REO Speedwagon (originally stylized as R.E.O. Speedwagon), or simply REO, is an American rock band from Champaign, Illinois. Formed in 1967, the band cultivated a following during the 1970s and achieved significant commercial success throughout the …
REO Speedwagon (originally stylized as R.E.O. Speedwagon), or simply REO, is an American rock band from Champaign, Illinois. Formed in 1967, the band cultivated a following during the 1970s and achieved significant commercial success throughout the 1980s. Their best-selling album, Hi Infidelity (1980), contained four US Top 40 hits and sold more than 10 million copies.[1]
REO Speedwagon has sold more than 40 million records and charted 13 Top 40 hits, including the number ones "Keep On Loving You" and "Can't Fight This Feeling".
History
Formation
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In the fall of 1966, Neal Doughty was just beginning an electrical engineering program at the University of Illinois in Champaign, Illinois, as a junior. On his first night of classes, he met fellow student Alan Gratzer. Doughty had learned some Beatles songs on his parents' piano, and Gratzer had been a drummer in local bands since high school. The two held an impromptu jam session in the basement of their Illinois Street Residence Hall dormitory.[2][3]
Gratzer continued to perform with his band (which had a keyboard-playing lead singer), and Doughty began turning up at gigs. Doughty eventually began sitting in on a few songs. On the last day of the university's spring semester, guitarist Joe Matt called the band's leader and told him that he and the other members (Gratzer and bassist Mike Blair) had decided to start a new band with Doughty where everyone but Doughty would sing.
The new band made a list of songs to learn over the summer break. Doughty landed a summer job and bought his first organ. On his Farfisa organ, he learned The Doors' "Light My Fire". The members returned to school in the fall of 1967 and had their first rehearsal before classes started. They named the band REO Speedwagon, from the REO Speed Wagon, a 1915 truck designed by Ransom Eli Olds.[4] Doughty had seen the name written on the blackboard when he walked into his History of Transportation class on the fi..
