Record Labels 78: A New Home

But of course! "Starchild" definitely has it's moments. "Out on a Limb" is a great tune with a very nice Teena lyric and performance. Even given Narada's involvement, it still sounds like a Teena record. It shows how assertive her artistry really was that Narada could get involved and the end result is still very much a Teena production. "Lovergirl" really is nice too but she did so much better than that. How it hit Pop when nothing else did is entirely beyond me. "Youngblood" is a lot of fun too. Still, nothing on that album touches "Casssanova Brown" or "Dear Lover".

Thank ya! Glad my efforts paid off!

Sure. It's still here by the desk. I'll get on it. Got one other I'm doing right now so once it's done, I'll revisit "Starchild".

A lot of "Sapphire" specifically is really nice. "Ooh Wee" is really nice and my favorite of the Cash Money tunes.

I've got the Switch record but no B.T. Express records. I know...awful, right?

Ed

 

I think the reason "Lovergirl" did so well is because Epic Records pushed it to MTV, and it has a bit more of a rock flava. I don't even remember a video for "Fix It". Love "Youngblood"! It sounds like something she should have done with Rick James, but I understand that at that point, she wanted a break from him, and he was still on the label she sued.

I know, as a singer, you might gravitate to ballads more.

I think it is unfortunate that she concentrated so much on ballads towards the latter part of career. Few could give up the funk like Teena!

I think after all this time, you finally have the perfect settings going forward.

That's what turned me off to Teena: too much dwelling on ballads by either her, or her record companies towards the end of the 80s. Look at any Sony comp. They are ballad-laden. I favor groove tunes like "Lips To Find You", "Trick Bag", "FIx It", Younglbood", "Lovergirl", and "Jammin'". At least her Motown comps are more balanced.

B.T. Express was a party band, much like K.C. & The Sunshine Band, but didn't click too well with the pop crowd beyond their first two hits. But, it's very hard to find good and accurate images of their album covers. They are washed out with the wrong color tones, have the wrong record label logo or none at all. I guess that's what happens with small record labels who switch distribution. Look at what happened with the Solar catalog.

 

She needed to show that she could do it on her own. She absolutely could. She didn't need Rick and we have tremendous proof of that.

She had funk for days. I love the funk but few had a way - lyrically or melodically - with a ballad like Teena. When she wanted to break your heart, she could devastate. "Cassanova Brown" is as good as that gets. She wrote it about Rick and you can just feel her breaking on it. Just a perfect vocal.

"Lips to Find You" and "You So Heavy" are AMAZING. "Lips" is very much what a heavier Klymaxx would sound like. "You So Heavy" is like a Teena/T'Pau hybrid with Rock thrown in. It's a genius production.

Truth on the Solar stuff. I've got more Whispers' things to add and I'll get there.

Ed

 

She didn't need to prove that. She produced her third Motown album "Irons In The Fire" by herself. The reason she started out sounding so much like Rick James is because she was his protege. They shared the same musicians and engineer, so that's why they wound up sounding so similar when she was also on Gordy. But, make no mistake: she produced herself starting with "Irons In The Fire". Also, a lot of people never realized that she was a multi-instrumentalist. She played it all: guitars, bass, keyboards, drums, and some others. It's a shame she had to pawn her prized guitars to buy her children Christmas presents at one point.

Oh yeah! She had to let it out. It also came out on Rick's "Fire And Desire", about the same thing. Just imagine how it could have been for those two if he hadn't been so into drugs and messing around. You know the story about how she recorded the vocal for "Fire And Desire" in one take while she had severe pneumonia, right? She went directly from the studio to the hospital after she recorded her part. That not only shows sheer artistry and professionalism, but deep love! Who else would do that for an ex-boyfriend? Imagine the pain and misery she was in!

She would still pop up at his concerts to do the song.

But, one of my favorite ballads is "Tune In Tomorrow".

That must be why Fenderella did a duet with her on "Crocodile Tears".

 

Yeah, she had to give up that paisley Fender Tele, I believe.

Yeah, I heard that! The woman was scary good!

The changes are just gorgeous on that one. I love Paul Riser's strings too. Of course, the vocal is perfection!

I'm pretty sure that was Bernadette Cooper. Her smack talking is unmistakable on all it touches...LOL!

Ed

 

Alas, I do not have Switch II. I thought I did but I don't. I have all the others - save the first two and the last one. I remember lending it a friend some years ago and not getting it back. Thankfully, I can get another. It won't break the bank to do so.

Ed

 

Newly added:

Natalie Cole - "Inseparable" (front, back, labels)

Natalie Cole – Inseparable | Vinyl Album Covers.com

Ed

 

Okay, "Starchild" fixed and added "Greatest Hits"

Teena Marie – Greatest Hits | Vinyl Album Covers.com

Ed

 

Thank you! And, I love that you keep the logos! I hate it when some of the artist's remove them.

I have never seen this album until just now. Good thing most of her Motown single edits have been issued on CD.

 

Uh-oh! When I opened up the Natalie Cole cover in Windows picture viewer, I saw some glaring blemishes on the right side again, some around her clothes. I fixed them up for my own collection, as I also convert them to jpg.

hey, any chance you could do the second album "Natalie"? It's hard to find a good image of it, and all the white makes it a very hard to do cover.

 

Thanks for catching it. I will fix. Sadly, I don't have "Natalie". I'll see if I can track it down. I love a challenge...

Ed

 

Heh! Interesting you don't have all those sophomore albums that made it big.

 

I had the Switch record (darn you, Richard!) but never had the Natalie one. "This Will Be" and the title track made me get "Inseparable".

Ed

 

The Natalie Cole albums are really good, though. Her voice just got better over time.

 

Newly added:

New Edition - "Candy Girl" [U.K. Press] (front, back, labels)

New Edition – Candy Girl (U.K. Press) | Vinyl Album Covers.com

Ed

 

I also just fixed the Natalie Cole cover. That one took a lot of work and I just forgot that little bit of clean-up around her hands and dress.

Ed

 

Newly added:

The Sylvers - "Something Special" (front, flap, back, fan club insert, labels)

Sylvers – Something Special | Vinyl Album Covers.com

Ed

 

Thanks to @DetroitDoomsayer, we have a ton of new record labels. They are:

Factory
Virgin
Channel 1
Coxone
Island
Buddah
Real
Rough Trade
Reaction
Zoo
Korova
Studio
Treasure Isle
Powderworks
Upsetters
Fiction
2Tone
Stiff
Greensleeves
Brain
Go Discs

He did most of the clean-up on these. I just did some slight manicuring and size editing. Very nicely done on all of these!

Ed

 

Newly added (kinda):

The Sylvers - "New Horizons", "Forever Yours", and "Disco Fever"

http://vinylalbumcovers.com/p-t/

These were on the old iteration of the site and got overlooked somehow when I ported everything over to the new site.

Ed

 

FYI.

There is a problem with the website. It is currently being worked on and we hope to have resolution shortly.

Ed

 

BTW, I am totally the cause...LOL!

Ed

 

Okay, the site is back on-line. That's the good news. The bad news is that it had to be restored from a backup on the server side. I'll need to re-add the labels @DetroitDoomsayer and a few other things to make it current again. Give me a day or two and we'll be current once more.

WHEW!

Ed

 

All the labels @DetroitDoomsayer contributed have been added back to the site. Now onto the Sylvers' albums.

Ed

 

The site has officially returned to the state it was in before I screwed up fabulously. All Sylvers' albums are back up. Whew!

Ed

 

Newly added:

Sylvers - "Showcase" (front, back, labels)

Sylvers – Showcase | Vinyl Album Covers.com

Ed