Since September 2010, this blog has recorded the journey of this music junkie as I attempt to listen to all the music in my CD collection. CDs revisited in their entirety from start to finish - no skipping tracks, no shuffle. Compact Discs only - no vinyl, no tapes, no files.
Recorded live at the Montreux Jazz Festival, Montreux, Switzerland, July 13 & 14, 1999 ("additional recording" later in LA). Also available on DVD.
So I've been listening to the original 1982 Casino Lights release quite a bit and while chasing that rabbit down the internet hole, I only recently discovered that Warner Bros. tried to catch lightning in a bottle again in 2000. The only performer to appear on both releases is guitarist Larry Carlton, but there are a lot of big names here from the world of smooth jazz, including supergroup Fourplay.
A huge festival like Montreux offers unique opportunities for collaboration - Larry Carlton and Kirk Whalum, George Duke and Gabriela Anders, and the jam sessions that end each disc.
Tracks: 14 tracks, over two hours of music. Always There is worth the price of admission. Other top picks include Mind Games, Wayne's Thang, Cold Duck Time, Notorious, Brazilian Love Affair, and Watermelon Man. For a live recording, it's very fairly homogenized, but enjoyable nonetheless.
I had no idea this album even existed until I saw this CD sitting in the used bin. Sure, it was marked down from $4.99 to $3.99 then $2.99 and finally $1.99 but I threw caution to the wind (I didn't even pay $1.99 as I got it in a 3-for-$5 deal). If Dave Wakeling is involved in the songwriting there should be a fair share of hooks here. Let's spin this thing.
Produced by Jerry Harrison of Talking Heads. Hmmm. I wouldn't have put them together but who knows? It just might work.
Cash Box, June 17, 1995, p. 9
Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: Did not chart
Tracks: It's more of a Ranking Roger album than a Dave Wakeling album and I gotta admit that I enjoy almost all of Roger's contributions. Plus it's nice to hear the tones of Saxa again. I like Rainy Days, Handgun, and Warm Love. I also dig Friends Again, It's Weird, and Never Not Alone although none of those three sound like anything General Public or The English Beat had ever done before. Kinda-reggae-ish cuts like Big Bed simply come off like UB40 filler. Skip that one and the one-chord Punk.
Overall, it exceeded my (admittedly low) initial expectations. And even though it is "scattered" as written in the above review, this album will getting more listens.
Saxophonist Stanley Turrentine (1934-2000) recorded for Creed Taylor's CTI label from 1970 - 1973. This "best of" disc covers tunes recorded with that period. Includes his signature tune, Sugar, and two previously unreleased tracks. Just check out the murderers' row of musicians on these recordings (below).
It's no coincidence that Columbia would list Benson and Burrell on the promo sticker because their solos are the ones that stop me in my tracks on each cut. Other standouts for me include Milt Jackson and the incomparable Richard Tee.
That badass Alen MacWeeney cover photo originally appeared on the cover of a 1974 CTI anthology titled The Baddest Stanley Turrentine.
Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: Did not chart
Tracks: with 76 minutes of music, you certainly get your money's worth on this compilation (especially when you can find a used copy for a couple of bucks)
Personal Memory Associated with this CD: None. Turrentine appears on many compilation CDs in my collection, but, despite having many of his releases on vinyl, this is the first Turrentine CD I've ever owned.
Note: this release was originally purchased as a LP, later replaced by a CD.
In 1986, I would have purchased an album of David Sanborn playing children's music on a plastic recorder. I had seen him in concert twice by then and considered myself a full-on fan. And Jarreau's on this thing, too? Sign me up! Probably purchased in the late summer of '86, this LP got a lot of playing time during my junior year of college and for more than a full year after its release. Most of these tracks wouldn't have been out of place on Sanborn's Backstreet album and that's fine with me.
Billboard, May 31, 1986, p. 60
"...both players' sizable followings..." That's was certainly me in 1986 and not much has changed since then on that front.
Since I Fell For You, a 1945 standard with the aforementioned Al Jarreau on vocals. #1 in a landslide. Peaked at #10 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart after appearing on the Moonlighting soundtrack album.
It's You, written by Sanborn.
You Don't Know Me, cover of a 1956 Eddy Arnold tune
Never Enough, written by James & Sanborn.
Maputo, written by bassist Marcus Miller
More Than Friends, written by Miller
Moon Tune, written by James & Sanborn
Personal Memory Associated with this CD: Like many college students, I had a minimum wage manual labor job in the summers. In the summer of '87, my main job was re-glazing and painting window frames. Most days, I was completely alone except for a water jug and my Walkman or radio. I must have sung Since I Fell For You about 100 times that summer. At the top of my lungs. With no complaints from the neighbors. (No record contract offers, either, but that's neither here nor there.)
And I'll probably listen to that track at least three more times before taking this disc out of the tray.
Their Greatest Hits: The Record is the career retrospective greatest hits album by the Bee Gees, released on UTV Records and Polydor in November 2001 as HDCD. The album includes 40 tracks spanning over 35 years of music. Four of the songs were new recordings of classic Gibb compositions originally recorded by other artists, including "Emotion" (Samantha Sang), "Heartbreaker" (Dionne Warwick), "Islands in the Stream" (Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton), and "Immortality" (Celine Dion). It also features the Barry Gibb duet with Barbra Streisand, "Guilty", which originally appeared on Streisand's 1980 album of the same name. It is currently out of print and has been supplanted by another compilation, The Ultimate Bee Gees.
Regarding the "new recordings of classic Gibb compositions," either skip 'em or, better yet, listen to the originals. I prefer the later disco music so things get going for me at track 15 on disc 1, but it's a decent 2 disc set (would have made an unbelievable 16 track single disc of top ten hits). Like most 2 disc greatest hits compilations, this thing falls apart at the end. Oddly, in addition to singles by the trio, there's a solitary solo track from Robin. Thanks for the (kinda sorta) chronological sequencing, Polydor. It shows the growth of the group and how they adapted their music to what was popular at the time.
Notable Top 40 omissions: My World (#16 in 1972), Alive (#34 in 1972), Boogie Child (#12 in 1977), Edge Of The Universe (#26 in 1977), He's A Liar (#30 in 1981), and The Woman in You (#24 in 1983). Plus, I'd love to hear Barry take his turn on Grease (#1 for Frankie Valli in 1978).
Personal Memory Associated with this CD: I was born in 1966 so some of these songs have been around almost my entire life. That's too many memories for this space, but I will say my favorite Bee Gees track wasn't recorded by Barry, Robin, and Maurice, it's the Yvonne Elliman version of If I Can't Have You.
Okay, I'll share one. One day my sister came home with the Spirits Having Flown LP. Instead of listening to it in her room on her stereo, we listened to it on Dad's BIC 1000 turntable in the study. All the hits are front-loaded on side one of that album. We listened to both sides and then I begged my sister to spin side one again. She agreed. And we didn't get in trouble for messing with Dad's stereo (that would come later for me, as he came home early one afternoon as I was blaring Freeze-Frame loud enough to be heard across the street đŸ˜ˆ).
For the film's 30th anniversary, La-La Land Records put together this motion picture soundtrack. And most publishers allowed licensing, save those of Bert Kaempfert, The Beatles and Dave Wakeling. According to unverified sources, no official soundtrack was originally released for the film in 1986, as writer/director/producer John Hughes felt the songs would not work well together as a continuous album. Here's what Hughes did instead, in his own words:
You know how, when you're a kid, you love it when you get mail? You feel important, like someone's paying attention to you. Well, we used to do that - every time someone wrote a fan letter to one of our cast members, every piece of mail that came in, we'd put their names on our mailing list and mail out huge packages every time a new movie was about to come out, kind of like what Disney does now - posters, rolls of stickers, all sorts of neat stuff. In fact, the only official soundtrack that Ferris Bueller's Day Off ever had was for the mailing list. A&M was very angry with me over that; they begged me to put one out, but I thought "who'd want all of these songs?" I mean, would kids want "Danke Schöen" and "Oh Yeah" on the same record? They probably already had "Twist and Shout," or their parents did, and to put all of those together with the more contemporary stuff, like the (English) Beat - I just didn't think anybody would like it. But I did put together a seven-inch of the two songs I owned the rights to - "Big City" [sic] on one side, and... I forget, one of the other English bands* on the soundtrack... and sent that to the mailing list. By '86, '87, it was costing us $30 a piece to mail out 100,000 packages. But it was a labor of love. I cared about my audience and I cared about these movies.
*"I'm Afraid" by Blue Room - ed.
In other words, this is as close as we're going to get - although you can create your own soundtrack using the guide below. Package also includes extensive liner notes from film music journalist Tim Greiving.
What surprised me about this soundtrack was the high quality of Ira Newborn's original music cues, even when removed from the images of the movie. Also, the "Star Wars" theme is not the original recording, but a brief Newborn arrangement. (I said Star Wars and you just imagined the image below, didn't you?)
While I was re-watching the movie to compile the list below, two thoughts occurred to me: 1) there are an unbelievable number of huge plot holes in this thing and I could care less, and 2) Ira Newborn's cues play a huge role in the movie and this soundtrack compilation CD brings that fact to the fore.
Peak on the US Billboard 200 chart: Did not chart. The La-La Land Records website claims this is a limited edition of 5,000 units.
Tracks (35 tracks, 76:45):
Based on my 2009 Blu-Ray, the "Bueller...Bueller...Edition," here's a chronological list of the music cues from the movie:
Opening scene: WLS radio jingle
CD track 10, Ferris in Bed
Ferris showering/dressing: Love Missle F1-11 by Sigue Sigue Sputnik (Ultraviolence Mix) (CD track 1)
MTV Moonman Theme
CD track 11, Cameron in Bed/Ferris Goes Hawaiian
Ferris dancing in bedroom: Jeannie (Theme from I Dream of Jeanie) by Hugo Montenegro
Ferris on his synth: Blue Danube waltz by Johann Strauss
CD track 13, Nurse
CD track 14, Ferris on Line 2
CD track 15, Bueller, Ferris Bueller
Picking up Ferrari from Cameron's garage: Oh Yeah by Yello (CD track 2)
Ferris, Sloane, and Cameron head into Chicago: Beat City by The Flowerpot Men (CD track 3)
CD track 30, Couglin Bros. Mortuary
Entering parking garage: B.A.D. by Big Audio Dynamite (CD track 4)
CD track 16, Mom Checks on Ferris
Chez Luis scenes: CD track 31, Celebrated Minuet (actual title: Minuet from String Quintet in E, Op. 11, No. 5 by Luigi Boccherini)
CD track 17, Jeannie Turns Ugly
CD track 18, Rooney on Patrol
CD track 32, Ballpark Baloney
CD track 20, Rooney Sneaks Around/Star Wars (Main Title)
The Art Institute of Chicago: Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want (Instrumental) by The Dream Academy (CD track 5)
Von Steuben Day Parade: CD track 33, Polka Medley (Wildfire Polka/Vienna Penny Polka)
Parade lip synching: Danke Schoen by Wayne Newton (CD track 6)
Parade with marching band: Twist and Shout by The Beatles (with marching band overlay, CD track 35). Original can be found on Please Please Me.
Picking up car from garage: CD track 33, Polka Medley (Wildfire Polka/Vienna Penny Polka)
Leaving garage: Radio People by Zapp (CD track 7)
Cameron's lakeside breakdown: I'm Afraid (Instrumental) by Blue Room (CD track 34).
By the pool with Cameron on diving board: Taking the Day Off by General Public. Can be found on the 1993 I.R.S. Records re-issue of the Hand To Mouth album.
CD track 22, Cameron Takes the Heat
CD track 23, Oh Shauna Jeannie
Ferris saying goodbye to Sloane: The Edge of Forever by The Dream Academy (CD track 9)
Ferris running home: March of the Swivel Heads by The English Beat. Can be found on several compilations and the 2012 Edsel reissue of the Special Beat Service album.
CD track 25, Dog Food Rooney/Ferris Goes to Bed
CD track 26, Mom, Dad and Ferris
Closing credits/Rooney on school bus: Oh Yeah by Yello (CD track 2)
Personal Memory Associated with this CD: I saw the movie in the summer of 1986 with my then-girlfriend-now-wife and loved it from the get-go. I think I've purchased it in VHS, DVD and Blu-Ray versions.
The band's first album release in six years, this thing is a covers album and I gotta be honest, my initial expectations were low because there wasn't any new material on the CD; I figured the band was simply picking low-hanging fruit. And now I gotta admit I am pleasantly surprised. It's not perfect, but it's hardly a disaster. Here's the skinny from band leader/saxophonist Jay Beckenstein:
For the most part, they come through. There's only one real stinker and copy couple of others than are just okay. But there's a few roses among the thorns and they mix it up nicely so it doesn't become another Smooth Sax Tribute to Steely Dan.
Aside from Christmas tunes, these aren't the first SG covers, off the top of my head I can name two: Sweet Baby James on 20/20, and The Beatles' In My Life on the (I Got No Kick Against) Modern Jazz compilation. There may be others I'm forgetting
Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: TBD
Tracks:
Secret Agent Mash - a mash-up of Secret Agent Man (a #3 hit for Johnny Rivers in 1966) and Alfie's Theme (written by Burt Bacharach, recorded and released in 1966 by Sonny Rollins). They get the worst cut out of the way here with track 1. Atop a Gene Krupa drum beat, this tries to be a mash-two tunes and fail at both despite a tasty piano solo from Tom Schuman. At this point on my first play, I was dreading the rest of the album, but then came along...
Sunshine of Your Love - a #5 hit for Cream in 1968. Currently my favorite tune on the disc. This Latin flavored arrangement is more SG than Clapton and the salsa instrumentation brings the heat (pun intended). Sweet guitar solo from Julio Fernandez.
Can't Find My Way Home - written by Steve Winwood and released by Blind Faith on their self-titled 1969 album. The first single released from the album, this should get some airplay on your local smooth jazz station. A laid back folksy cover that, like the previous track, SG makes their own.
What A Fool Believes - a #1 hit for The Doobie Brothers in 1979. This is a medley of two arrangements of the tune. In the first, the band plays the song as a shuffle. Meh. However, when the band starts swinging at around 3½ minutes in, things get cooking.
The Cisco Kid - a #2 hit for War in 1973. The band messes around with some mixed meter here. Other than that, there's nothing particularly innovative, but how often do you get to hear a bass harmonica (courtesy of Gary Schreiner)?
Tempted - a #49 hit for Squeeze in 1981. The band turns this blue-eyed soul tune into a bluesy waltz with a driving coda. I dig that brief ending and while I exactly can't decide if I like the waltz part of the arrangement or not, I'm certainly not skipping this great tune.
Stolen Moments - written by jazz saxophonist Oliver Nelson and released on his 1961 album, The Blues and the Abstract Truth. The band has fun with this modified blues tune. I've heard plenty of versions of this standard and this funky, syncopated cover is as good as any. Bassist Scott Ambush gets a nice turn.
Personal Memory Associated with this CD: Released October 11, this CD hit my front porch last weekend and has since been in heavy rotation on my morning and evening commutes as well as in my modular workstation amidst the cubicle farm.
3rd Force (with Peter White on guitar and accordion)
✔
Nothing memorable and a few skippable tracks. And cuts from the Journey alumni? Meh - I've heard much better. The blurb from the back cover (above) claims this compilation is "diverse" but we all know better. But I gotta admit this stuff is very relaxing, calming, and often just what I need. Just don't give it much of your active listening time.
Personal Memory Associated with this CD: None. Picked it up Wednesday afternoon at the used CD/DVD store while waiting for my optometrist appointment.
A box set from Arista featuring the Thompson Twins' second through sixth studio albums as they were originally released in the UK (in other words, there's no disc of the US release, In The Name Of Love). Budget-priced so no bonus tracks. And because I haven't posted this picture on the blog recently, here's the original twins from the Tintin cartoon series (that's Thomson on the left and Thompson on the right):
SET (1982)
11 tracks, 42 minutes
Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: (not released in the US)
U.S. charted singles:
Pop
Dance
In the Name of Love
109
1
After starting strong with In The Name Of Love, this album quickly defaults into a quirkiness that sometimes works, but mostly doesn't - the comparison to Talking Heads below is spot on and I also hear a few attempts to jump on the same train as Malcolm McLaren acts of the time. Steve Lillywhite's production style is evident. That said, I still dig In The Name Of Love, Bouncing, The Rowe, and Fool's Gold. The rest is harmless enough except for the penultimate track, Crazy Dog, which is to be avoided.
Smash Hits, March 18, 1982, p. 27
QUICK STEP & SIDE KICK (1983)
10 tracks, 38 minutes
The group, now a trio, finally found their voice as a synth-pop-funk-dance band, heavy on the pop. In the US, this album was titled simply Side Kicks, and it's a tale of two album sides here: In general, I really dig side one (tracks 1- 5 on CD) while not as much for the quirkier songs that lead off side two. Still, once you accept the oddness, there's really no track you need to skip until you get to the end; just end your play after 9 tracks.
Should I have picked up this album in '83? Probably, but, to be fair, I really had no idea what I was doing in the spring of of 1983. I'd like to have a do-over on that junior year in high school, but that's a story for another time. (Wow, that took a dark turn rather quickly, huh?)
Track 3, If You Were Here, became popular through its use in the movie Sixteen Candles. For a full, definitive listing of that fantastic soundtrack, click here.
Smash Hits, March 3, 1983, p. 41
INTO THE GAP (1984)
9 tracks, 43 minutes
Note: this release was originally purchased as a cassette tape, later replaced by this CD.
Now we're to the reason I ordered this box set. As mentioned above, I had this one on cassette and that tape got quite a bit of playing time in my car during the spring of 1984, which was my senior year in high school. I wanted to get a CD copy and this box set was just a few dollars more than the single disc, so why not? Despite the error in the track listing on the album cover, Arista front-loaded the singles so side 1 of my "Qualitape" got quite a bit more playing time in my Pioneer deck than side 2.
I'm partial to the four singles listed above but I enjoyed all 9 tracks during today's spin. As a teen, I thought the album fell apart at the end (I just wanted the hits, I guess), but today I'm liking the subtlety of what was side 2 (tracks 6-9) much more than I did then. Overall, I like Into The Gap much better that Mr. Rimmer:
Smash Hits, February 16, 1984, p. 29
HERE'S TO FUTURE DAYS (1985)
10 tracks, 43 minutes
The 2008 deluxe CD edition of this album has previously appeared on the blog: Here's To Future Days. Yes, I played the CD included in this box set for three reasons: 1) for a synth band, this album contains some tasty guitar work courtesy of Nile Rodgers and Steve Stevens, 2) the goal of the The CD Project is to listen to all CDs in my collection (now cleverly dubbed "The Markives" by a faithful reader), and 3) it's a good album with "college daze" memories attached.
Speaking of Thompson Twins in 1985, you remember Madonna, Steve Stevens, and Nile Rodgers joining them onstage at Live Aid for a Beatles cover? I certainly didn't, but here it is:
This is my first exposure to this album - heck, I don't even remember the single by name even though I've heard before on a greatest hits compilation. So the trio has now become a husband-wife duo. This album is dark and, according to this Chicago Tribune article, it's very easy to see why: Currie's mother died on the same day the singer lost the baby she and Bailey were expecting. Heartbreaking.
On this initial spin, Bushbaby, Perfect Day, and Dancing In Your Shoes stand out to me. And I now remember Get That Love, which, as the below review points out, is the obvious pick for a single.
Billboard, April 11, 1987, p. 72
Personal Memory Associated with these CDs: My first exposure to Thompson Twins was seeing the bizarre video for Lies on MTV. I might have like the song better if the video hadn't been so distracting, but that video's DIY ethic was prevalent on the network back then.
During the spring of my senior year in high school, two cassette tapes never left my car: The Romantics' In Heat and Thompson Twins' Into The Gap. During lunch, my buddies Brett and Roy would pile into the Markmobile and we'd scramble off campus to grab something from a local fast food place before stopping by the convenience store to stock up on candy and gum for our afternoon classes. Those cassettes usually blasted loudly as we rode around our small town like we were Ren and Willard in a VW bug riding around Bomont.
Here's To Future Days, was put on almost nightly after dinner in my college dorm room as I chewed the fat with buddies Larry and Jim, so I got quite a bit of play time. After listening each night, I usually hit the practice room or visited my new girlfriend. That girlfriend has been my wife for more than 30 years now, so my time spent with her paid off better than my time spent in a practice room.
I saw Tom Bailey in concert last year and he sang all the hits. Not only that, he came out to the lobby afterwards to hang out with fans - none of this $150 "VIP meet-and-greet ticket package" mess for Tom. Cool guy.
Vintage TT Pinbacks from my collection.
I wore the one on the left to the aforementioned Tom Bailey show.
In which people who have no business singing Gershwin sing Gershwin. Produced by George Martin, this tribute album was a celebration of the 80th birthday of harmonica player Larry Adler (1914 - 2001). Adler himself plays the harmonica on each of the songs and it must have been fun for him, so there's that. I'll admit the star power is here and the song selection is impeccable, but this compilation is not for me.
But enough of my thoughts, let's see what the rabble over at Amazon has to say about it:
"Not as good as I anticipated, but, hey, it's Gershwin. How bad can it be?"
"The rumbling you feel isn't an earthquake it's George & Ira rolling over in their grave."
"The best thing about this music is Larry Adler's harmonica" [agreed]
"the performances really are unstylistic and unfaithful to the original ideas of Gershwin"
"the album is slightly dull; it has the dusty feeling of those specials your local PBS affiliate runs during fundraising week to get donations from nostalgic baby boomers"
"ersatz elevator music. The female performers hold the CD together." [I am in complete agreement with that last bit]
Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: #192, but reportedly a top 10 album in other parts of the world.
