Heavy Metal Nostalgia from a Marvel Movie Trailer

February 12, 2023

This is going to be a bit of a ride, bear with me.

In the 1980’s, I was into Heavy Metal. Mostly hair metal at first. I was trying to move away from the musical instruments my parents forced me to learn (piano, violin) and was trying to learn how to play guitar.

I ended up gravitating towards fast/flashy guitarists like Steve Vai and Yngwie Malmsteen. I don’t recall when I first heard about Chris Impellitteri… but I’m pretty sure I saw a video on MTV of his band, Impellitteri, and bought the album “Stand in Line.”

And here’s the back of the album.

In an era of long/permed hair, the lead singer of the band stood out… even to teenage me. Graham Bonnet didn’t really strike me as heavy metal lead singer material. But once you heard his voice, the man had some serious pipes.

Here’s the title song from the album, “Stand in Line.” Not saying you need to listen to the whole thing, but wait for Bonnet’s voice to kick in. It really is something to behold.

Ok. So now you’ve gotten a sense of Impellitteri, and Bonnet’s voice in particular. I think the band has gone through some transformations and line-up changes since the 80’s. But for me, the band is both Chris Impellitteri (the guitarist) as well as Graham Bonnet (the voice).

Here’s another song from the album, “Since You’ve Been Gone”:

Fast forward to today, when I saw the Guardians of the Galaxy 3 movie trailer for the first time:

Did that song in the background sound familiar to you? I did a double-take. Or rather, my ears did a double-take.

My initial thought was: “Why do they have an Impellitteri song in a Guardians of the Galaxy movie trailer?”

I instantly started doing a bit of digging. And I realized just much Bonnet has done, in his long-spanning career. He was part of Alcatrazz (which also involved both Vai and Malmsteen). And prior to that, he was in Rainbow.

It was during his time with Rainbow that the band had their hit, “Since You’ve Been Gone.” Which I heard for the first time through the Impellitteri album. But was around long before I had heard that particular incarnation.

Here’s Bonnet, back in the Rainbow days. And their (original) version of the song:

I love how the Guardians of the Galaxy movies evoke a sense of nostalgia, particularly with their evocation of cassette/mix tapes and music from the 70’s. For me, this particular song evoked a kind of confusing bit of nostalgia, where I got transported back to the wrong decade/era.

It took me a while, but I eventually got there. Took the long way around.