Asia ( B4 )

 Both Billboard and Cash Box named Asia's debut the #1 album of the year. Asia's logo and cover art were created by illustrator Roger Dean of Yes and Uriah Heep fame.

However, neither the second album, Alpha (released in July 1983), nor any following Asia album could repeat the chart success of the first release. "Don't Cry" was a #1 Album Rock Track and Top 10 Pop hit in the summer of 1983, and the video received considerable attention on MTV, while "The Smile Has Left Your Eyes" was another Top 40 hit for the band. The video for "Smile" also scored heavy MTV play. However, Rolling Stone panned Alpha as an over-produced commercial album, while others lamented that Howe and Palmer were effectively reduced to session musicians. Alpha received indifferent reviews from various critics, while still attaining platinum status and reaching #6 on the Billboard album chart.

In October 1983 Wetton was forced out of the group on the heels of the comparatively disappointing sales of Alpha. The band stated that Wetton quit; Wetton countered that he was fired by phone and there is no universally agreed upon version of what happened. Wetton later revealed one factor may have been his alcohol dependency. In any event, the next leg of their 1983 United States tour (which had begun in the summer but shut down suddenly on 10 September after a performance at Pine Knob in Detroit), scheduled for the autumn, was abruptly cancelled, reportedly because of low ticket sales.

Ex-King Crimson and ELP front man Greg Lake replaced Wetton for the highly publicised "Asia in Asia" concert at the Nippon Budokan Hall in Tokyo, Japan on 6 December 1983, which was the first concert broadcast over satellite to MTV in the United States and later made into a home video. Some of the songs had to be played in a lower key to suit Lake's voice and he read most of the lyrics from a teleprompter; Lake later commented in interviews that he was asked to cover Wetton's parts at very short notice.

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