Well, my obsessive listening habits have brought me around to hair metal from time to time (I am a child of the 80’s, after all), and it still shocks me how many obscure gems are out there to discover. So here are five that you probably missed when they came out that you shouldn’t have. Oh, and if you hate hair metal, you probably suck, so don’t write, because I don’t care.

This first one is by John Sykes, and if you like anything off of the Whitesnake album, you will probably love this guys, because he wrote most of the good songs. A dude that still doesn’t get his due, well worth checking out.

The next one is from House of Lords, which is another under-appreciated hair metal band full of great musicians. While they got some airplay with some of their other tunes (“Remember My Name” and their masterful remake of “Can’t Find My Way Home”, for example), I don’t think this one ever received any love, and that sucks because it’s one of their best.

Technically, this next one isn’t old at all (it came out in 2009), but it’s very hair metal, so it makes the list. Great tune from a band I’d literally never have heard of if not for last.fm.

Next I’ve got (believe it or not) a Winger tune that never made it anywhere. Meaningful lyrics and a much more complex song structure than the radio was ready for probably sank this one, but it’s an awesome song.

My final song is from one of my favorite hair metal bands, Motley Crue. Interestingly enough, though, this is one of the tunes they did John Corabi in the Motley Crue album. I think that despite the fact that this is one of their best sounding albums, it’s not what many fans (me included) think of when they think of Crue, so it bombed. They may have had more success had they named themselves something else. Either way, this is an awesome song.