Diana Ross

Artist: Diana Ross

LP: 7" single

Song: "Swept Away"

[ listen ]

A few weeks ago when I stopped by Daybreak Records in Fremont they were playing this 1984 Diana Ross song, and they were playing it loud. I hate to have to say it, but...I was swept away! Diana Ross is one of my favorite singers of the 1980s, but it seems like her hits from that decade have mostly been forgotten (guess how many of them I've heard on Seattle's two '80s radio stations over the past year. ZERO!), perhaps overshadowed by her spectacular earlier work with The Supremes. 

But I still remember Diana's cover of "Why Do Fools Fall In Love" (#7 in December of 1981) as one of the popular songs I liked most when I first began paying close attention to what was playing on the radio in early 1982...and then her campy follow-up single, "Mirror Mirror" (#8 in March of 1982), was even better! I had just missed out on basking in "Upside Down" and "I'm Coming Out" during their actual heyday, since they were hits for Ross in 1980 (#1 and #5 on the Billboard Hot 100, respectively), but I turned the radio volume knob a few notches higher whenever either of those came on. Oh, and speaking of camp, does anybody remember Diana's breathy hit called "Muscles" (#10 in November of 1982), written by Ross' good friend Michael Jackson? I Endlessly Love that song.

"Swept Away" was written and produced (so I just discovered) by Daryl Hall, of Hall & Oates fame. That's also Daryl on guitar for the zippy solo, and he's contributing his chords to the backing vocals too. The song only peaked at #19 (in October of 1984; the album's follow-up single, "Missing You," performed better, topping out at #10 on the Hot 100 in April of '85) but here tonight "Swept Away" is #1 on my singles chart. And I'm playing it loud. 

[ Diana Ross ]

Diamanda Galas

Artist: Diamanda Galas

LP: Saint of the Pit

Song: "E Ξeaóy Me"

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Happy Halloween, everyone! Unfortunately, like Halloween candy, you'll have to wait til the sun goes down to get the link. Sendspace isn't loading right now. I think today I'll dress up as a mailman.

 [ Diamanda Galas ]

Jade

Artist: Jade

LP: 12" single

Song: "I'm Gonna Get Your Love"
[ listen ]

I found this 1982 Canadian disco gem at Al's Music, Games and Video down in Federal Way after attending my Carrier Academy training for USPS on Friday. (We offer competitive prices on shipping! And have you seen our new George H.W. Bush 'Forever' Stamp?) Al's has moved a few blocks up the street to a new location since the last time I dropped by, but I forgot to snap a picture of their new place! I'll grab one on Thursday though, after my Promaster and 2-ton truck drivers' training that's also scheduled at the USPS headquarters down there. (I already learned how to drive the small trucks last week.)

Nancy Martinez, who recorded under the name Jade early on in her career, was born in Montreal, Quebec on August 26, 1960. She reportedly scored a number of disco hits (I'm not sure that "I'm Gonna Get Your Love" was one of them, though it certainly should have been), but Nancy has gone jazzy in more recent years. She has been described as, and I quote: "grounded" and "generous"..."radiating a good energy and strength of character." Nancy continues to perform today and also teaches music, as you can read for yourselves here. I'm hoping, likely in vain, that Nancy will one day suddenly reappear as Jade, with humongous feathery hair and a hot new single for the dance floor!

[ Jade — aka. Nancy Martinez ]

 

[ Al's Music, Games & Video — Federal Way, WA ]

Alma Cogan

Artist: Alma Cogan

LP: Alma Cogan

Song: "Tennessee Waltz"
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Song: "Ba-Ba Song"
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Song: "The Birds and the Bees"
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Alma Cogan used to post terrific mix tapes on the Art of the Mix website pretty frequently, but I had no idea this is what he looked like...and I certainly didn't know he'd been such a musical sensation in the British motherland in the 1950s! According to Wikipedia contributors, Alma enjoyed singing in lots of different languages, and on this particular collection he enjoys singing mostly in German.

[ Alma Cogan: May 19, 1932 — October 26, 1966 ]

Gene & Debbe

Artist: Gene & Debbe

LP: Hear & Now

Song: "Anyway You Want Me" 
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Song: "Love Will Give Us Wings" 
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Here are a couple tracks from a terrific 1968 LP by Gene Thomas and Debbe Nevills from Nashville, Tennessee. They perform in the vein of Nancy & Lee, but what I particularly admire about this duo is how Gene's restless, searching personality mixes with Debbe's pure simplicity and inner beauty to reaffirm the very laws of nature. Go hear to read about the pair on Wikipedia.

[ Gene Thomas & Debbe Nevills ]

Perennial

Artist: Perennial

EP: You're the Ones

Song: "Rock and Roll Evenings" 
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The derivative early '80s heavy metal band Perennial hailed from Seattle, which explains why they're screaming about "Rock and Roll Evenings" instead of "Rock and Roll Nights." Seattle is still known as a fairly sleepy town where residents go to bed pretty early. Perennial could have even gone so far as to call the track "Rock and Roll Brunch" and it would have made perfect sense around here.

According to the info on the back of their 1983 4-track EP, Perennial's manager, Redvers Watson, worked out of Edmonds, a suburb just north of Seattle. I tried in vain to track Redvers down today, mainly just to ask if they knew what brand of shampoo the group used to produce such stunning highlights. You can read a little about Perennial here, and I've included a video for "You're the Ones" below. It's uncanny in their video how much all four members of Perennial look exactly like Mrs. Welsh, my 4th grade teacher at Robertson Elementary. Except for the wardrobe, of course.

Perennial on YouTube:
[ "You're the Ones" ]

[ Perennial ]

Connie Hall

Artist: Connie Hall

LP: Country Songs

Song: "Daddy Doesn't Live Here Anymore" 
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Here's something nice for a cool, clear late September evening from a country cupcake called Connie Hall. Born in Walden, Kentucky in June of 1929, Connie had a short string of top 40 country hits between 1959 and 1963. Never quite cracking the top ten, her biggest hit was "Fool Me Once" which peaked at #14. She hasn't made any music during my lifetime as far as I can tell, but according to Wikipedia, she resides in the Louisville area today. So, Connie...time for a comeback? 

[ Connie Hall ]

Maureen McGovern

Artist: Maureen McGovern

LP: Nice To Be Around

Song: "Nice To Be Around" 
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Song: "Put a Little Love Away" 
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Maureen McGovern has one of those big, dramatic, fabulous singing voices just like her sprawling, exploding hairdo—it's perfectly suited to the big, dramatic, fabulous theme songs from gigantic disaster movies like THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE and THE TOWERING INFERNO, which is where she got her start. (McGovern's "The Morning After" from the famous 1972 sinking boat movie went to #1 on the charts and earned her a Grammy nomination as Best New Artist.) The title track on Maureen's 1974 "Nice To Be Around" LP peaked at #101 on the US singles charts, whereas another single from the album, "Give Me a Reason to Be Gone" peaked at #71. I learned all of this and more from the Maureen McGovern Wikipedia page here, and for even more info you can visit the official Maureen McGovern website here. 

I was perplexed at first why the Wikipedia entry made no mention of Maureen McGovern's lovely rendition of "Torn Between Two Lovers," from the 1979 film of the same name. But then of course I realized I was getting Maureen McGovern mixed up with Mary MacGregor—and I also began to realize how grateful I am that Marilyn McCoo, Marlee Matlin, Melissa Manchester, Mary McDonnell, Melba Moore and Marilyn Manson didn't each also release powerful theme songs to explosive '70s dramas or I'd never have been able to sort out whose which was what.

Mari Wilson

Artist: Mari Wilson

LP: Showpeople

Song: "Just What I Always Wanted" 
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Song: "Wonderful To Be With" 
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I was hoping to post something cheery and springlike this afternoon to celebrate such a warm and sunny day in Seattle (it was glorious!)—little did I realize it would nearly be tomorrow by the time I finished editing the gazillions of photos included on this wonderful (and cheery and springlike) 1983 Mari Wilson LP. I remember reading about Mari Wilson and seeing her hair in one of my issues of Star Hits magazine, but her songs never got much airplay in the USA—not in Yakima, Washington, anyway. The songs from "Showpeople," Mari's only album released in the 1980s, hold up remarkably well today. (un?)Fortunately, Mari isn't one of those obscure '80s artists who have been suddenly resurrected by contemporary youth, who then ruin their music by playing it to death, pretending they've been into it all along. That said, doesn't "Just What I Always Wanted" totally seem ripe for overuse as fodder for car commercials? You can read about Mari Wilson on Wikipedia here and go here to find her 2015 UK tour dates and to see what other things she's been up to lately.

[ Mari Wilson in 2014—still glamorous without the hive. ]