In 1984, Night Ranger scored the biggest hit of its career with the power ballad “Sister Christian,” a song written and sung by drummer Kelly Keagy. More than four decades later, Keagy celebrates another milestone as he turns 74 on Tuesday, Sept. 15.
Born Sept. 15, 1952, Keagy left home the day after graduating from high school to pursue a career as a full-time drummer. After years on the club circuit, he became the touring drummer for Rubicon, where he played alongside future Night Ranger bandmates Jack Blades and Brad Gillis.
Night Ranger eventually became one of the biggest hard rock bands of the 1980s, selling 17 million albums. But it was “Sister Christian,” from the band’s 1983 album Midnight Madness, that became its signature song. The single reached No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 1 in Canada.
The inspiration came from Keagy’s little sister Christy Keagy, who was 10 years younger.
After returning to San Francisco from a visit to his hometown in Oregon, Keagy was struck by how quickly his teenage sister was growing up and wrote the song in his apartment. But “Sister Christian” wasn’t actually what he originally called her.
Keagy told the San Francisco Chronicle that he was singing “Sister Christy” until Blades finally asked what he was saying. Blades thought he was singing “Sister Christian,” “so it just stuck.” Keagy added that Christy was so embarrassed when the song became a hit that she nearly changed her name.
The song’s success transformed Night Ranger’s career. After the “Sister Christian” video became an MTV favorite, the band went from playing smaller venues to arenas, while Midnight Madness became its top-selling album.
Keagy also sang lead on Night Ranger favorites including “Sing Me Away” and the Top 10 hit “Sentimental Street.” He remains one of the band’s two constant members, alongside Gillis, more than four decades after their earliest days together.
And all these years later, the song most closely associated with Keagy began simply as a big brother watching his little sister grow up.
Related: Last Surviving Original Member of ’70s Rockers, Who Turned Down a Seat on Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Doomed Plane, Turns 80
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