Search - Highway 101 :: Bing Bang Boom

First album without Paulette

Peter Durward Harris | Leicester England | 03/19/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"We all had our doubts about the future of Highway 101 following the departure of their lead singer. As things turned out, it was a disaster in commercial terms but they did their best. Paulette's replacement was Nikki Nelson, a bubbly lady with a great singing voice. Whereas Paulette's voice was husky, Nikki's was smooth. Nikki was with Highway 101 for two albums. Both, to my ears, are of a high quality and sit proudly alongside the other Highway 101 albums I own.The big hits from this album were the title track (an upbeat, fun song) and The blame (a reflective ballad), which both just made the country top ten. A third single, Honky tonk baby, made the country top thirty. The one that got away is Restless kind - this was later covered, first by Trisha Yearwood then by Travis Tritt.Another outstanding song, Wherever you are, was recorded at around the same time by Joy White, a brilliant singer who never made the big time but made some great music. There is one real oldie here, a cover of the Tammy Wynette classic, Till I get it right. I note that Trisha included a cover of this song on the same album (Thinking about you) as Restless kind - I suspect that she may have enjoyed this album.The other songs - Storm of love, Baby I'm missing you, Desperate and Big city bound - are all excellent.If you enjoy Highway 101's more famous music with Paulette, you'll love this too."