The Music Of The 80s - Favorites, Classics And Rarities

[hitman531ph]

THE BLUE NILE

 

The Scottish folk-ambient band the Blue Nile has enjoyed a mystique contrived by its inaccessibility and the infrequency of its recordings, but it has also made a series of critically acclaimed discs. The group was formed by three Glasgow natives who had graduated from university there: singer/songwriter/guitarist Paul Buchanan, bassist Robert Bell, and keyboardist Paul Joseph Moore. (Engineer Callum Malcolm and drummer Nigel Thomas have worked with the trio consistently, to the point of being considered secondary bandmembers.) (The Blue Nile is the title of Alan Moorehead's 1962 sequel to The White Nile, the two books making up a history of the Nile River.) They recorded their own single, "I Love This Life," which was distributed by Robert Stigwood's RSO Records just before the company closed its doors. They were then signed by Linn Products, which released their debut album, A Walk Across the Rooftops, in 1984. (A&M handled it in the U.S.) Since the company was small and the band did not tour, the album took some time to find its audience, though it briefly reached the U.K. charts and led to high expectations for a second album. This came in 1989 with Hats, which reached the British Top 20, throwing off three chart singles, "The Downtown Lights," "Headlights on the Parade," and "Saturday Night." The album also made the lower reaches of the American charts as the Blue Nile embarked on its first tour, a 30-date journey taking place in the British Isles and the U.S. In the ensuing years, the band members switched record labels, signing to Warner Bros., and contributed to recordings by Robbie Robertson and Julian Lennon. They finally emerged with their third album, Peace at Last, in June 1996. Another critically acclaimed release, it placed in the U.K. Top 20, but failed to chart in the U.S.

 

Their song "Stay" from the Walk Across the Rooftops album was a hit in the Philippines. That same song was remade in 1988 by a New York folk-alternative band called Grace Pool.

[hitman531ph]

GRACE POOL

 

Although critics generally had nice things to say about upstate New York alterna-folkies Grace Pool, the quartet was done a disservice by the immediate and myopic comparison to 10,000 Maniacs that invariably showed up somewhere in every feature and review. With their shared home, the largely acoustic instrumentation, and the fact that both bands had female lead singers, Grace Pool and 10,000 Maniacs had almost nothing at all in common. In many ways, Grace Pool was the superior act, as Elly Brown's lyrics avoided the preciousness of Natalie Merchant's, and Bob Riley's keyboard-heavy songs were more atmospheric and abstract than the genial guitar pop melodicism of 10,000 Maniacs.

 

An early version of Grace Pool (obscurely named after a minor character in Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre) formed in 1983, but Riley temporarily put the project on hold when he joined Hoboken's Rage to Live. When Riley left that band after their first album, he and Brown hooked back up and re-formed Grace Pool in New York City. Drummer Frank Vilardi, guitarist Terry Radigan, and keyboardist Cliff Carter joined the duo, who signed to the newly re-activated Reprise label and released a self-titled debut in 1988. Although it garnered respectful reviews, the album did not sell particularly well. Radigan and Carter were replaced by guitarist Beki Brindle and keyboardist Andy Burton; Brindle's vaguely Chicago-style playing and Burton's fondness for the vintage organ sound of a Hammond B-3 made 1990's Where We Live a somewhat earthier listen that better supported Brown's increasingly bluesy vocal style. Sadly, this record followed on the debut's path to obscurity, and Reprise dropped the group in 1991. Grace Pool broke up the following year.

[Notebook]

May Hall & Oates na ba dito? How about George Duke, Stanley Clarke, Michael Mcdonald and George Benson?

[hitman531ph]

May Hall & Oates na ba dito? How about George Duke, Stanley Clarke, Michael Mcdonald and George Benson?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

YUP!! They're all here in this thread. Try to backread

[hitman531ph]

EDDIE MURPHY

 

Like Bill Cosby and Richard Pryor before him, Eddie Murphy was the preeminent African-American comic of his era; in fact, Murphy was arguably the preeminent comic of the 1980s, period -- at his peak, no other performer, regardless of race, was a bigger star or a more audacious talent. Combining Pryor's viciously acute observational gifts and love of obscenities with Cosby's undeniable mainstream appeal, Murphy quickly leaped from clubs to television to film -- even finding success as a serious pop singer -- on the way to establishing himself as the most wildly popular comedian since the heyday of Steve Martin.

 

Edward Regan Murphy was born April 3, 1961, in Hempstead, NY. By his mid-teens he was already working as a professional stand-up in Long Island clubs; by the age of 17, he was performing at Manhattan's famed Comic Strip and soon mounted a club tour of the East Coast. In 1980 his precocious talent won him a recurring gig as a featured performer on Saturday Night Live; at the moment, the comedy institution was suffering one of its frequent dry spells, and Murphy quickly established himself as its breakout star, graduating to full-time cast member status on the strength of memorable riffs on the Claymation hero Gumby and Our Gang character Buckwheat as well as creations like street pimp Velvet Jones and Mr. Robinson, a ghetto counterpart to Mr. Rogers.

 

In 1982, Murphy issued his debut comedy album, a self-titled live effort which drew fire for its controversial portrayal of the Asian community and misogynistic overtones as well as "Faggots," the first of many homophobic routines which ultimately resulted in a boycott call from the gay community. That same year he made his feature debut co-starring with Nick Nolte in the buddy comedy 48 Hrs.; the film was a major success, and at the age of just 21 Murphy was a Hollywood superstar, with a 15-million-dollar deal with Paramount Pictures as his reward.

 

The Delirious concert tour followed in 1983; recorded at a sold-out August performance, the LP Eddie Murphy: Comedian reached the Top 40 while his second feature, Trading Places, emerged as the year's highest-grossing film. A small role in 1984's disastrous Best Defense was Murphy's first misstep, but a year later he returned with Beverly Hills Cop, one of the most successful pictures in box-office history. Also in 1985 he teamed with producer Rick James to record How Could It Be, a straightforward R&B album which spawned the mammoth hit single "Party All the Time."

 

Murphy was the hottest actor in Hollywood when he signed on for the 1986 quasi-mystical action comedy The Golden Child; the film was a commercial and critical bomb, and for the first time his star power was in question. While 1987's Beverly Hills Cop II stood as the year's biggest blockbuster and restored much of his career's luster, the aptly titled concert film Raw drew considerable heat for its abrasive, politically incorrect ranting. After 1988's Coming to America raked in the revenue, Murphy wrote, directed, and starred in 1989's Harlem Nights, a black gangster tale which performed miserably and took a massive critical drubbing.

 

Following the Harlem Nights debacle, he agreed to reunite in 1990 with Nick Nolte in Another 48 Hrs. When it too bombed, Murphy's career bottomed out; neither of his 1992 efforts, Boomerang and The Distinguished Gentleman, performed as well as his earlier hits, the 1993 LP Love's Alright failed to chart, and even 1994's seeming sure thing Beverly Hills Cop III tanked. After 1995's Vampire in Brooklyn, an ill-advised horror comedy, he starred in a hit remake of Jerry Lewis' The Nutty Professor in 1996, but in the early weeks of the following year the action-adventure fiasco Metro took a nosedive.

[hitman531ph]

GEORGE DUKE

 

George Duke showed a great deal of promise early in his career as a jazz pianist and keyboardist, but has forsaken that form to be a pop producer. Inspired early on by Les McCann, he worked with a trio in San Francisco during the mid-'60s. In 1969, Duke accompanied Jean-Luc Ponty, recording with the violinist. After eight months with Don Ellis' Orchestra, he joined Frank Zappa for much of 1970. Duke spent 1971-1972 with Cannonball Adderley and then returned to Zappa for 1973-1975. In 1975, he worked with Sonny Rollins, co-led a group with Billy Cobham, and then formed a funk band (the Clarke-Duke Project) with Stanley Clarke. By the late '70s, he was completely outside of jazz, playing R&B and producing projects for pop artists. Although he has since expressed interest in returning to active playing, little of George Duke's post-1976 work is relevant to jazz.

 

In 1981, the Clarke-Duke Project scored a big hit called "Sweet Baby"

[hitman531ph]

STANLEY CLARKE

 

A brilliant player on both acoustic and electric basses, Stanley Clarke has spent much of his career outside of jazz, although he has the ability to play jazz with the very best. He played accordion as a youth, switching to violin and cello before settling on bass. He worked with R&B and rock bands in high school, but after moving to New York, he worked with Pharoah Sanders in the early '70s. Other early gigs were with Gil Evans, Mel Lewis, Horace Silver, Stan Getz, Dexter Gordon, and Art Blakey; everyone was impressed by his talents. However, Clarke really hit the big time when he started teaming up with Chick Corea in Return to Forever. When the group became a rock-oriented fusion quartet, Clarke mostly emphasized electric bass and became an influential force, preceding Jaco Pastorius. But, starting with his School Days album (1976), and continuing through his funk group with George Duke (the Clarke/Duke Project), up to his projects writing movie scores, Stanley Clarke largely moved beyond the jazz world into commercial music; his 1988 Portrait album If This Bass Could Only Talk, and his 1995 collaboration with Jean Luc Ponty and Al DiMeola on the acoustic The Rite of Strings, are two of his few jazz recordings since the '70s.

[hitman531ph]

GEORGE BENSON

 

George Benson is simply one of the greatest guitarists in jazz history, but he is also an amazingly versatile musician; and that frustrates critics to no end who would paint him into a narrow bop box. He can play in just about any style -- from swing to bop to R&B to pop -- with supreme taste, a beautiful rounded tone, terrific speed, a marvelous sense of logic in building solos, and, always, an unquenchable urge to swing. His inspirations may have been Charlie Christian and Wes Montgomery -- and he can do dead-on impressions of both -- but his style is completely his own. Not only can he play lead brilliantly, he is also one of the best rhythm guitarists around, supportive to soloists and a dangerous swinger, particularly in a soul-jazz format. Yet Benson can also sing in a lush soulful tenor with mannerisms similar to those of Stevie Wonder and Donny Hathaway; and it is his voice that has proved to be more marketable to the public than his guitar. Benson is the guitar-playing equivalent of Nat "King" Cole -- a fantastic pianist whose smooth way with a pop vocal eventually eclipsed his instrumental prowess in the marketplace -- but unlike Cole, Benson has been granted enough time after his fling with the pop charts to reaffirm his jazz guitar credentials, which he still does at his concerts.

 

Benson actually started out professionally as a singer, performing in nightclubs at eight, recording four sides for RCA's X label in 1954, forming a rock band at 17 while using a guitar that his stepfather made for him. Exposure to records by Christian, Montgomery, and Charlie Parker got him interested in jazz, and by 1962, the teenaged Benson was playing in Brother Jack McDuff's band. After forming his own group in 1965, Benson became another of talent scout John Hammond's major discoveries, recording two highly regarded albums of soul-jazz and hard bop for Columbia and turning up on several records by others, including Miles Davis' Miles in the Sky. He switched to Verve in 1967, and, shortly after the death of Montgomery in June 1968, producer Creed Taylor began recording Benson with larger ensembles on A&M (1968-1969) and big groups and all-star combos on CTI (1971-1976).

 

While the A&M and CTI albums certainly earned their keep and made Benson a guitar star in the jazz world, the mass market didn't catch on until he began to emphasize vocals after signing with Warner Bros. in 1976. His first album for Warner Bros., Breezin', became a Top Ten hit on the strength of its sole vocal track, "This Masquerade," and this led to a string of hit albums in an R&B-flavored pop mode, culminating with the Quincy Jones-produced Give Me the Night. As the '80s wore on, though, Benson's albums became riddled with commercial formulas and inferior material, with his guitar almost entirely relegated to the background. Perhaps aware of the futility of chasing the charts (after all, "This Masquerade" was a lucky accident), Benson reversed his field late in the '80s to record a fine album of standards, Tenderly, and another with the Basie band, his guitar now featured more prominently. His pop-flavored work also improved noticeably in the '90s. Benson retains the ability to spring surprises on his fans and critics, like his dazzlingly idiomatic TV appearance and subsequent record date with Benny Goodman in 1975 in honor of John Hammond, and his awesome command of the moment at several Playboy Jazz Festivals in the 1980s. His latter-day recordings include the 1998 effort Standing Together and 2000's Absolute Benson. All Blues appeared in spring 2001 followed by Irreplaceable in 2004.

[hitman531ph]

DAVID BENOIT

 

One of the more popular performers in the idiom somewhat inaccurately called "contemporary jazz," David Benoit has mostly performed light melodic background music, what critic Alex Henderson has dubbed "new age with a beat." Benoit has done a few fine jazz projects (including a tribute to Bill Evans and a collaboration with Emily Remler) but most of his output for GRP has been aimed clearly at the charts. He studied composition and piano at El Camino College and, in 1975, played on the soundtrack of the film Nashville. After recording with Alphonse Mouzon and accompanying singer Gloria Lynne, he was signed to the AVI label when he was 24, recording sets that paved the way toward his later output. Benoit has been been a solo artist for GRP since 1986. Albums like 1989's Waiting for Spring and 1999's Professional Dreamer showcase his smooth, lyrical style, while projects like his 2000 tribute to Vince Guaraldi's Peanuts scores, Here's to You, Charlie Brown: 50 Great Years, demonstrate where his own tastes lie. A decade after their first joint venture, Benoit and Russ Freeman collaborated on Benoit/Freeman Project II, released by Peak in 2004.

[hitman531ph]

THE DEELE

 

The Deele are best-known as the group that brought Babyface (b. Kenny Edmonds) and L.A. Reid (b. Mark Rooney) to prominence. Based in Indianapolis, IN, Bobby G. Summers and L.A. Reid formed the Deele in the early '80s with lead vocalist Carlos "Satin" Greene, Darnell "Dee" Bristol, Stanley Burke, and Kevin Roberson. Prior to joining the Deele Babyface had been a member of Manchild, who had a minor R&B hit with "Especially for You" in 1977.

 

The Deele had their first hit in late 1983, when "Body Talk" began climbing the R&B charts. Though the song only reached 77 on the pop charts, it reached number three on the R&B charts, helping the group's debut album Street Beat crack the Top 100. Two subsequent singles from the record, "Just My Luck," and "Surrender," dented the R&B charts, but the group's second album Material Thangz, was a disappointment, launching only one hit R&B single with the number 14 title track.

 

Between the release of Material Thangz and 1988's Eyes of a Stranger, Babyface and L.A. Reid began making a name for themselves as urban producers and songwriters, with their work for Pebbles ("Girlfriend") and the Whispers ("Rock Steady") becoming hits. In the wake of Babyface and Reid's new-found success, Eyes of a Stranger became a hit, going gold and launching the Top Ten pop and R&B hit, "Two Occasions," as well as the number ten R&B hit "Shoot 'Em Up Movies." Following the release of Eyes of a Stranger, the group went on hiatus, with Babyface and L.A. Reid continuing their successful production and songwriting work.

 

The Deele reunited without Babyface and Reid in 1993 to release Invitation to Love, which failed to earn much attention.

[hitman531ph]

SALT N PEPA

 

By the late '80s, hip-hop was on its way to becoming a male-dominated art form, which is what made the emergence of Salt-n-Pepa so significant. As the first all-female rap crew (even their DJs were women) of importance, the group broke down a number of doors for women in hip-hop. They were also one of the first rap artists to cross over into the pop mainstream, laying the groundwork for the music's widespread acceptance in the early '90s. Salt-n-Pepa were more pop-oriented than many of their contemporaries, since their songs were primarily party and love anthems, driven by big beats and interlaced with vaguely pro-feminist lyrics that seemed more powerful when delivered by the charismatic and sexy trio. While songs like "Push It" and "Shake Your Thang" made the group appear to be a one-hit pop group during the late '80s, Salt-n-Pepa defied expectations and became one of the few hip-hop artists to develop a long-term career. Along with LL Cool J, the trio had major hits in both the '80s and '90s, and, if anything, they hit the height of their popularity in 1994, when "Shoop" and "Whatta Man" drove their third album, Very Necessary, into the Top Ten.

 

Cheryl "Salt" James and Sandy "Pepa" Denton were working at a Sears store in Queens, New York, when their co-worker, and Salt's boyfriend, Hurby "Luv Bug" Azor asked the duo to rap on a song he was producing for his audio production class at New York City's Center for Media Arts. The trio wrote an answer to Doug E. Fresh and Slick Rick's "The Show," entitling it "The Show Stopper." The song was released as a single under the name Super Nature in the summer of 1985, and it became an underground hit, peaking at number 46 on the national R&B charts. Based on its success, the duo, who were now named Salt-n-Pepa after a line in "The Show Stopper," signed with the national indie label Next Plateau. Azor, who had become their manager, produced their 1986 debut Hot, Cool & Vicious, which also featured DJ Pamela Green. He also took songwriting credit for the album, despite the duo's claims that they wrote many of its lyrics.

 

Three singles from Hot, Cool & Vicious -- "My Mike Sounds Nice," "Tramp," "Chick on the Side" -- became moderate hits in 1987 before Cameron Paul, a DJ at a San Francisco radio station, remixed "Push It," the B-side of "Tramp," and it became a local hit. "Push It" was soon released nationally and it became a massive hit, climbing to number 19 on the pop charts; the single became one of the first rap records to be nominated for a Grammy. Salt-n-Pepa jettisoned Greene and added rapper and DJ Spinderella (born Deidre "Dee Dee" Roper) before recording their second album, A Salt With a Deadly Pepa. Though the album featured the Top Ten R&B hit "Shake Your Thang," which was recorded with the go-go band E.U., it received mixed reviews and was only a minor hit.

 

The remix album A Blitz of Salt-n-Pepa Hits was released in 1989 as the group prepared their third album, Blacks' Magic. Upon its spring release, Blacks' Magic was greeted with strong reviews and sales. The album was embraced strongly by the hip-hop community, whose more strident members accused the band of trying too hard to crossover to the pop market. "Expression" spent eight weeks at the top of the rap charts and went gold before it was even cracked the pop charts, where it would later peak at 26. Another single from the album, "Let's Talk About Sex," became their biggest pop hit to date, climbing to number 13. They later re-recorded the song as a safe-sex rap, "Let's Talk About AIDS."

 

Before they recorded their fourth album, Salt-n-Pepa separated from Azor, who had already stopped seeing Salt several years ago. Signing with London/Polygram, the group released Very Necessary in 1993. The album was catchy and sexy without being a sellout, and the group's new, sophisticated sound quickly became a monster hit. "Shoop" reached number four on the pop charts, which led the album to the same position as well. "Whatta Man," a duet with the vocal group En Vogue, reached number three on both the pop and R&B charts in 1994. A final single from the album, "None of Your Business," was a lesser hit, but it won the Grammy for Best Rap Performance in 1995. Since the release of Very Necessary, Salt-n-Pepa have been quiet, spending some time on beginning acting careers. Both had already appeared in the 1993 comedy Who's the Man?

[Notebook]

Wow thanks a lot hitman! Yung the Deele ba funky yung music kaya? Para rin bang mala kool n d gang, whispers, jacksons or george duke?

[hitman531ph]

The Deele was not known for funk R&B. Their best known hit is Two Occasions when Babyface was still with the group

[Ghost_Rider]

Always Something there to remind me

and

Take my Breath Away by Berlin from the movie Top Gun

[doha_babe]

if u leave by OMD