Tryin' to Get the Feeling Review by Joe Viglione [-] Esquivel / Ferrante and Teicher / Elephant's Memory / Space Age Bachelor Pad Music

 Tryin' to Get the Feeling Review by Joe Viglione [-]   it was considered muzak, elevator music, and decades later became cool as Space Age Bachelor Pad, would never have imagined that growing up

https://www.allmusic.com/album/tryin-to-get-the-feeling-mw0000190889 Tryin' to Get the Feeling Review by Joe Viglione [-]

Barry Manilow made it to number one again during his first year as a hit artist with a rendition of Beach Boy Bruce Johnston's "I Write the Songs," beating out covers by David Cassidy and Captain and Tennille (who also released a version in Spanish). The modernized (read: no distortion) take-off on Phil Spector's Wall of Sound was what made "Mandy" so very special, and it came back to work here; Manilow sings with a seriousness on "I Write the Songs" that is as determined as his voice is on the title track, David Pomeranz' "Tryin' to Get the Feeling Again." Both titles are light years beyond the rest of the album, even including Bruce Sussman and Barry's reworking of the American Bandstand theme. Like the Four Seasons before him, Barry Manilow is known for his ability to take a song up the charts; the album tracks are secondary and reserved for his most devoted followers. This quest for chart supremacy had a formidable team pooling their talents. It was co-produced by the star and Archies' lead singer Ron Dante, while Bette Midler, Miles Laurie, and Dick Fox are thanked for showing Manilow "Tryin' to Get the Feeling Again." Peter Thom and Phil Galdston's "Why Don't We Live Together" is nice enough, but indicative of the near-miss compositions Manilow himself contributes -- "She's a Star," "You're Leavin' Too Soon" and "A Nice Boy Like Me" -- that might have gotten some Top 40 action due to Manilow's momentum, but without the staying power of the established hits. At least the co-write with Adrienne Anderson, "As Sure as I'm Standin' Here," has a bit of a future, with the David Pomeranz/Manilow hit, "The Old Songs," something to look forward to. The problem with Barry Manilow is also his strength -- that he skillfully mixes Johnny Mathis' adult contemporary charm with Liberace's flamboyance. Both Mathis and Liberace knew how to reign in the excesses, while Barry could care less -- and he doesn't have to. By the same token, his fan base might be more prone to spinning Ultimate Manilow and avoiding the few rough spots of this album. [The CD version contains an extra title, Stephen Sondheim's "Marry Me a Little."]

 

 

 

See It In Sound Review

 

by Joe Viglione

  [-]  https://www.allmusic.com/album/see-it-in-sound-mw0000668167

Sam Wick's dense four pages of liner notes to Esquivel's See It in Sound album provide a window to this fascinating kaleidoscope of intonation which, shockingly, RCA Records refused to release after it was recorded in Hollywood in May of 1960. In order to be objective one has to take oneself away from the cult who adore Esquivel's work and just hear this magical adventure away from the rhetoric and judge it on its own merits. The verdict: See It in Sound is a vibrant and tremendously creative artistic achievement. Keep in mind, just five years prior to this, RCA Records released Don Charles' the Singing Dogs -- and went Top 25 with "Oh! Susanna." Understand? The record company released "Dolly," "Pearl," "Caesar," and "King" barking on a record but, as the liner notes explain, See It in Sound was..."just way too bizarre for the brass of RCA." That being said, perhaps Lou Reed got payback for Esquivel by forcing that label to release four sides of Metal Machine Music. The "dextrorotory components" of Lou's vision turned to sound was a supreme joke played on the record label that inhibited the release of See It in Sound. The textures and depth of See It in Sound must have been a joyful banquet for mastering engineer Bill Lacey (conversely, Reed gives special thanks to Bob Ludwig for mastering Metal Machine Music, no doubt thanks for allowing him to torture the guy). There's such an ocean of delightful real life sounds mixed in with music that the 39 minutes plus available here seems a lot longer than it is. When not having the disc provide background sounds and tuning in to the project, one gets lost in the wonder of it all. Originally produced by Neely Plumb -- and the question is how does one produce a project like this? -- the new compilation was produced by Paul Williams, who also did the tape research. All the dates of the original recordings are next to the songs, as well as the serial numbers, and all this material is previously unreleased. This 1999 release of music recorded 39 years earlier is as inspiring as it is entertaining. After hearing the disc multiple times the listener still doesn't have a complete handle on it, and perhaps never will! But one knows when one likes something, and this is very likeable, and will no-doubt get stuck in the CD player for hundreds of spins. As Jerry Goldsmith's brilliant soundtrack work on the original Planet of the Apes film pushed the limits, the music and sounds here intertwine and delight nonstop. A revelation.

 

Getting Together Review

 

by Joe Viglione

  [-]

On Getting Together, Louis Teicher and Art Ferrante go back to movie themes and show tunes as well as popular songs that Bob Crewe and others were bringing to life on the airwaves. In doing so they hit a home run with this LP. Getting Together is just the album title, so don't expect a cover of the Tommy James & the Shondells' hit of the same name, or the different tunes called "Getting Together" released by Bobby Sherman and Charles Mingus. Recorded at National Sound with production by Dr. George Butler, the boys bring back that "water guitar" found on the Box Tops "Cried Like a Baby," and their own "Midnight Cowboy," giving it to the Bob Dylan cover "Lay Lady Lay." A strange mix of their eclectic, experimental side melting into commercial glitz makes for an interesting combination. They churned out so much product at this point in time that their creativity sometimes took a back seat to giving the people what they want. Art and Lou successfully merge the two concepts on this collection, a terrific instrumental version of George Harrison's "Something" segues into a rendition of "Hair" that has no hint of the Cowsills frivolity. The Toys get a nod with the duo's play on Bach, calling it "A Familiar Concerto," leaving songwriters Sandy Linzer and Denny Randell out in the cold in regards to their version of Johann Sebastian's pop hit. Art & Lou take all the credit with "Arranged by Ferrante & Teicher" giving them the royalties. "Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head" has no personality, the pianos play cute against strings that would be happy in any elevator car. The arpeggios and interesting production return with "Good Morning Starshine"; here they allow unfolding sounds to play with the speakers, as did Bob Crewe's production of Oliver in 1969. The traditional and eternal favorite, "Colonel Bogie March," concludes an LP with material as diverse as John Denver's "Leaving On a Jet Plane" and Roger McGuinn's "Ballad of Easy Rider," the latter getting surprise vocals as if half of the Ray Conniff Singers showed up for a cameo. When Ferrante & Teicher experiment they are superb, and when they go through the motions they are a fine middle-of-the-road juke box. This LP goes back and forth on both sides of the stick.

 Elephant's Memory

https://rockasteria.blogspot.com/2016_12_18_archive.html

After original vocalist Carly Simon left Elephant's Memory for her own fame and fortune, the band recorded their self-titled Buddah debut, Elephant's Memory, with Michal Shapiro handling the female lead. That disc is not their John Lennon/Yoko Ono/David Peel Apple Records debut from 1972, which was also named after this ensemble. When two Elephant's Memory songs from the 1969 Buddah Records album appeared in the Capitol Records soundtrack to the film Midnight Cowboy, Buddah vice president Neil Bogart revamped and re-released the original LP, most likely and understandably, to cash in on the attention the band was getting from the hit film. "Old Man Willow" and "Jungle Gym at the Zoo" from the first LP appeared in Midnight Cowboy, and they show up again on side one of this disc along with a different spin on the Nilsson hit "Everybody's Talkin'."

Here Michal Shapiro gives a woman's take on the classic Fred Neil composition over a poppy/folksy Wes Farrell production. There's a strange instrumental version of John Barry's theme to "Midnight Cowboy," jazzy rock with a female vocal, most likely Michal, adding a nice eerie resonance to the spirited and jumpy rendition, a far cry from the version that contained Vinny Bell's elegant guitar, the Top Ten hit for Ferrante & Teicher in 1969. The two new titles as well as the Elephant's Memory material from the movie make up side one. Side two contains seven more titles from the first LP, including the singles that were released from that disc, "Crossroads of the Stepping Stones" and "Don't Put Me on Trial," two excellent slices of '60s pop. Over 40 minutes of music graces Songs From Midnight Cowboy Plus Their Hit Singles, the two new titles plus everything from the Buddah debut minus the songs "Band of Love" and "Hot Dog Man" (which was the flip of the 45 rpm "Jungle Gym at the Zoo"). 

The album could have been even more interesting had their 45 rpm "Keep Free, Pts. 1 & 2" from November 1968 found its way onboard rather than the reissue of "Yogurt Song," a composition from keyboardist Richard Sussman and drummer Rick Frank which sounds like a Frank Zappa nightmare. Other than that, the album actually is quite consistent and is lots of fun. Later releases Take It to the Streets and Angels Forever don't have the pop meets psychedelia underground feel of this neo-bubblegum period piece. 

by Joe Viglione