Top 10 Alert!
Song#: 3709
Date: 11/05/1988
Debut: 90
Peak: 6
Weeks: 21
Genre: Pop
Pop Bits: Having a multi-platinum #1 debut album along with a pair of #1 hits could certainly be a lot for an artist to handle. Instant success along with all the publicity and fame can be a lot to take in for anyone, but for a teenager like Tiffany, it was even more difficult since she was not quite an of-age adult and had others in charge of her career. Between her manager/producer George Tobin and her own mother, Tiffany had plenty of behind-the-scenes issues that perhaps negated some of her success. Despite those problems, Tiffany had to soldier on and she got back into the studio with Tobin to work on a second album. Titled Hold an Old Friend's Hand, the LP would get kicked off with this first single. The mid-tempo ballad got off to a bit of a slow start, but eventually it would do well enough to become her fourth Pop Top 10 single. It also reached #10 AC. While it wasn't a huge hit, it was enough to draw fans to the album and it would reach #17 and quickly go platinum. Unfortunately, this single would prove to be her last to reach the Pop Top 10.
ReduxReview: I had totally forgotten about this song. I actually didn't even remember that it made the Top 10. I don't think I've heard this song since way back when it was on the chart. It kind of hit and then disappeared. Hearing it now, it's not a bad little tune. It was an age appropriate ballad that fit in with Tiffany's bubblepop sound. The album also tried to move Tiffany in a slightly more mature direction and in some ways it succeeded. Where it failed was that it didn't contain any surefire hits. Producer Tobin just didn't secure the right tracks to keep Tiffany going on the charts. After the success of her debut LP, it seems like he'd have access to a pool of better songs and songwriters, but perhaps that wasn't the case. What we were left with was this lone Top 10 from the album that was quickly forgotten.
ReduxRating: 6/10
Trivia: The last track on Hold and Old Friend's Hand was a bit odd. Titled "Overture," it was an instrumental guitar tune that was made of melodies from songs on the album. It was performed by Grant Geissman. The jazz guitarist had been a member of Chuck Mangione's band in the late 70s and it is his guitar solo that is heard on Mangione's 1978 #4 instrumental hit "Feels So Good." Geissman worked with other jazz artists while also maintaining his own solo career. He also did session work and one of those jobs was to perform "Overture" for Tiffany's album. There were couple of things that made the track odd (besides being titled "Overture" yet appearing at the end of the album). First, it was an acoustic instrumental appearing on a bubblegum pop album. It just didn't fit. Second, and perhaps most importantly, Tiffany had nothing to do with the tune. It seems like producer Tobin thought the LP needed an extra short track of some kind to close the album and got the instrumental assembled and recorded.
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