Song#: 1133
Date: 08/07/1982
Debut: 82
Peak: 53
Weeks: 9
Genre: Pop, Adult Contemporary
Pop Bits: Larson's chart efforts after her 1978 hit "Lotta Love" (#8) didn't do much to promote her career. Besides a minor chart duet with Michael McDonald, 1980's "Let Me Go, Love" (#35), the singer just could not find a hit. For her album "All Dressed Up & No Place to Go," Larson tried a different tactic by releasing a cover version of an older hit (see below). It got her back on the chart, but unfortunately it fizzled outside of the Top 50. However, it did reach #15 at AC. The song would end up being her last pop chart entry and the album her last for Warner Bros. A tour with the stage show "Pump Boys and Dinettes" caught the attention of MCA Nashville and they signed her in 1983. Larson would have a few minor country chart entries with one of them, 1986's "That's How You Know When Love's Right" (a duet with Steve Wariner), hitting #9. Larson recorded two more albums before her death in 1997.
ReduxReview: Larson's rockin' version nicely updates this 60s classic. It's fun and she sings it with a lot of vigor. Larson had a great voice but I don't think she really had great material. She had a terrific debut album, but after that the songs kind of escaped her. Plus she seemed like one of those artists that may have been hard to market - is she pop? Rock? Singer/songwriter? Country? She was fortunate to get Neil Young's "Lotta Love" into the Top 10, but following that up proved to be a challenge. She deserved a bigger career.
ReduxRating: 6/10
Trivia: Double Shot! 1) It seemed those in Nashville were so geeked about Larson turning to country music that she won the Academy of Country Music award for Best New Female Vocalist a year before her first MCA Nashville recording was issue. 2) This is a remake of Dusty Springfield's 1964 debut single. Her original version reached #12. The song has hit the pop chart three other times besides Larson's version. The Bay City Rollers hit the same #12 as Springfield in 1976. The Tourists (with Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart of the Eurythmics) reached #83 in 1980 and later in 1989 Samantha Fox reached #31.
_________________________________________________________________________________
I completely agree with your analysis of Larson's career. Still, if you had to be a (sort of) one-hit wonder, you could do far worse than "Lotta Love." What a beautiful amalgam of singer/song/production. I was never a fan of Neil Young, but this was certainly one of his best compositions (along with his contribution to the "Philadelphia" soundtrack.)
ReplyDelete