20 years ago: Winger burst on the scene in the late 1980s with "Seventeen," a paean to illicit young love off their wildly successful debut album. Kip Winger became a heavy metal heartthrob for legions of female fans, and guitarist Reb Beach became an icon for all of us young male future guitar heroes.
"In The Heart of the Young," their followup effort, was released in 1990 on the strength of the singles "Miles Away", "Easy Come, Easy Go," and "Can't Get Enuff". Winger was, unfortunately, cast in a less-than-positive light on the MTV show "Beavis and Butthead," featured on the shirt of the title characters' wussy neighbor, Stewart (as a foil to the "cooler" Metallica and AC/DC shirts worn by the title characters), and after their largely forgotten third album, "Pull," tanked, Winger vanished into the hair metal ether.
"In The Heart of the Young," however, went much deeper than the two singles. "Rainbow In The Rose" featured trumpeting from a young Chris Botti:
The band reunited for a few shows, a new song for a "Greatest Hits" disc, and a live album in 2001, but disbanded again to continue to work on independent projects. Beach recorded and/or toured with Alice Cooper, Dokken, and Whitesnake, while Kip Winger released a series of more introspective solo albums, including one with acoustic versions of some of his old band's more popular songs.
Today: Winger's back, incredibly. They released their fourth album, "IV," in 2007, but didn't click with fans, as it took the band in a much more modern direction. 2009's "Karma," however, brought back the big choruses and wailing solos. Kip and his brother Nate reformed Blackwood Creek, a band from before the Winger days, and released a new album in early 2010 as well.
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