The late Randy VanWarmer is mostly remembered as a soft-rock one hit wonder, with the exquisite "Just When I Needed You Most" being the big one. But he recorded four decent albums for Bearsville before settling in for a successful Nashville songwriting career.
He wrote several songs for the group The Oak Ridge Boys including the #1 U.S. Country hit "I Guess It Never Hurts to Hurt Sometimes". The song appeared on his 1981 album Beat of Love, which also included the pop tune "Suzi Found a Weapon", which hit #55 on the Billboard Hot 100.
In 1979, after Randy VanWarmer had struggled in obscurity for a few years, Bearsville Records in New York City released a VanWarmer single, "Gotta Get Out of Here", a mildly catchy pop tune. "Just When I Needed You Most" was the B-side of the single. Somewhere, on a whim, a DJ decided to play the flip side instead, and it slowly rose to the Top 10 in a market saturated with disco.
As VanWarmer told Release, Albert Grossman, the head of Bearsville would not let him do television or tour the United States, a strategy that did not prove successful.
The Things That You Dream, arriving two years after Beat of Love, covers a similar amount of ground but it ditches the cynical snark and the reggae affectations, choosing to double down on the soft pop and the cleanly lit AOR rock.
Randy went back to basics for "The Things That You Dream." A gentle album that sounds more like the James Taylor/Stephen Bishop school of soft pop, it shows the easy skill Randy had for songwriting. He also indulged himself in a few covers, including a jangle-pop varient on "Shadows of the Night" that would later be a hit for Pat Benatar but sounds like a hard-rocking REO Speedwagon tune in VanWarmer's hands. Any lingering new wave influence is apparent in the latter, where the guitars battle with the keyboards.
He dabbles in covers elsewhere, doing a perfectly fine version of the Lovin' Spoonful's "Do You Believe in Magic," and if the album winds up sounding slightly schizophrenic.
VanWarmer continued to write music for others and for his own recordings, which continued to be artistically successful but commercially unsuccessful.
He also helped other younger artists with their own songwriting efforts.
Side A
A1. The Things That You Dream (3:31)
A2. At Least It’s A Life (3:30)
A3. What In The World Comes Over You At Night (4:50)
A4. Gonna Build Me A Rocket (3:55)
A5. Do You Believe In Magic (2:33)
Side B
B1. Only What You Steal (4:19)
B2. Color Me Out (4:00)
B3. Shadows Of The Night (3:14)
B4. I’m Still In Love (3:11)
B5. Hester’s Song (4:59)
Notes
Release: 1983
Genre: Rock, Pop
Style: Soft Rock
Label: Bearsville Records
Catalog# 205246
Price: € 5.00
Vinyl: Goed
Cover: Goed
http://www.ad-vinylrecords.com/product/vanwarmer-randy-the-things-that-you-dream-lp/
0 comments:
Een reactie posten