Artist:Honeymoon Suite
Song:New Girl Now
Album:Essentials
The hard rock band Honeymoon Suite were successful mostly in their native Canada in the 80s. New Girl Now was their first single in 1984. They charted in the US but not consistently. Honeymoon Suite lead singer Johnnie Dee is from Montreal. But by the early 80s, he was living in Niagara Falls. He named the band Honeymoon Suite because Niagara Falls is the unofficial honeymoon capital of the world. When the original band split up, Dee formed a new Honeymoon Suite in 1983 with guitarist Derry Grehan and drummer Dave Betts of the band Steve Blimkie and the Reason. Grehan also writes songs and is a St. Catharines native. I'm sure he liked the idea of staying close to home rather than living in Toronto. Grehan wrote the song New Girl Now and a demo won Honeymoon Suite an unsigned band contest held by Toronto radio station Q107. And that led to Honeymoon Suite signing with Warner Bros. in Canada and the US. Tom Treumuth was brought in to produce. He produced another Canadian hard rock band Helix. Keyboardist Ray Coburn was brought in as a permanent member. The band still didn't have a bassist so Dee brought in his friend Brian Blackstone to play on the album and Gary Lalonde of the band Toronto joined Honeymoon Suite soon after. New Girl Now was the first single and it reached #23 on the Canadian Singles chart and #57 on the Billboard Hot 100. The album was certified 3XPlatinum in Canada. Honeymoon Suite released four albums for Warner Bros. They continued to do well in Canada. But Warners really wanted to break them in the US. So they brought in big name producers like Bruce Fairbairn and Ted Templeman to try and get Honeymoon Suite a big hit. Honeymoon Suite even recorded the theme for the 1987 film Lethal Weapon. They were ultimately unsuccessful and Honeymoon Suite left Warner Bros. in 1991. You can get all their hits on this comp. Dee and Grehan continue to lead Honeymoon Suite. The album Alive was just released in February on the Italian label Frontiers. And they tour mostly in Canada but they mix in a few US dates too. I would describe them as an 80s nostalgia act. Here's the video for New Girl Now by Honeymoon Suite.
I watched their video on Mtv many years ago. I did not like the song. Never followed up on them. Thanks so much for the information Frank.
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