Jeffrey Osborne - On the Wings of Love (1982)

On the Wings of Love
b/w I'm Beggin'

Released: 1982 (A&M) Written by: Jeffrey Osborne & Peter Schless Produced by: George Duke Album: Jeffrey Osborne

U. S. Billboard Charts:
Hot 100	29
Adult Contemporary	7
R&B	13

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A vastly underrated and mostly forgotten gem of adult contemporary deliciousness. And when I say underrated, I include myself in that club: I placed this song at #45 in my list of the Top 82 singles of 1982. If I were redoing that list today, the song might be 20 spots higher. (After further re-examination of that list, I can see I need a do over, but that's for another time.)

Osborne was the lead singer of L.T.D. until 1981, when he left the group for a solo career. This single came from his self-titled first solo album. Lots of familiar names on that album and this cut: George Duke, Michael Sembello, and Abe Laboriel.

This song didn't fit into the hipster New Wave "Johnny Slash" image I was trying to cultivate in 1982 so it didn't get any play time in the Markmobile, but in the privacy of my home, it was a different story. The intro and verse are fantastic but they don't compare to the bridge and the soaring chorus. I will confess to singing this song many times over the past 35 years - sometimes I hit the notes, sometimes I don't, sometimes the neighborhood dogs start howling. The bouncy eighth note bridge extends the normal eight measure form to nine measures to add a little tension and then the key modulates from G up to A flat and the whole thing moves to another level.

Sadly, the only time I've heard this song on radio or TV lately has been in parody or melodrama. My theory for its lack of respect and success? It's range makes it too difficult to sing along with. If it were easier, it would have been a wedding staple for at least a decade. But then it wouldn't be what it is.

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Sergio Mendes - Alibis (1984)

Alibis
b/w Confetti

Released: June 1984 (A&M) Written by: Tom Snow & Tony Macaulay Produced by: Sergio Mendes & Robbie Buchanan Album: Confetti

U. S. Billboard Charts:
Hot 100	29
Adult Contemporary	5

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A song I like to play for friends and say, "Hey, remember this one?"

Trying to follow up on the chart success of 1982's self-titled album and its single "Never Gonna Let You Go" (#4 pop, #1 AC, #28 R&B), Mendes and company hurried back to the studio to try to recapture the adult contemporary magic with the Confetti album. Alas, it was not to be, but the album did produce one gem of a single with "Alibis" - one of those singles that's so good you buy the album in hopes of it all being that good (that's exactly what I did and [spoiler alert] the rest of the album doesn't come close to this song).

To be honest, most of Mendes' early '80s output is fairly anonymous soft pop; this slick song could have been released by any number of artists. What sets it apart for me is the fine songwriting and strong vocals from Joe Pizzulo. The opening bass line is catchy as all get out, there's hooks galore in the melodies and chord progressions, then Ernie Watts kicks in a saxophone solo to take it up a notch. So good even the terribly dated synth sounds don't bother me a bit.

As the title suggests, this is a song about cheating and the lyrics capture the technology of the period with the reference "your telephone service says you're out again." The moral of the story is Maury-esque: once a cheater, always a cheater ("you think you're in clear but don't forget that's exactly the way we met"). I can speak from experience that isn't true: not my finest point, but I didn't start my cheating ways until the year after this single was released and, for the record, was done with that foolishness long before I got married. I can't remember if this song went through my head in 1985 as I spun my web of lies for the ladies, but it wouldn't surprise me a bit.

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Prince and the Revolution - Purple Rain (1984)

Released: June 25, 1984 (Warner Bros.) Produced by: Prince Peak on the US Billboard 200: #1 (24 consecutive weeks, Aug 4, 1984 - Jan 12, 1985)

Side One	Side Two
Let's Go Crazy Take Me With U The Beautiful Ones Computer Blue Darling Nikki	When Doves Cry I Would Die 4 U Baby I'm A Star Purple Rain

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By request!

Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to remember the music of Purple Rain (not the movie, because that thing's gawd awful).  I consider Prince to be more of a singles artist than an album artist, but to my ear, this is easily Prince's best, most consistent album and my dubbed cassette was never far from the Markmobile's Pioneer cassette deck or my new Sony Walkman WM-10 during the last seven months of 1984.  I think the other side of that 90 minute cassette had The Cars' Heartbeat City on it, which didn't get nearly the amount of playing time that Purple Rain did.

After giving us some albums that included great dance/funk tunes (e.g., "Dirty Mind" & "1999"), Prince creates the perfect funk/rock crossover here with scorching guitar licks over dance grooves that won't quit (and you don't want them to).  As Kurt Loder astutely wrote in his ★★★★ review in Rolling Stone issue 426: "Anyone partial to great creators should own this record.  Like Jimi and Sly, Prince is an original; but apart from that, he's like no one else." And we wouldn't want him to be.

The Markmobile (a 1972 Ford Maverick coupe) had lost its air conditioning by 1984, so the windows were always rolled down.  I distinctly remember a trip down Interstate 45 on a hot afternoon in October 1984 where all I listened to was "Let's Go Crazy" for two hours straight, singing at the top of lungs.  I hope the other travelers appreciated the marathon performance, because my voice was shredded by the time I reached my destination.

I could list all the awards and honors this album has received and continues to receive, but that would make this post run excessively long.  Most all the honors are on the album's Wikipedia page.

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• Let's Go Crazy:  What a fantastic opener.  The synth organ builds under Prince's pseudo-intellectual rambling, then the drums kick in and you start to move, then that guitar riff comes through your speakers and you're all in.  That synth lick is every bit as good and memorable as what he wrote for "1999."  And the sweet guitar solos just give you a taste of what's to come.
• Take Me With U:  a duet with co-star Apollonia, this is pure pop with hooks aplenty - I'm especially fond of the chorus melody.  Love the way the strings play off the acoustic guitar.  Can't believe this didn't chart higher than #25 on the pop chart because Prince doesn't get much poppier than this.
• The Beautiful Ones:  not my favorite.  The synth line just plods along, completely wasting a nice melody into the chorus.  Why is he screaming at me for the last minute?  I'd much rather hear the guitar solo underneath the vocals.
• Computer Blue: once you get past the enjoyable fantasy exchange from Wendy & Lisa, this becomes a driving dance tune.  The middle section with guitar solo is completely unrelated to the rest of the song, but it is so good you don't really mind.  I'm probably in the minority, but I think that may be the best solo on the album.
• Darling Nikki: the lyrics are perverse and exactly what I needed at age 18, but there's not much to the song until the band lets loose at about the 2:40 mark.  The backmasking at the end was novel at the time and I still get a kick out of it.

• When Doves Cry: again I'm in the minority here, but I've never been much for this song.  I think it's because I wanted another "1999" or "Delirious" to dance to, but this thing doesn't even have a bass line I can get behind.  I will give Prince credit: with no bass line and a lyricless chorus, this is like nothing I'd ever heard before or heard since.  It was #1 on the pop, R&B, and dance charts, so lots of people liked it.
• I Would Die 4 U: the album bounces back nicely with this up-tempo dance track propelled along by sixteenth notes on the hi-hat throughout.  But really, this track is just an extended intro to...
• Baby I'm A Star:  a 4-on-the-floor dance tune that's 4:24 of all out fun: it's fun to dance to, it's fun to sing along to, and the band sounds like they're having a blast.  Plus, when Prince sings the lyrics (even the backmasked ones), they're all true.  Love the keyboard work on this one.  It builds and builds and when it gets to where it's going, you aren't disappointed.  Can't. Sit. Still.  "Doc-tah!!"
• Purple Rain: There's no denying this is a fantastic gospel-tinged epic, but after the previous two songs, I still want to dance some more, not wave my lighter in the air as I sway from side to side.  Plus the song is about 2 minutes too long.  Still, there's some legendary guitar work here.  It's outside the scope of this blog, but in my mind, this song doesn't get any better than Prince's halftime performance at Super Bowl XLI, which remains the best SB halftime show ever.

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Let's Go Crazy Baby I'm A Star I Would Die 4 U Take Me With U Computer Blue Purple Rain Darling Nikki When Doves Cry The Beautiful Ones

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Wings - Silly Love Songs (1976)

 Silly Love Songs
b/w Cook of the House

Released: April 1976 (Capitol) Written by: Paul McCartney Produced by: Paul McCartney Album: Wings at the Speed of Sound

U. S. Billboard Charts:
Hot 100	1
Adult Contemporary	1

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The story goes like this: McCartney got grief from John Lennon (among others) for only writing lightweight love songs.  This song was not only McCartney's response to that, he also pokes a little fun at himself.  Not to mention its a fun little disco-ish song and a big hit, at that. In Sir Paul's own words (from Billboard):

But over the years people have said, "Aw, he sings love songs, he writes love songs, he's so soppy at times." I thought, Well, I know what they mean, but, people have been doing love songs forever. I like 'em, other people like 'em, and there's a lot of people I love -- I'm lucky enough to have that in my life. So the idea was that "you" may call them silly, but what's wrong with that?

The song was, in a way, to answer people who just accuse me of being soppy. The nice payoff now is that a lot of the people I meet who are at the age where they've just got a couple of kids and have grown up a bit, settling down, they'll say to me, "I thought you were really soppy for years, but I get it now! I see what you were doing!" [big laugh].

By the way, "Silly Love Songs" also had a good bassline and worked well live.

Musically, the song doesn't follow any traditional pop music form, which isn't surprising for McCartney who always likes to piece things together.  There's all sorts of instrumental breaks, chorus, countermelodies, varying instrumentation, and the verse only appears at the beginning and end of the song.  But it's all catchy as hell and I can't hear the song without thinking of the summer of 1976, when I spent a lot of time outside with my Radio Shack transistor radio.  The local West Texas stations played this song a lot that summer.

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The Waitresses - Christmas Wrapping (1981)

 Christmas Wrapping
b/w Christmas Fever (by Charlelie Couture)

Released: November 1981 (ZE) Written by: Chris Butler Produced by: Chris Butler Album: A Christmas Record (compilation)

U. S. Billboard Charts:
Promo only in US

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Around these parts, this wonderful song is being heard as background music for a frequently aired TV spot.  All that does is drive me to call it up on iTunes and give it a listen.  Like most songs from The Waitresses, it's an unusual but catchy song. It's definitely one of the better original Christmas tunes written during my favorite decade (with competition from Paul McCartney's Wonderful Christmastime and Wham's Last Christmas). So why don't we hear this happy tune more often on the radio??

Musically, it all works for me from the rhythm guitar to the horn parts to the unexpected chord progressions to Patty Donahue's quirky vocals.  Much like the protagonist in the song's narrative, I often have the desire to "miss this one this year" as the holidays turn from quiet reflective time to something else completely.  But then, once it gets here, I'm filled with joy and happy that I didn't miss it.  As is its nature, Christmas will find you regardless. 

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New Frontier - Donald Fagen (1983)

 New Frontier
b/w Maxine

Released: February 1983 (Warner Bros.) Written by: Donald Fagen Produced by: Gary Katz Album: The Nightfly

U. S. Billboard Charts:
Hot 100	70
Adult Contemporary	34

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Before New Frontier, I was a casual Steely Dan fan at best. I always enjoyed the songs Peg and Time Out Of Mind when I heard them on the radio, but I didn't own any SD records. So what led me to this little slice of pop/soft rock perfection by SD's Donald Fagen? Marketing, plain and simple. Being a radio and records guy, I was attracted to the cover photo of The Nightfly album and after I saw the video for New Frontier, I was hooked. I soon had The Nightfly LP and anyone who rode with me in my car in 1983 was subjected to this song (it was for their own good, really). Looking back, I can't believe the video for New Frontier was ever played on MTV. Go figure.

Musically, this is a great piece with tight vocal harmonies, exotic chords (B9, F#6, C9+11, etc.), and great solos from Larry Carlton on guitar and Hugh McCracken on harmonica. The album version is 6'22", the single edit clocks in at 3'50" while the video is 4'44". Lyrically, the song takes us back to the Kennedy years and the beginnings of the Cold War. Not political at all, it simply uses that era as a backdrop as the lyrics tell the story of a teenage boy trying to lure his date down into a backyard fallout shelter for a night (or at least a few minutes) of passion. If I'd had a fallout shelter in my backyard in 1983, I'd have tried the same move.

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