Artist:Idle Cure
Song:Breakaway
Album:Idle Cure
The Encyclopedia of Contemporary Christian Music described Idle Cure as "the best example of cloning a sound for Christian markets". Their 1986 debut album was compared to Def Leppard's Pyromania. I wrote about a band like this a few days ago called Jars of Clay that did the same thing. Idle Cure wasn't as successful. Lead singer and bassist Steve Shannon and guitarist Mark Ambrose were in the band Sojourn in 1979. They left that band and formed Eden with guitarist Chuck King. They released the 1983 single Break Out of the Night on Maranatha Music. The song was written by Sojourn leader Roger Charles and recorded at a studio owned by John Elefante of Kansas who has a long history of producing CCM artists. Shannon, Ambrose and King started a new band Idle Cure and signed with the new CCM label Forefront Records. This label was owned by CCM artists DeGarmo and Key and distributed by Benson. At the time, some wanted CCM to cross over to mainstream. So some bands would be made to sound like mainstream bands. Forefront was a main label to do this. Breakaway was the debut single from Idle Cure self titled 1986 album. If I didn't already know they were CCM, I wouldn't have thought that they were any different from bands like Def Leppard. The album was produced by Benson A&R director Bill Baumgart. Keyboardist Pete Lomakin was added to the band. Dave Spurr was the drummer. Most of the songs were written by Idle Cure. This album is available on CD. Idle Cure recorded four albums from 1986-91. King left after the first album and Idle Cure never had a permanent drummer. They recorded a 1994 album for a different label. After King left Idle Cure, he joined the CCM band Shout. From what I can tell, Idle Cure had success in the Christian market but never crossed over to mainstream. And I think that was the goal. So I guess they weren't successful. Here's the video for Breakaway by Idle Cure.
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