Nicolette Larson - Nicolette

I'll admit that this kind of music wasn't my cup of tea back when I was a teenager. It was generally balls to the wall rock or nothing ... unless it was a power ballad. Of course even back in '78 you'd have had to be living under a rock, with a rock on top of it not to have heard Nicolette's version of "Lotta Love" when it came out. It was a slick syrupy masterclass in soft rock ... the song was a big deal and it pulled the album along with it, peaking at #15 in the States, and #1 here in Canada. The album would go gold in both markets. It was a strong debut.

This was all I knew about Nicolette Larson. I was okay with that.

Then a couple of years ago right around the time Eddie Van Halen passed away there was a rash of Edward stories. There were more than a few about Ed's turn as soloist on Michael Jackson's "Beat It" and people were talking about it like it was the only time Eddie had played outside of Van Halen. I knew he had been on other albums but that was later. Steve Lukather's first solo album (which is awesome), and he played bass on Sammy's album I Never Said Goodbye back in '87. I have to say my favourite guest spot was back in '92 when Eddie was on a couple songs on Thomas Dolby's criminally underrated album Astronauts & Heretics. "Close but no Cigar" should have been huge. It wasn't even close, and there was no cigar. However, the first time Eddie went outside the band was likely around the same time their debut dropped. It was probably a casual suggestion from Ted Templeman or Donn Landee who had worked with Van Halen and were now working with Nicolette. Eddie appeared on "Can't Get Away from You" playing lead guitar. To add to the mystery, Ed's part was credited to "?" on the back cover. I was curious so I went out and bought a download of the song, and sure enough it was a decent tune, and Ed's work was vintage, full of big bends and swagger - no tapping, but it was tasty.

Then a while back while I was rooting through the bargain bins I saw a copy of the album, but I passed. It wasn't in great shape, and I was starting to be a little picky with the stuff I was bringing home. Not that I didn't want it ... I was running out of space and I was trying to be a little more discerning. A short time later I found a great looking copy on sale for a couple of bucks and this time I couldn't pass it up.

I'll figure the space thing out when the time comes ...

Here was Nicolette's debut record, and the lead single "Lotta Love" was written by Neil Young. Both Neil and Nicolette would release the song, but only one released it as a single. Nicolette's version dropped first, and then a month later Neil released Comes a Time, which included his take on the song. Nicolette would be featured on a number of tracks on Neil's album either singing backing or harmony vocals. There's a wonderful "demo" out there of David Lee Roth and Michael Anthony singing "Gonna take a lotta drugs" over the backing track ... who knows what shenanigans were going on. It is pretty funny though. Maybe that's why Ed played on the album as a way of saying "Sorry about that, you know how Dave is..."

Nicolette is a really strong album and covers a lot of ground. Much more than I expected. I know I had sort of pigeonholed her based on the only song I knew. Her cover of Sam Cooke's "You Send Me" was in the same vein as "Lotta Love" and then she veers into country and light pop and even rock.

Ted Templeman and Donn Landee were a great team, and this is a rich sounding album. It was fun reading through the credits and seeing so many familiar names. It was a sort of who's who of the best musicians around. Klaus Voorman played bass, as did Bob Glaub who handled most of the bottom end on the album. Albert Lee was on a couple songs, and Paul Barrere from Little Feat handled most of the guitar work. Heck, Michael McDonald and Linda Ronstadt provided some backing vocals, and the strings were arranged by Jimmie Haskell. There was some effort put into making this sound great.

There are some real standouts here. One of my favourites is a simple acoustic song called "Angels Rejoiced" where she duets with Herb Pedersen, who also played acoustic guitar on a number of the songs and Albert Lee plays the mandolin solo. It's a delightful album, and a really pleasant surprise. Given my recent appreciation for Linda Ronstadt and Karla Bonoff, Nicolette fits in there quite nicely. It's strange that she wasn't bigger. Yes, I know her debut would go gold, which is a pretty big deal, but from a commercial perspective her debut would be her high water mark.

Sadly she would pass away at the age of 45 in 1997..