Over at Sports Illustrated, Andy Staples in his April 16th Punt, Pass and Pork column responded to a tweet ("Have you ever done 1988-1992 power ballads as a random ranking?") picking his top fifteen from this period.
At first glance, it's a very good list. Lots of favorites sprinkled with a few lesser-known but worthy selections (i.e. Alias and Vinnie Vincent Invasion - nice!).
It also includes the two most common power ballad related mistakes - including "More Than Words" by Extreme (it's just an acoustic ballad, there is no power) and "November Rain" by Guns N' Roses (it's too long, it changes from ballad to midtempo).
Another quibble is with the Bon Jovi selection. "Living In Sin" is a fine song, but it's not the best of this era, or even the best off this album. For me, that goes to "I'll Be There For You." I might even argue that "Bed of Roses" off the 1992 album Keep The Faith is a better choice. Here's Andy's full list:
1. “November Rain”, Guns N’ Roses
2. “High Enough”, Damn Yankees
3. “I Remember You”, Skid Row
4. “Heaven”, Warrant
5. “To Be With You”, Mr. Big
6. “Don’t Know What You Got (Till It’s Gone)”, Cinderella
7. “More Than Words Can Say”, Alias
8. “Every Rose Has Its Thorn”, Poison
9. “Love Song”, Tesla
10. “Living In Sin”, Bon Jovi
11. “Fly To The Angels”, Slaughter
12. “Love Kills”, Vinnie Vincent Invasion
13. “More Than Words”, Extreme
14. “Love Bites”, Def Leppard
15. “Wind Of Change”, Scorpions
I'd swap Cinderella into first position (because as mentioned previously, that's my choice for favorite power ballad of the era), add "House of Pain" by Faster Pussycat into #6, and then "Don't Close Your Eyes" by Kix at #13, but that's just me.
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