'70s record that finally got the band, originally out of Halifax, heard beyond their home turf. Myles Goodwyn produced it himself and sang lead, and the lineup had muscle to spare: Goodwyn, Gary Moffet and newcomer Brian Greenway on guitars, Steve Lang on bass and Jerry Mercer pounding the drums, released through Aquarius and Capitol.

The payoff was "Roller", a strutting, hard-charging rocker that has stayed a crowd favorite and a fixture of classic rock radio ever since. The rest of the record keeps the same no-nonsense attitude: three guitars and a lot of swagger, polished just enough for the FM dial without losing the bar-band sweat. Once it caught on, bands like Rush, Journey and Styx wanted April Wine opening their American shows, which tells you what kind of heat they were packing.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.