About Honeymoon Suite
Honeymoon Suite is a Canadian rock band formed in 1981 in Niagara Falls, Ontario. The band's name was a nod to the fact that Niagara Falls is the unofficial honeymoon capital of the world.
The band was originally formed in 1981 by Johnnie Dee , Brad Bent and Mike Lengyell . By 1983, the line-up changed, with Dee now on rhythm guitar and lead vocals, along with new recruits Derry Grehan on lead guitar and Dave Betts on drums, both of whom had recorded two albums as members of Toronto-based new wave group Steve Blimkie and the Reason. Grehan became the band's primary songwriter, and penned "New Girl Now," which won them an unsigned band contest put on by Toronto radio station Q107.
Various keyboard players and bassists came and left during this time, but on the strength of "New Girl Now," WEA Canada signed the band to the label. Ray Coburn was added as a permanent new member on keyboards as the sessions got underway for the group's debut LP, but the band still had no bass player so bassist Brian Brackstone was recruited as a session player. Brackstone played on the entire album; bassist Gary Lalonde was added to the line-up after the album was completed and appeared in the album's group photos and played with the band live.
The band's self-titled debut album, produced by Tom Treumuth, was released in June 1984. The album featured four charting hits in Canada: a completely re-recorded version of "New Girl Now," "Burning In Love," "Wave Babies," and "Stay In the Light." "New Girl Now" was also Honeymoon Suite's first single to reach the top-50 in the United States.
Their follow-up album, The Big Prize, produced by Bruce Fairbairn, was equally successful in Canada with four more hits: "Bad Attitude," "Feel It Again," "What Does It Take," and "All Along You Knew." Grehan still wrote the lion's share of the band's material, but Dee and Coburn also contributed songs to this album; "Feel It Again", a Coburn composition, reached the Top 40 in the US, while Grehan's "What Does It Take" reached #52, buoyed by its inclusion on the soundtrack for the John Cusack film One Crazy Summer. In 1989, "Bad Attitude" was featured in the series finale of Miami Vice, played during a Ferrari driving segment that mirrored one from the series' pilot episode, continuing throughout Crockett and Tubbs' final battle.
In 1986, keyboardist Ray Coburn left the band, replaced by Rob Preuss of Burlington, Ontario-based Spoons. Also during 1986, the band produced the track "Those Were the Days" for the Charlie Sheen film The Wraith.
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