With the 1980 release of Hi Infidelity REO Speedwagon slammed on the gas and chirped their tires towards superstardom. While the acceleration to fame was a quick and noisy one, REO Speedwagon had actually been sputtering along in second gear for over a decade, first having first formed in 1967 after University of Illinois students Neal Doughty (keyboards) and Alan Gratzer (drums) teamed up with a few friends to play cover songs in the Champaign, Illinois college area. REO Speedwagon, whose name comes from a late truck model, put the tailgate down and threw Terry Luttrell (vocals), Gary Richrath (guitar) and Gregg Philbin (bass) in the bed before they released their first studio album, a self-titled hard rock record which hit stores in 1971. The album reviews were generally positive, but REO Speedwagon failed to sell many records with their first try. They later dropped vocalist Terry Luttrell for Kevin Cronin and released their follow-up album, 1972's R.E.O/T.W.O. Six more studio albums followed, but none were able to smash into the Top 25 in the Billboard Hot 200.

Everything changed for REP Speedwagon when they slowed things down from their hard rocking roots and started focusing on power ballads and sappy songs steered towards the younger female demographic, an idea that worked similarly well with contemporaries like Journey and Styx. Hi Infidelity, which included REO's signature songs "Keep On Loving You" and "Take It on the Run," cruised in the No. 1 position in the Billboard Pop Albums chart for no fewer than 15 weeks in early 1981.

REO Speedwagon drifted off the success of Hi Infidelity by releasing two top 10 albums, Good Trouble (1982) and Wheels Are Turnin' (1984), worth both earning a spot in the top ten. Although they ran out of gas and coasted into oblivion by the late 1980s, REO Speedwagon will be remembered for their run in the limelight in the early and mid 1980s, a time when no arena seemed large enough to contain their humongous fan base.