Juice Newton - Greatest Hits

Like an awful lot of people I know Juice Newton from "Angel of the Morning," and it was a catchy song, and bow howdy I do like bells in popular music. Then "Queen of Hearts" was all over the radio. I will admit I like the song a fair bit too, but buying the album never even crossed my mind.

Ever.

With the passage of time I learned my girlfriend, now my wife, had her '81 album Juice and she was partial to the big songs. So when I found an excellent copy of her Greatest Hits I was pretty stoked and her response wasn't as enthusiastic, but to be fair I think her reaction was due in part to the other dozen or so records in the pile of stuff I'd proudly brought home. To me I felt like a king bearing gifts, to her I was a cat who'd just dropped another dead mouse on the carpet.

I'm always perplexed when labels interchangeably market best of collections as greatest hits. I know for sure there were hits on this album, a couple of really big ones, and maybe there were others too, but they flew below the radar. Given that all of the songs, and even the album's closer, have been really good, I'm going with this is a best of album.

By 1984 Juice had released a half dozen albums through Capitol Records, but this collection primarily pulls all of the songs but one from her 1981 and 1982 releases Juice and Quiet Lies and one song from 1983's Dirty Looks, which I suppose is sort of the way these things go.

Given my late to the party nature with a lot of albums and artists, this one actually benefits from my newfound appreciation of Linda Ronstadt's back catalogue and by extension Karla Bonoff. "Love's Been a Little Bit Hard on Me" is right out of the Andrew Gold playbook, and he played guitar and sang on the song as well. It's a great song. Oddly enough, I don't really remember this one - although I'm sure I'd heard it. It was nominated for a Grammy, and the corresponding video (which I'll be looking up shortly) was up for video of the year back in '82. Not from MTV, but something called the American Video Association.

In addition, Kenny Edwards, who was a member of The Stone Poneys with Linda Ronstadt, and also worked on many of her solo records, sang background vocals along with Andrew Gold on the songs from Juice.

This was a really solid album and plays along delightfully right down the middle of the road, but they're a lot of fun with a little cheeky sass in Juice's delivery. The only song that really didn't fit was the album's closer, "Tell Her No" from her '83 album Dirty Looks, where she embraced her inner rocker. Even though it was a remake of the old Zombies song by Rod Argent, it was a jarring left turn - although with repeated plays it's not bad, just different than the rest. I guess with Bonnie Tyler abandoning her country roots and going full Jim Steinman, maybe Juice figured there was a chance she could embrace the '80s in all of its synthesized goofiness and make the transition into the next decade. However, to be fair, "I'm Gonna Be Strong" was a pretty over the top song.

Well, whatever the case I'll admit that I enjoyed it more than I expected to, and would go so far as to say if I find more of her albums I won't hesitate to add them to my collection.

The video, by the way, is pure gold, and likely would never be made now. She had a sense of humour.

Styx - Paradise Theater

Styx was hands down one of my favourite bands as a kid. They were a strange band, even back then. They were a hard rock band, almost progressive at times, who had a penchant for sucky ballads. I know there's a tendency for people to zero in on "Babe" as the song that killed the band's credibility. The roots go way back to almost the beginning when Styx released "Lady" on their second album. It showed a side to the band that needed to be kept in check, and for the most part the band kept things on a pretty tight leash. The band had been setting a gruelling pace, releasing an album a year (two in 1972) and by the time they released Paradise Theater (if I end up writing theatre later it's because that's how we spell it here) in 1981 they'd dropped ten albums in less than a decade. I snapped this up as soon as I saw it, and it became a fixture on my turntable. Like the band had announced on "Borrowed Time" from 1979's Cornerstone , ...

David Baerwald - Bedtime Stories

The little sticker on the shrinkwrap says, "You may remember David Baerwald from David & David's Boomtown ..." You bet, I remembered David Baerwald. Back in 1986 Boomtown was an album with moments of sheer brilliance. The whole album may not have been as top shelf as the first few tracks, but that didn't matter - it is an excellent album. I waited for a follow-up ... and waited, and then in 1990 it was a solo David, David Baerwald, who dropped Bedtime Stories . I snapped it up. "All For You," the opening cut, is still my favourite song on the album. It was mesmerizing. I'm not sure if the song got any airplay, it may have, but that may have been wishful thinking on my part as it was on a lot of mix tapes at the time and I heard it a lot in the car. The CD had a great booklet with all of the musician credits and lyrics. Oddly, when I found a sealed copy of the record (a great score), it just had a plain paper insert - the picture of David walking wit...

Gary Numan - The Pleasure Principle

"Cars" was really the only song I knew by Gary Numan. I knew the name of the album the song came from. Over the years bits and pieces of trivia are accumulated, but in terms of his music it was still distilled down to one song ... It would be too easy to write Mr. Numan off as a one hit wonder, and I suppose in terms of actual chart hits this was his defining moment as a solo artist. Of course this really means nothing, as Gary Numan would drop an album a year pretty much through to the end of the '80s. He'd then slow down a little but continued to make music. While The Pleasure Principle was Gary Numan's debut solo release in '79, he actually cut his teeth on a couple of albums in a band called Tubeway Army, first with the band's self-titled release in 1978, and then on Replicas that came out in April of '79. By the end of Tubeway Army's run most of the band would follow Gary into his solo career. Paul Gardiner, who had been with Gary from the b...

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