They were lovingly done rather than calculated cash grabs, which I think makes a huge difference. Same with Harry Nilsson's "A Little Touch of Schmilsson in the Night" (1973):
I've seen James live twice in recent years. He doesn't need autotune.
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Song you wondered how they they ever got played on Top 40 radio
- Thread starter secondchoice
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They were lovingly done rather than calculated cash grabs, which I think makes a huge difference. Same with Harry Nilsson's "A Little Touch of Schmilsson in the Night" (1973):
I've seen James live twice in recent years. He doesn't need autotune.
There's a big difference between "Fire & Rain" or "Shower the People" and a lot of those standard tunes, Michael. They modulate (change key) and often have much more challenging melodies. They also often require bigger vocal ranges, something that being up in years isn't typically kind too. All things considered, though, I agree with you that James is still in good voice for his age.
For the record, I haven't listened to it since it came out (at which point I purchased the LP). But my recollection was that his voice sounded futzed with and also that there was a lot of dynamic compression applied. Almost like listening on FM radio.
The arrangements are very nice, and the guitar work is superb from what I recall. You've inspired me to take it out and give it another spin on the turntable. Maybe I'll enjoy it more this time around than I did a few years back.
I still maintain that a standards album from James at the top of his game would have been superb. "My Romance" off his That's Why I'm Here LP is a prime example of that.
I'm listening to it now with good headphones, and not hearing any of what you heard. It's a very clean recording. The guitars are closely miked, but then, they should be.
To me, the charm is that it's James being James...no attempt to do the orchestrations or the arrangements...just a guy who is singing us some songs he still loves after all these years.
Totally agree.
Took a while for this to actually register. I wonder if there was additional compression used in mastering for vinyl? I'm listening to a lossless digital version.
No, I don't believe there was additional compression used on the vinyl mastering. Usually it's the opposite, with the vinyl mastering having less compression.
I recall when it was first released, there was a Steve Hoffman (audio forum - hopefully I'm okay to mention that here?) thread discussing the compression utilized on the JT release, and a lot of the folks there being quite disappointed with the dynamic range numbers (it scored relatively low, which is usually a result of dynamic compression). I'm not saying it's not a clean recording - it's a compressed recording, at least that's what my ears are hearing.
Whatever the case may be, we're way off topic at this point (and a lot of that is my fault)...
There's been so much of it in my lifetime that it's pretty hard to create rock music that doesn't sound like it's replicating something that's already out there. Just because there's little new music of that genre doesn't necessarily mean that listeners don't like the enormous catalog of R&R.
Exactly. Once rap went mainstream and the suburban kids started finding that it connected on a rebellious, emotional, gut level that rock no longer did, the slow decline of rock was under way. This started in the late '80s. It's neither fad nor short=term trend. It's reality. And don't forget that it's easier to acquire rapping skills (and impress girls) than it is to learn to play electric guitar well.
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Watch “Bar Rescue” on Paramount when host Jon Taffer goes ballistic.
Like that show.
I thought Bette Midler was first. This is something I didn't know about.
Toni Tennille also did an album of standards. Not sure when but it was before Linda Ronstadt.
My guess would be that 1 to 3% of the tunes that charted will be the ones to get through and the rest will mostly be forgotten about. By "getting through", I mean tunes taught in music history/appreciation programs as representative of the genres of their times, as well as those (tunes) frequently cited on one list or another.
There are several built-in problems to the "alternative" label. First, an "alternative" to what? Once grunge took hold in the mid-1990s, there really wasn't much to differentiate "alternative" from the thing it was supposed to be an alternative to. Before that time, it was "modern rock" that had all sorts of influences, that was more open to new sounds than other formats, and that didn't segregate dancier tunes from harder-rocking ones. The second problem is that, if you have to say you're alternative, then you're not doing it right. Finally, alternative became more a matter of who was performing the tune rather than the type of tune being performed. It was where the college-radio artists of the 1980s frequently ended up, aging along with their audience into a demographic that was very desirable for a couple of decades. Now it's slowly becoming the new classic rock. For example, KQMT in Denver now is split roughly 50-50 between older classic rock tunes and classic alternative. That'll work...for a while.
You're reminding me of what rec.music.alternative was like in the 1990's Usenet:
"Pearl Jam sucks!"
"No, they don't!"
"Yes, they do!"
{repeat thousands of times}
The future may play out a little differently in an environment where a near-infinite number of choices are available on-demand, and where mass marketing is less effective than it was.
I heard "Hound Dog" today (backup singers were great) and something I believe was by The Beatles.
Sadly, Glenn Frey's "You Belong to the City: has shown up on the station. I like him a lot better with The Eagles. He's done some good solo songs, but that one just doesn't work for me.
I had to go to the bank. The last place I would ever expect to hear "Plush" by Stone Temple Pilots. I didn't hear a station ID when I was there, but at times I have heard the "We play anything" station.
Nope. Toni recorded several albums of standards. Her first, "More Than You Know", was released in 1984.
Linda Ronstadt's first standards album, "What's New", was in 1983.
That's what happens while the core audience is alive. It's why, although the Eagles had 12 songs that peaked at #12 or higher (and five number ones), you're unlikely to hear more than three on the radio now.
Chuck Klosterman is a writer who focuses on pop culture. He has a theory that eventually, Chuck Berry will come to stand for the entirety of the rock era in the same way that most people can only name John Philip Souza when it comes to marching band music (if they can name any at all).
Souza's first big hit, "The Washington Post March" was 1889, 136 years ago, so we'd need to be here in 2092 to know for sure about Chuck.
I think he'll be wrong-ish, if only because Elvis and The Beatles existed and (barring a nuclear war between the time I finish this sentence and then) so will their movies (in some form), but he's not that far off.
That would mean that The Rolling Stones and The Who and Led Zeppelin get lost in the sands of time, but consider this:
In 70 years since the pop-standard era began to give way to the rock era, we've already distilled the standards era to Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, and maybe Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr. (riding Frank's "Rat Pack" coattails, though Sammy had the talent and, until the drugs, the discipline to be a much better performer than Frank).
Ella Fitzgerald, I'd like to think, instantly commands respect and recognition, but I wouldn't bet big on that. Billie Holliday is more a legend passed down by word of mouth than an artist that most Americans alive today have heard even once.
Bing Crosby sold way more records than Frank. He's been marginalized as a Christmas artist, along with Perry Como, Nat Cole and Mel Torme'. And then there are several dozen others, big to huge in their time, that are already off the radar of all but the most serious listeners and students of the era.
I thought it was 1980 or earlier for some reason.
She and the Captain were on the standards station in Charlotte, one with very little AC, and yet they managed to play "Love Will Keep Us Together".
I heard Johnny B. Goode on the radio today.
Serenade Radio (online only, British) probably can't be considered well known, but all these artists are getting a lot more airplay there than on your typical U.S. commercial station.
Ron O’Brien used that nickname at KFI.
What I know of Chuck Berry:
1) "My Ding-a-Ling", which I hated.
Well, there's more, since he was from St. Louis, and died on his farm which was just a few miles away from the town where I went to high school. And I do have a DVD of The T.A.M.I. Show that I ought to rewatch. I'll leave it at that. Anyway, I agree with you; I don't think Berry will be the stand-in. He might actually become more of a transitional figure. I also think the genre of marches is a much narrower genre compared to rock, which had multiple influences; thus the comparison to Souza falls apart for me. I think several of the major rock artists will make it through to the consciousness of the generations that follow, especially those artists who represent specific cultural phenomena.