“Hold on to 18” by Black 'n Blue

"Hold On to 18" came off Black 'n Blue's self-titled 1984 debut, but the song had been kicking around longer than the album: an earlier take sat on the flip side of the single "Chains Around Heaven" and turned up on later pressings of the 1982 Metal Massacre compilation, rubbing shoulders with Metallica and Cirith Ungol. Jaime St. James and Tommy Thayer wrote it, and St. James sings lead.

For the album cut the glam metal crew had Dieter Dierks producing and Gerd Rautenbach engineering. Thayer and Jeff "Woop" Warner handle the electric guitars, Patrick Young plays bass, Pete Holmes drums, and everyone but Holmes piles onto the backing vocals. After a promo run in Japan it became their second single, and the only one they ever got onto a chart, reaching 50 on Billboard's Top Rock Tracks.

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