Opus

Formed in Graz, Austria in 1973, Opus is a pop rock band best known for their 1985 hit “Live is Life”. Founded by Ewald Pfleger (guitar), Walter Bachkönig (bass), and Kurt-Rene Plisnier (keyboards), they were joined by drummer Günter Grasmuck in 1975. Vocalist Herwig Rüdisser joined at the end of the decade and they released their first album, Daydreams, in 1980. The band continued releasing albums that were successful in their homeland – Eleven (1981), The Opusition (1982), and Up and Down (1984) – but they finally achieved massive success outside of Austria in 1985 with the single “Live is Life”, which was taken from the live album of the same name. The single “Live is Life” hit Number 1 in Austria, France, and Germany while landing in the Top 10 in Italy, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and the UK. The song made the U.S. charts as well, climbing up to the Number 32 position. The band never scored another hit as big as “Live as Life”, but they continued to have hits in Austria with singles like “Whiteland” (1987), “Faster and Faster” (1988), “Gimme Love” (1992) and “The Power of Live is Life” (1994). While the band has had different line-ups over the years, Rüdisser, Pfleger, Plisnier, and Grasmuch remain from the band’s early years. In 2020, the band released the album Opus Magnum.

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