Born on October 15, 1951, Frank DiMino fronted Angel, the Washington D.C. glam rock band known for wearing all white onstage as a deliberate visual counterpoint to Kiss, who dressed in black. Gene Simmons discovered the band performing in a nightclub and helped get them signed to Casablanca Records, Kiss's own label, where they released albums like Helluva Band, On Earth as It Is in Heaven, and White Hot through the late 1970s. Though Angel never broke through commercially the way their labelmates did, they built a devoted cult following and even appeared in the 1980 film Foxes. DiMino left the band alongside guitarist Punky Meadows in 1981, later recording as part of Cycle V for the Flashdance and Metropolis soundtracks, and released a solo album, Old Habits Die Hard, in 2015 before eventually reuniting with Angel.

Born on October 15, 1960, Dean Davidson founded Britny Fox in Philadelphia in 1985, naming the glam metal band after a Welsh ancestor and fronting it on lead vocals and rhythm guitar. The band's ties to Cinderella, through guitarist Michael Kelly Smith and drummer Tony Destra, helped land a major label deal, and their 1988 self-titled debut went gold on the strength of "Girlschool" and "Long Way to Love," while the band spent over 130 nights opening for Poison and Ratt. Davidson fronted the follow-up, Boys in Heat, before leaving in 1989 amid creative differences and forming Blackeyed Susan. Tommy Paris took over on vocals, but glam metal's commercial collapse against grunge ended the band's run in 1992, even as later reunions kept the Britny Fox name alive.

On October 15, 1987, Joe Satriani released Surfing with the Alien, the album that turned him into instrumental rock's biggest guitar hero almost overnight. Recorded in San Francisco on a shoestring budget with little more than two Kramer Pacers and a Rockman, the record leaned on drum machines for most tracks, with Jeff Campitelli adding live overdubs. The cover borrowed Marvel's Silver Surfer for the title track, a fast, technical showcase that shared chart space with the melodic single "Always with Me, Always with You" and the shred staple "Satch Boogie." The album spent 75 weeks on the Billboard 200, eventually going platinum, Satriani's only studio album to do so, and earned a Grammy nomination for Best Rock Instrumental Performance. Produced by Joe Satriani and John Cuniberti.