Oh, there are exceptions—New Jack City, say, or Pretty in Pink. But sound tracks are usually the weak links of the record world, projects hastily and sloppily hacked together to cross-promote a movie.
Stevie don't play that. As he did with his previous sound track, 1979's Journey Through the Secret Lives of Plants, Wonder has invested a good deal of creativity in this venture, making for a collection of 11 songs sturdy enough to stand on their own merits.
"Fun Day," despite its intricate harmonies and jazz shadings, is one of the airiest romps since Wonder's Where Fm Coming From era two decades ago. That long-ago album also echoes through the watercolor chord changes of "I Go Sailing" and "If She Breaks Your Heart," which features vocals by Kimberly Brewer.
Other highlights are the dense funk of "Each Other's Throat" (read) for Stevie the quicksilver rapper?) and the walkin'-the-dog groove of "Gotta Have You." And wait till you hear the verve of the ballad "Make Sure You're Sure." Even a relatively clumsy Wonder tune—"Queen in the Black"—has redeeming aspects in its gathering momentum. "These Three Words," a saccharine paean to togetherness, is fortified by vocal glissandos Stevie unleashes near its conclusion.
The arrangements tend to be cluttered, making this album not worthy of inclusion in the top shelf of the Wonder canon. It does, however, invite numerous listenings, which is more than can be said for, oh, the music from The Rocketeer. (Motown)
The Rebel Pebbles
Okay, you can stop worrying now. Go ahead and get some sleep. No doubt you've spent many a long night staring at the ceiling saying, "The Go-Go's are gone. The Bangles are bust. Please, Lord, when will you send us another group of perky pop-and-roll sweethearts?"
Fret no more. The Rebel Pebbles are the new girls on the block, and their debut is so full of perkiness, any of the band's four members could be an Entertainment Tonight cohost.
This is a consummate summer album—with jangly guitars, hummable harmonies and lyrics about the cutest guys and gals this side of Malibu. Such happy-skippy songs as "Dream Love" and "Eskimo and Butterfly" blow by like a cool summer breeze. Even a try at moodiness, "Anthony's Attic," turns into an ode to all things happy and good as lead singer Rachel Murray squeals with delight that her guy prefers reading Plato to pumping up.
Comparing their relentless cheeriness to the Go-Go's or Bangles doesn't mean the Pebbles are lifting someone else's shtick. They are just following in a pure pop tradition. Besides, who could bring accusations of thievery against women so wholesome they make Annette Funicello seem like Lita Ford? (I.R.S.)
Gladys Knight
This record is being promoted as Knight's solo debut. That's a spurious distinction because the Pips, her backups for 39 years, were always little more than a snappy-dancing chorus line. Good Woman is also subhyped as "Gladys goes funky," which is plain fallacious since Knight's last album, Love Overboard, was hipper than this bland offering produced by Knight and Michael Powell.
While the two clearly intended to burn up dance floors, such new-jack tracks as "Meet Me in the Middle" and "Give Me a Chance," a duet with David Peaston, fall short of incendiary.
"This Is Love" might make a nice ballad for a jazzy chanteuse like Anita Baker. But there are too many wide open spaces in the song for a pop singer, even Knight. The production on the refrain falls flat, and the muted background-vocal chorus, instead of providing counterpoint, clashes with Gladys's delivery. As far as slower songs go, she fares better on "Where Would I Be" and "Mr. Love."
Knight always has that glorious red-satin voice. But there's little here to wrap it around. An exception is a trio involving Knight, Dionne Warwick and Patti LaBelle on Karyn White's "Superwoman." Gladys comes out throwing haymakers. Of course, you better load up when you invite two heavy hitters like that into the studio with you.
So this "solo debut" isn't a triumph. Maybe next time. Today the Pips, tomorrow the world. (MCA)
Various artists
The commemorative concerts, articles, books and records are showing up at a furious pace, but if you have to be in the middle of a craze, a Cole Porter craze is the one you want.
Last month's 100th anniversary of the composer's birth has been the excuse for all the saluting, which includes a number of all-Porter albums.
Cole Porter: A Centennial Celebration (RCA) is in some ways the most intriguing, containing three tunes sung by Porter himself to his own piano accompaniment. He never pretended to be a vocal stylist, but he did have a wry, easy way with his own lyrics, not unlike that of a man he loved to write for: Fred Astaire. History aside, Porter's versions of "Anything Goes," "You're the Top" and "Be like the Bluebird," recorded in 1934 and 1935, are fun.
The rest of the album is burdened by too many colorless performances by such massed-force, middle-of-the-road RCA institutions as the Boston Pops, the Robert Shaw Chorale and a Norman Luboff chorus. There is, however, an appealing 1955 "Easy to Love" by Dinah Shore, Lena Horne's "Get out of Town" (1958), and Artie Shaw's 1938 "Begin the Beguine," the definition of big-band swing.
All Through the Night (Musicmasters) features 11 Porter tunes played as piano solos by Dick Hyman, a main-streamer whose improvisations get a little obtuse. Hyman's "Wunderbar," though, brings out the playful aspects of that song from Kiss Me Kate.
While Night and Day: The Cole Porter Songbook (PolyGram) was released last year, it's a paragon of durability and includes some exceptional jazz-oriented Porter. Dinah Washington, for instance, sings "I've Got You Under My Skin" (1954) over Max Roach's rhumba percussion, while Clark Terry, Maynard Ferguson and Clifford Brown conduct a trumpet chase. Louis Armstrong muses over "Let's Do It (Let's Fall in Love)" (1957) in deliberate, irresistible fashion, while his backup pianist, Oscar Peterson, adds some parenthetical remarks. A 1952 cut of "I Concentrate on You," sung by Astaire, is the equal of Frank Sinatra's reading on Francis Albert Sinatra and Antonio Carlos Jobim.
Billy Eckstine intones "In the Still of the Night" (1961), and there's a splendid Billie Holiday, "Easy to Love" (1952). Of the album's 17 tunes, two, "Anything Goes" and "Night and Day," are from Ella Fitzgerald's 1956 set, The Cole Porter Songbook (Verve), which remains the best Porter package and is now on CD. Last year's enjoyable Red, Hot + Blue (Chrysalis), with modern pop singers doing Porter, is still on the shelves too.
In other words, there's lots to choose from here. As the master himself might say—all together now—what a swell party this is!
- Contributors:
- David Hiltbrand,
- Craig Tomashoff,
- Ralph Novak.
Saved by the Bell Reunion
The hookups, the meltdowns, the memoires
The case reveals what was really going on what they think of each other now!
