The Perfect Title For An Album
SometimesYouJustKnow | Anchorage, AK United States | 06/24/2009
(5 out of 5 stars)
"As I've said before in my earlier reviews, this has been a lot fun to
finally be able to go back all these years later and review some of these classic Sylvia albums.
This is one of my all-time favorites. In fact, I was listening to the
cassette of it in my car yesterday.
I remember so clearly... it was the spring of 1984 and my grandma and I
had just returned from our road trip visiting family down in
Washington, Oregon, and California. I'd not been keeping up with
magazine articles, television, or media of any kind for a couple weeks.
Anyhow, it was good to be back home in Alaska. I remember calling my
favorite radio station and talked to my friend Bill there. I asked if he
had any new music news on Sylvia. His reply was upsetting to me,
because he told me that Sylvia had a new single release ("Victims Of
Goodbye"), but they were not playing it because it was "not country".
(Which probably explains why the song only reached #24 on the country
charts).
I immediately went down to my favorite record store. I asked my friend,
store manager Susan, if Sylvia had a new album. She said, "yes" and
walked me right over to the bin. WOW! Was I surprised (fitting title) to
see that black and white photo of Sylvia sporting a new shorter hair
style. They couldn't have picked a better title for the album in my
opinion. I was very surprised!
I brought it home, put in on the record player. The first few seconds of
the first track, "Give 'Em Rhythm" pulled me right in and instantly
became one of my most favorite songs on the album. As I listened to each
track, I knew once again Sylvia didn't disappoint. Her singing is as
sweet, clear and beautiful as ever. The production is so lush and
polished to perfection. Something that did come to my mind... I thought
perhaps it would have been nice to have a couple more up-tempo songs on
it to balance it out better. Also, perhaps a couple of the tracks could
have been in a little different sequence.
For some reason in my younger days, I just preferred up-tempo songs over
ballads. But I've changed over the years. Now I like a good balance of
both.
Back then, the tracks that stood out as my favorites... "One Foot on the
Street", "It's Still There", "Victims Of Goodbye", "Love Over Old
Times", Isn't It Always Love, and of course the forementioned, "Give 'Em
Rhythm".
All these years later, I still love and appreciate those. But the track
that I just can't get enough of, is... "On The Other Side of Midnight". I
feel it would have made a great single and video. It has that kind of
style, I think would be great for country radio, with huge cross-over
potential. Especially on the Adult Contemporary charts.
Commercially, this album, the last to be produced by Tom Collins, peaked
at a sad #40 and was on the chart for only 13 weeks. It unfortunately
didn't produce any Top 10 hits. I've actually been told that it sold the
least amount of copies out of all of Sylvia's RCA studio albums. I guess
that was the way it was meant to be. But sometimes I can't help but
think of other possible outcomes.
For instance, had RCA chose either "Give 'Em Rhythm", or "On The Other Side of Midnight" as the first single and music video, things may have turned out completely different sales-wise.
"
