Turbo (Judas Priest album)

Turbo is the tenth studio album by English heavy metal band Judas Priest, released on 21 March 1986 by Columbia Records. The album is notable for the band's change to a commercial glam metal sound,[9][10][11] that had them using synthesizers for the first time.[5]

Turbo
Cover art by Doug Johnson
Studio album by
Judas Priest
Released21 March 1986 (1986-03-21) [1]
RecordedJune 1985 – February 1986
StudioCompass Point, Nassau, Bahamas Record Plant, Los Angeles
Genre
Length40:58
LabelColumbia
ProducerTom Allom
Judas Priest chronology
Defenders of the Faith
(1984)		 Turbo
(1986)		 Priest...Live!
(1987)
Singles from Turbo
  1. "Turbo Lover"
    Released: April 1986 (UK)
  2. "Locked In"
    Released: May 1986[3]
  3. "Parental Guidance"
    Released: November 1986 (US)[4]
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[5]
Metal Hammer (GER)6/7[6]
PopMatters(mixed)[7]
Martin Popoff6/10[8]

A remastered CD was released in 2001, including two bonus tracks. On 3 February 2017, the album was reissued as Turbo 30 for its 30th anniversary, including two CDs of a live performance at the Sandstone Amphitheater near Kansas City, Missouri, on 22 May 1986.[12]

Overview

Following the success of their previous album, Defenders of the Faith, Judas Priest initially recorded a double album which was intended to be released under the title Twin Turbos, half of which would be more commercial and the other half would be aggressive heavy metal. This idea was scrapped. Instead, the material was split up, with the more commercial songs appearing as the album Turbo. The lyrical content on Turbo was markedly different from previous Judas Priest albums, with more emphasis on grounded subjects such as love and romance rather than the band's usual sci-fi and fantasy themes. On the whole, it was a response to the changed music scene of the mid-1980s which was becoming focused more on light, synth-driven pop rather than the driving hard rock of the 1970s to early 1980s.[13]

After concluding the Metal Conqueror World Tour at the end of 1984, the band took their first-ever extended hiatus and did not perform at all during 1985 except for an appearance at the Live Aid Concert where only three songs were played. Work began on Turbo that summer and finished late in the year. During this time, singer Rob Halford struggled with increasing substance abuse and violent feuds with his romantic partner. After the latter committed suicide,[14] he resolved to get clean and so checked into rehab where he spent a month during December 1985 – January 1986. He made an energetic recovery and his live performances during the subsequent tour were described as some of his strongest ever.

With the album being released in April 1986, Turbo was an instant commercial success. The album was certified Gold by the RIAA on 10 June 1986 and Platinum on 24 July 1989.[15] The album reached No. 33 on the UK Albums Chart and No. 17 on the Billboard 200, marking the apex of Priest's commercial success and being the band's highest chart position until 2005's Angel of Retribution.[16] The music videos supporting "Turbo Lover" and "Locked In" enjoyed heavy rotation on MTV, furthering the success of the album commercially.

The cover was once again done by graphic artist Doug Johnson, who designed the Screaming for Vengeance and Defenders of the Faith covers.

"Reckless" was asked to be on the soundtrack of the movie Top Gun, but Judas Priest declined, both because they thought the film would flop and because it would have meant leaving the song off Turbo. However, their next album, Ram It Down, contained a cover of "Johnny B. Goode" that was featured in the soundtrack for the movie of the same title. "Reckless" and "Wild Nights, Hot & Crazy Days" were also Judas Priest's first songs to be played lower than E tuning.

"Parental Guidance" was allegedly written as a response to Tipper Gore's attack on the band, and heavy metal in general, in the mid-1980s. Her organization, the Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC), had placed the band's song "Eat Me Alive" (from Defenders of the Faith) at No. 3 on their list of offensive songs, referred to as the "Filthy 15". The PMRC alleged that the song was obscene because it encouraged the performance of oral sex at gunpoint.[17]

Reception

Turbo sold well initially, and was certified Gold by the RIAA on 10 June 1986 and Platinum on 24 July 1987.[15] It reached No. 33 in the UK and No. 17 on Billboard 200, the band's highest chart position until 2005's Angel of Retribution.[18] The album would be Priest's final platinum-selling album. Sales tapered off and the subsequent live album from the otherwise successful Fuel for Life tour did not sell as well, only going Gold after a string of Platinum certified albums.[15]

Seven of the album's nine songs were performed during the Fuel for Life tour with "Hot for Love" being the least played of those. The title track has remained in the band's set lists since then and "Out in the Cold" reappeared in 2019. During the tour, the band also dispensed with the black leather and studs look they'd sported since 1978 and went for a slightly more colourful "glam" leather wardrobe. A number of older songs such as "Sinner" and "Exciter" were also dropped from the live setlist, leading K. K. Downing to remark "People ask why we don't play Sinner anymore. I tell them it's because we've all repented."

Rob Halford referred to Turbo as the "love/hate Judas Priest album". In 2008 he told Kerrang!:

The only agenda we've ever had in Priest was to really give every album its own life and I think we've achieved that on everything from Rocka Rolla up to the new one, Nostradamus. That said, if ever there was a controversial record in terms of what people might have expected from us, it's Turbo. It was the fact that we moved into a different atmosphere, but that's where we were at that particular time. Some of the technological advances like the pedal boards that Glenn and KK used were giving us options for different sounds and experimentation. Personally I think there are still some great tracks on that album ... It's one of the recordings that divide opinion.[19]

Despite Turbo's achievement and reception, Downing said that "it wasn't the big-selling album that we hoped for. I think quite a lot of that went on with the acceptability and success of a lot of other bands that you would look at on MTV. Even Ozzy went to the hairdressers."[20] In his 2020 memoir Confess, Halford admitted that he now sees his lyrics on Turbo as subpar, stating that his alcohol and substance abuse at the time had started to take their toll on his writing process.[21]

Track listing

All tracks are written by K. K. Downing, Glenn Tipton and Rob Halford

Side one
No.TitleLength
1."Turbo Lover"5:33
2."Locked In"4:19
3."Private Property"4:29
4."Parental Guidance"3:25
5."Rock You All Around the World"3:37
Side two
No.TitleLength
6."Out in the Cold"6:27
7."Wild Nights, Hot & Crazy Days"4:39
8."Hot for Love"4:12
9."Reckless"4:17
2001 CD edition bonus tracks
No.TitleLength
10."All Fired Up" (Recorded during the 1985 Turbo sessions)4:45
11."Locked In" (Live at Kiel Auditorium, St. Louis, Missouri; 23 May 1986)4:24
Songs left over from Twin Turbos
No.TitleAlbum on which they later appearedLength
1."All Fired Up"Turbo reissue4:45
2."Red, White & Blue"British Steel reissue3:42
3."Prisoner of Your Eyes"Screaming for Vengeance reissue7:12
4."Turn on Your Light"Defenders of the Faith reissue5:23
5."Ram It Down"Ram It Down4:48
6."Hard as Iron"Ram It Down4:09
7."Love You to Death"Ram It Down4:36
8."Monsters of Rock"Ram It Down5:30
9."Heart of a Lion"Metalogy3:53
10."Under the Gun"Unreleased 
11."Fighting for Your Love"Unreleased 

30th Anniversary Edition – bonus live CDs

Disc one
No.TitleLength
1."Out in the Cold"6:35
2."Locked In"4:21
3."Heading Out to the Highway"4:53
4."Metal Gods"4:03
5."Breaking the Law"2:43
6."Love Bites"5:19
7."Some Heads Are Gonna Roll"4:25
8."The Sentinel"5:02
9."Private Property"5:11
10."Desert Plains"4:55
11."Rock You All Around the World"5:02
Disc two
No.TitleLength
1."The Hellion"0:40
2."Electric Eye"3:37
3."Turbo Lover"6:03
4."Freewheel Burning"5:03
5."Victim of Changes"8:55
6."The Green Manalishi (With the Two Prong Crown)" (Fleetwood Mac cover)5:19
7."Living After Midnight"4:35
8."You've Got Another Thing Comin'"9:01
9."Hell Bent for Leather"5:53

Personnel
Judas Priest
Additional Musician
Lead Guitar Credits
  • Turbo Lover – Glenn Tipton
  • Locked In – KK Downing, Tipton, Downing, Tipton, underlying melody – Downing, arpeggios and run – Tipton
  • Private Property – Tipton
  • Parental Guidance – first half – Tipton, second half – Downing
  • Rock You All Around The World – Tipton
  • Out in the Cold – intro – Tipton, solo first half – Downing, solo second half – Tipton
  • Wild Nights, Hot and Crazy Days – Downing
  • Hot For Love – Downing, harmony section – both
  • Reckless – intro – both, solo – Tipton, licks – Downing
Production (Original)
  • Produced by Tom Allom
  • Recorded at Compass Point Studios, Nassau, IN
  • Engineered by Bill Dooley, assisted by Paul Wertheimer and Sean Burrows
  • Mixed by Glenn Tipton, K. K. Downing, Tom Allom, and Bill Dooley at The Record Plant
  • Equipment surveillance by Tom Calcaterra
  • Mastered by Bernie Grundman
  • Cover design by Doug Johnson
Production (30th Anniversary Remaster)
Production (30th Anniversary Remaster Bonus Live CDs)

Charts
Chart (1986) Peak
position
Australian Albums (Kent Music Report)[22] 56
Canada Top Albums/CDs (RPM)[23] 37
Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)[24] 57
Finnish Albums (The Official Finnish Charts)[25] 11
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[26] 28
Japanese Albums (Oricon)[27] 22
Norwegian Albums (VG-lista)[28] 13
Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)[29] 10
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)[30] 26
UK Albums (OCC)[31] 33
US Billboard 200[32] 17
Chart (2017) Peak
position
Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria)[33] 51
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia)[34] 76
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders)[35] 108
French Albums (SNEP)[36] 162
Scottish Albums (OCC)[37] 78
Spanish Albums (PROMUSICAE)[38] 73
UK Rock & Metal Albums (OCC)[39] 7

Certifications
Region CertificationCertified units/sales
Canada (Music Canada)[40] Platinum 100,000^
United States (RIAA)[41] Platinum 1,000,000^

^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.

References
  1. "RIAA certifications". Recording Industry Association of America.
  2. "Judas Priest Metal Gods | Exclaim!". exclaim.ca. Retrieved 21 June 2021. The band's tenth album Turbo is the first all-digitally recorded heavy metal record.
  3. Strong, Martin Charles (1995). The Great Rock Discography. p. 447. ISBN 9780862415419.
  4. "Judas Priest singles".
  5. Huey, Steve. "Judas Priest – Turbo review". AllMusic. Archived from the original on 28 May 2014. Retrieved 18 May 2014.
  6. Kessler, Sebastian (15 July 2014). "Metal-Geschichte: Alle Judas Priest-Alben im Review Metal aus über 30 Jahren". Metal Hammer (in German). Archived from the original on 26 June 2015. Retrieved 25 June 2015.
  7. Begrand, Adrien (20 June 2002). "Judas Priest: Turbo / Priest...Live!". PopMatters. Archived from the original on 26 June 2015. Retrieved 25 June 2015.
  8. Popoff, Martin (1 November 2005). The Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal: Volume 2: The Eighties. Burlington, Ontario, Canada: Collector's Guide Publishing. ISBN 978-1-894959-31-5.
  9. "Top 50 Glam Metal Albums". Metal Rules. Archived from the original on 26 November 2017. Retrieved 24 February 2021.
  10. "The 10 best Judas Priest albums – ranked". Kerrang!. 4 January 2021. Retrieved 20 June 2021.
  11. McPadden 9/16/2015, Mike. "10 Hard Rock + Heavy Metal Artists That Went Glam for One Album". VH1 News. Retrieved 20 June 2021.
  12. "Judas Priest to Release Remastered 30th Anniversary Edition of 'Turbo'". Loudwire. Archived from the original on 17 December 2016. Retrieved 16 December 2016.
  13. Grow, Kory (26 January 2017). "Hear Judas Priest Live Rarity From Divisive 'Turbo' Era". Rolling Stone. Wenner Media. Archived from the original on 29 January 2017. Retrieved 28 January 2017.
  14. Kielty, Martin (14 October 2016). "Rob Halford: Drink and drugs nearly killed me". Classic Rock. Archived from the original on 14 April 2018. Retrieved 14 April 2018.
  15. "RIAA Searchable Database: search for Judas Priest". Recording Industry Association of America. Archived from the original on 31 March 2013. Retrieved 22 June 2015.
  16. "Judas Priest Chart History: Billboard 200". Billboard. Archived from the original on 5 April 2016. Retrieved 7 January 2016.
  17. "Judas Priest Info Pages – Turbo". Thexquorum.com. Archived from the original on 18 November 2014. Retrieved 18 May 2014.
  18. "Judas Priest Chart History: Billboard 200". Billboard. Archived from the original on 5 April 2016. Retrieved 7 January 2016.
  19. Travers, Paul (24 May 2008). "Treasure chest. An Intimate Portrait of Love in Rock. Rob Halford". Kerrang!. No. 1211. p. 52.
  20. Prato, Greg (29 October 2019). "K.K. Downing on the 1980s: when hair was big and metal softened its sound". Louder Sound. Retrieved 29 October 2019.
  21. "Rob Halford Confess Book Interview 2020". loudwire.com. 29 September 2020. Retrieved 22 February 2021.
  22. Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992. St Ives, New South Wales: Australian Chart Book. ISBN 0-646-11917-6.
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  24. "Dutchcharts.nl – Judas Priest – Turbo" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved October 5, 2023.
  25. Pennanen, Timo (2006). Sisältää hitin – levyt ja esittäjät Suomen musiikkilistoilla vuodesta 1972 (in Finnish) (1st ed.). Helsinki: Kustannusosakeyhtiö Otava. ISBN 978-951-1-21053-5.
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  27. Oricon Album Chart Book: Complete Edition 1970–2005 (in Japanese). Roppongi, Tokyo: Oricon Entertainment. 2006. ISBN 4-87131-077-9.
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  31. "Official Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved October 5, 2023.
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  35. "Ultratop.be – Judas Priest – Turbo" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved October 5, 2023.
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  39. "Official Rock & Metal Albums Chart Top 40". Official Charts Company. Retrieved October 5, 2023.
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