An Ode to Power Ballads (Part 1)

When a hard-rocking band steps back and does something vulnerable...

Carrickfergus © Vantage Studios

I grew up listening mostly to classical music, because that’s what my mom listened to. My brother and I would sit on the floor of the living room, building Lego castles or drawing elaborate crayon gargoyles, to the strains of Bach, Mozart and Beethoven.

It was Mom who also gave us our first exposure to popular music, when she brought home records by Woody and Arlo Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Joan Baez and Peter, Paul and Mary. If you’re not of a certain age, those names might not mean much to you. They were the leading folk troubadours of their era, and, besides Elvis, some of the biggest names in popular music right up until the Beatles crashed the party.

Folk songs came in a variety of styles, from sprightly to politically charged to sentimental. People generally referred to songs like “Carrickfergus” (the Irish folk song), “On Top of Old Smokey”, and “John Henry” as “ballads”, so, as far as I knew, ballads were traditional, melodic songs anyone could sing along to, accompanied by strummed guitars and some light percussion.

These days, a lot of folks use the term to refer to any sappy romantic song — which admittedly covers a lot of popular music! It can also be a song that mourns a dead friend or lover (think Elton John’s “Daniel” or Roy Orbison’s “In Dreams”), or ponders the mysteries of life and death (“Carrickfergus”, or Fleetwood Mac’s “Dust”). Most of the pop and rock songs that have had lasting popularity are ballads — we are sentimental creatures, after all.

So, what is a power ballad?

When a hard-rock or heavy metal band slows things down to sing about love and loss, that is a power ballad. The song may be contemplative and emotional, but it just sounds different from the way a pop or folk singer does it. Bands that have the skills and dynamic range to do hard rock or metal (and do it well) just sound different, even when they are holding back. A big part of that is the power of electric vs. acoustic instruments.

Here’s a way to think of it: Have you ever experienced a small-magnitude earthquake? Say, a 5.0? The house vibrates, glasses clink in the cupboards, the floors may creak a little. Then it's over. And you are left with the feeling that what you felt is just a tiny hint of what could have happened.

That’s sort of the feeling you get when a normally aggressive, hard-driving band slows down to sing about heartbreak. When they get it right, it can pack a big emotional wallop, and it can leave you with that strange feeling you have after a small earthquake.

I’ve collected a few of my favorite examples. For most of these artists, I have picked two tracks: The first represents their more “typical”, hard-rock sound, and the second is the ballad.

In several cases, the ballads are the only songs by these artists that most casual listeners would even recognize. They are the ones most likely to make it onto the radio, or into the algorithm. Perhaps you didn’t normally listen to these bands, but most of these songs will sound familiar.

Robin Trower

Trower made his name as the lead guitarist for Procol Harum, one of the iconic bands of the late 60’s. He left in 1971 to start a power trio, consciously modeled after Cream and the Jimi Hendrix Experience. The trio went through several lineup iterations, but continued putting out albums through the 1970’s and 1980s. I have the first six of these albums in the original vinyl, and I still number them among the best things in my collection.

Trower remains influential in the guitar world, and has given lessons to a number of established rock guitarists. They come to him in part to learn how he achieves his tone, with its echoes of Hendrix and its emotive quality.

Here is one of my favorites from his 1974 album “Bridge of Sighs”. By today’s standards, it’s medium tempo and intensity, but for its day is was a barn-burner.

“Lady Love”

Trower and Dewar did a lot of power ballads. Here is my favorite. It’s from his 1973 album “Twice Removed from Yesterday”.

“I Can’t Wait Much Longer” (1973)

After a medical crisis led to cancellation of his 2024 tour, Trower is back out on the road here in 2025. He is 80 years old, and by all accounts is still completely on top of his game.

Suzi Quatro

Early rock musicians and their fans liked to think of themselves as wild and rebellious, but in one fundamental way, rock culture was as conservative as it gets: it was, and is, dominated by men, mostly young and white. This was not just about the musicians, but about who controlled the record labels and the radio stations.

https://medium.com/the-riff/rock-and-roll-women-1-the-pioneers-ddf82a1442f9

Suzi Quatro was the tip of the spear that broke through a wall of resistance to women doing loud music. It didn’t even happen in the U.S., and probably couldn’t have. It took a British producer, Mickie Most, to persuade her that there was an opportunity for a woman who didn’t want to play the usual game. He persuaded her to move to the U.K. and take a shot at it there.

After moving to London, Suzi doubled down on the tough girl image. She led her own band, played the bass (itself not a “girly” instrument), and co-wrote most of their music. A lot of her songs were sexually aggressive, which made her even more transgressive for the times. Later in her career, when she was trying to break back into the U.S. market, her producers kept trying to tone her down and “cutify” her, and though she bent, she didn’t break.

This was her first big hit. The scream at 2:36 was unplanned, but resulted in a wave of media interest. It became one of her calling cards.

“Can the Can” (1973)

Here is an honest-to-goodness tear-jerker of a ballad. I think it’s the most vulnerable thing she ever put out.

“Cat Size” (1974; Quatro/Tuckey)

American critics still ignore her, but Suzi found favorable coverage and a big fan base in Europe and Japan. She lives in the U.K., continues touring and raising hell, and has sold over 60 million records and counting.

Nazareth

Founded in 1968, Nazareth are a Scottish hard rock band and one of the original precursors to heavy metal. They were a major influence on later hard-rock bands like AC/DC and Aerosmith, which went on to become global superstars. Nazareth had a moment of glory, when they topped the charts with their biggest hit, and have never given up working to recapture that moment.

I saw Nazareth live in 1976, when they opened for Deep Purple. Purple had shot up to the top among hard rock bands, with a boost from Nazareth, who had been talking them up to promoters. Purple returned the favor, inviting Nazareth on their global tour.

There were a lot of Nazareth fans in the crowd, and they seemed split into two camps. All of them were there for the band’s hard-driving rockers, but a lot of them were also there for the ballads. For all that they went hard, Nazareth’s biggest hits over the years turned out to be their power ballads.

None of those were bigger than their first one, “Love Hurts”. Ironically, it’s a cover, and was initially seen by the band as “filler”, a throw-away song fit for a B-side on one of their singles. They almost didn't release it. All it did was make them global stars.

The song has been performed by everyone from the Everly Brothers to Cher, but Nazareth’s version is by far the most popular. It channels young, barely articulate heartsickness like few songs before or since. Some consider it the first true metal power ballad.

When I saw them, it was at a sold-out Boston Garden. Here is a clip of them performing for an Austrian TV show in front of a tiny studio audience. (NOTE: To play the video, click the link inside the grey box that says “Watch on Youtube”.

“Love Hurts” (1975)

Led Zeppelin

I was already a long-time Zeppelin fan when this came out. Their seventh album, “Presence”, was not as successful as some of its predecessors, but it was one of my favorites. The songwriting is exquisite, and for me, one song in particular would have been enough to make the album a keeper.

Led Zeppelin had emerged from the late 1960’s British Blues movement along with the Yardbirds, Cream, Jeff Beck and Rod Stewart. Like fellow proto-metal bands Deep Purple and Black Sabbath, they pushed the envelope of what was possible and acceptable in rock. All three bands combined sophisticated, classical-inspired composition with technicality and unprecedented loudness.

These bands also drove a major change in the way songs were arranged. The instruments became far more than just accompaniment to the singer--they were stars in their own right. Jimmy Page is one of the early guitar heroes, and the late John Bonham is routinely included on lists of the greatest rock drummers ever.

Here is “Black Dog”, from their fourth album. If there is one song that distills their sound from their early years, I think it is this one:

Zeppelin’s later work mixed classical, blues, middle-eastern and jazz influences. “Tea for One” has all that, but is stripped back and restrained. I think it’s one of the finest things they ever did, surpassed only, perhaps, by “Kashmir”.

“Tea for One” (1976)

Judas Priest

I will admit it: I ignored Judas Priest for decades. Having heard a couple of early songs I didn’t like, I just moved on. All these years later, I “discovered” them. A couple of things had happened along the way: First, they had a lot of lineup turnover, especially in their early years; and they experimented with a lot of styles of music.

Founded in 1969, Priest are one of the longest-running continuously touring rock band in history. After their earlier experiments, they settled into heavy metal (with variations), and are considered one of the pioneers of the genre. Their vocalist Rob Halford covers a range of styles from operatic to death growls. His normal singing voice has a beautiful, clear tone that distinguishes Priest from most metal bands.

Their core sound was built around Halford’s voice and virtuoso twin guitars. It is an unapologetically in-your-face sound, but even amid the aggression, they are extremely musical. It’s hard to pigeonhole a metal band that did a cover of Joan Baez (!)

Here is a straight-up rocker from their breakthrough 1980 album, “British Steel”:

I’ve been retroactively discovering them, and given the extent of their discography, I have a long way to go. Here is a moody ballad wrapped around an exquisite, anguished guitar solo by Glenn Tipton. It is one of the best things I’ve heard by them.

“Before the Dawn” (1978)

Full list:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLaDG0rMAElOcDd5SVCvoOqMGkRxViz8as

This is Part I of a series. My list of great power ballads is growing, and I have enough for at least two more installments. Some of the bands on the list include Heart, Metallica and the Scorpions. I invite you to suggest your favorites for inclusion in future editions.