Drawing from the American Heartland with a healthy mix of Adult Contemporary, Bruce Hornsby and the Range delivered the mid 80’s a dose of piano based Americana that racked up fans and acclaim. Hornsby won the 1987 Best New Artist Grammy and looked to have a career of healthy album sales ahead of him. That didn’t quite happen as Hornsby would utilize his piano skills from other influences like Bluegrass, Folk and Jazz. His talent in his concerts and albums was certainly evident, but he did not necessarily make music that would appeal to the masses. Since Hornsby did have a huge commercial splash, his versatile talent could get him in.

Although he is a punch line for how to screw up a career (and Whitney Houston’s for that matter) Bobby Brown was the master of the New Jack Swing movement and for a time he was easily the biggest R&B star on the planet. Bobby Brown’s slick produced sound was copycatted across radio station across America. He attracted the women without alienating the men and he could move from danceable R&B to crooning ballads to thuggish Rap with ease. Bobby Brown’s career unraveled in the mid 90’s with weaker music and constant problems with the law where he would become a reality show joke (on a good day) in the decade that followed.

Teppo Numminen did not get a lot of press over his NHL career as he spent the majority of his time with the Winnipeg Jets, who would later become the Phoenix Coyotes.  Having said that, Numminen is one of the few players to have played twenty seasons in the National Hockey League and at the time of his retirement his 1,327 was the most played (since broken) by a European player, though sadly for Numminen he still holds the record for the most games played without wining a Stanley Cup.

This is an interesting one for sure.

During World War II, there was certainly a level towards what could be considered elite in professional hockey but in the 1943-44 season Herb Cain shocked the statisticians, as he would become an NHL league leader in Points with 82 Points.