Top 10 Alert!
Song#: 3593
Date: 07/23/1988
Debut: 72
Peak: 4
Weeks: 18
Genre: Soft Rock
Pop Bits: After leaving the band Chicago, Cetera recorded his second solo LP Solitude/Solitaire. It would be a #23 platinum seller thanks to a pair of #1 hits including his duet with Amy Grant "The Next Time I Fall." A couple of years after that success, Cetera was ready to released his follow-up album One More Story. For this effort, Cetera would work closely with songwriter/producer Patrick Leonard. The pair would co-write eight of the LP's ten tracks including this lead-off single. It would do quite well at AC reaching #1 while becoming Cetera's third Pop Top 10 after leaving Chicago. The hit helped Cetera's album get to #58, but it would fail to reach the gold level sales mark.
ReduxReview: Cetera's two big solo hits were ballads. He had yet to score with an uptempo tune and he really needed one so as to not get pigeonholed as a crooner, especially after witnessing his old band Chicago getting caught in a power ballad trap. Luckily, this song provided him the opportunity to present something different and it worked out well. It was a solid soft rock track written by Cetera and Leonard that in a more horn-oriented arrangement could have been a good hit for Chicago. That familiarity along with Cetera being popular at the time helped the song up the chart. I wasn't all that impressed with Cetera at the time, so I didn't pay much attention to this tune. These days I recognize that it was a good, hit-worthy track. Oddly, I don't think I've heard this song since its initial run. Cetera's ballad hits continue to overshadow it.
ReduxRating: 7/10
Trivia: Patrick Leonard's reputation as a hit making songwriter/producer was on the rise at the time thanks to his work with Madonna. He co-wrote/co-produced several tracks for Madonna' 1986 True Blue album along with songs for her soundtrack to the movie Who's That Girl. Along the way he also worked with Bryan Ferry, Pink Floyd, Carly Simon, and Kenny Loggins. Around the time that Leonard was working with Cetera, he was also starting to collaborate with Madonna on songs for her next album Like a Prayer. That connection led to Madonna making a guest appearance on Cetera's album. She would provide the backing vocals for the song "Scheherazade." However, Madonna chose not to be credited under her own name for the work. Instead, she use the pseudonym of Lulu Smith. While the exact reason for her doing this isn't really known, typically big stars will do this so as to not take away the spotlight from the main artist or they just want to lend a helping hand without causing a big fuss. Prince did this a lot with his songwriting credits. Still, it didn't take long for folks to figure out that the voice was Madonna's, especially thanks to the Patrick Leonard connection.
_________________________________________________________________________________
No comments:
Post a Comment