Desolation Angels by Bad Company

Desolation Angels, Bad Company's fifth studio album, rolled out on Swan Song in March 1979, and Paul Rodgers lifted the title from Jack Kerouac's 1965 novel, a name he had nearly hung on Free's second album a decade earlier. The four-man machine of Rodgers, drummer Simon Kirke, guitarist Mick Ralphs and bassist Boz Burrell cut it at Ridge Farm Studios in Surrey late in 1978.

The big news is "Rock 'n' Roll Fantasy", which Rodgers built off a riff he had found on a guitar synthesizer, giving the band's meat-and-potatoes stomp a shiny modern sheen. Burrell's own "Gone, Gone, Gone" soaked up plenty of rock-radio airplay, and Ralphs' "Oh, Atlanta" later got a cover from Alison Krauss. It hit number 3 in the States and went platinum that year, double platinum later, but it was their last top ten album on either side of the Atlantic and, by general agreement, the last strong one from the original lineup.

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