Looking Back--Rupert Holmes "PARTNERS IN CRIME" Poll:

Wikipedia:

Studio album by Rupert Holmes
Released October 5, 1979
Recorded January – July 1979; Plaza Sound Studios, New York City
Genre Soft rock
Label Infinity, MCA
Producer Rupert Holmes, Jim Boyer

Partners in Crime is an album by American singer-songwriter and musician Rupert Holmes, includes the hits "Him" and "Escape (The Piña Colada Song)", the latter of which was the Billboard #1 hit of December 1979 and January 1980; it was the only single to hold the #1 position in both years and in different decades. The album itself reached #33 on the Billboard Album Charts. Although "Escape (The Piña Colada Song)" was released as a single on Infinity Records, "Him" was released on MCA Records. The Infinity catalog had been absorbed by MCA at the time the latter single was released.

Personnel:

• Rupert Holmes - vocals, keyboards, synthesizer, saxophone
• Dean Bailin - guitar
• Frank Gravis - bass
• Leo Adamian - drums
• Steve Jordan - "double drums" with Adamian on "Escape (The Piña Colada Song)"
• Peter Gordon - French horn
• Wayne Andre - trombone
• David Taylor - bass trombone
• Victoria - percussion
• Bob Gurland - voiced trumpet on "Get Outta Yourself"
• Chrissy Faith - background vocals on "Answering Machine"
• Gene Orloff Section - strings

Production:

• Producers - Rupert Holmes, Jim Boyer
• Mastering engineer - Ted Jensen at Sterling Sound
• Normand Kurtz - executive production
• Peter Corriston - cover design and concept
• Brian Hagiwara - photography

Just spun this album tonight brings back many good times late 1979--1980. Some consider it just to soft music relevant of the times, to me that's what makes Partners In Crime so magical to the ears.

Partners would be Ruperts fifth album and there would be more albums to follow, but Partners was a charm. Great production in this album as at the times Ruperts production skills were in high demand.

Holmes an English born American composer, singer, song writer & writer of plays, novels, stories.
Pina Colado was a # 1 song for Holmes December 1979 the album Partners In Crime was more than just the Pina Colada song it was a blend of smooth pop rock tunes with some catchy lyrics. An infectious album Partners was then and is today 2017.

Rupert Holmes - Wikipedia


Rupert Holmes - (1979) Partners in Crime: Rupert Holmes - (1979) Partners in Crime - YouTube

 

"Him" to me was always the best single/song on the album. Great 1980 song!

 

Would Pink Floyd - The Wall have been the #1 album from December '79 - January '80?

 

Thanks guys for contributing to the thread. Glad there some love for Rupert & Partners In Crime.

Just picked up a NM original vinyl of Partners, waiting for the delivery in mail.

 

Always thought 'Answering Machine' was a very clever track. I haven't listened to the whole album in ages. Sigh: Another trawl through the album boxes in the spare room is called for!

 

I totally dig the tune "Him". Also voted for the obvious one.

 

Love Answering Machine.
Love the female harmonies at the end of this tune.

 

I voted for "Escape" and "Him." "Escape," not just because it's so catchy and fun but because, IIRC, Rupert Holmes had to work really hard to piece it together from lots of flubbed takes courtesy of hungover/ chemically altered musicians. Has anyone else heard about this?

 

Heard of this.


Wikipedia:


Production:

During the session in which the background musicians laid down their tracks, Holmes found both drummers so intoxicated that they were barely able to perform. He has stated in many interviews, and the liner notes of the 2005 box set:


Holmes Quote:

After just one take, one of my drummers had fallen unconscious and the other one wasn't far from it. Nowadays it wouldn't be any big deal, but in those days if you wanted to copy a piece of a track, you had to either copy it over to another reel of expensive tape or fast-forward to an unused section of your original tape, cut it off and wind it onto another reel and sit there for days on end cutting and splicing the copy until you got what you wanted.

I found out we had about 16 bars that were really tight and sounded good, but we didn't have the kind of budget to be rescheduling a session or throwing away $250 on extra reels of tape so that I could loop that 16-bar section.

But I still had to sit there for a whole afternoon making sure I got the splice right before I got out the razor blade and made the cut. I thought I was going to end up having to buy a second reel anyway so that I had someplace to put the spliced-together song about which I was NOT happy. I remember we got a breakthrough. Somebody had come in to do a multi-media presentation a couple weeks earlier and had recently mixed down their session. Having no further need for their master 2-inch, they told their producer to leave it behind for somebody else to use again.

After splicing in the one good intro and one good outro I had, we went in the next day to record the vocal. I did it just once as a scratch track so that my lead guitarist, Dean Bailin, could familiarize himself with the song, and also ad-libbed a harmony track a third above myself on the chorus.

I left the song and came back the next day to record the proper vocal, but when I came back to lay it down, I couldn't get the same energy, excitement and enthusiasm as I had singing it that one time straight through—so we left it the way it was and that's the record you hear.

 

Thanks for verifying this. And I thought I'd just picked a bad day to stop sniffing glue.

 

Hahahhahaha!!


Glad this album is some what remembered.

 

Love this album. Every song is perfect. His previous 2 are perfect as well. Then he completely lost it and went "normal."

 

Best album of '79. I voted for 6,7,8,10

 

Great picks.

 

Great album.

 

"Escape", "Him", and the swinging "Answering Machine".

So glad he changed the lyrics/premise to "Escape" from the original "Law of the Jungle"

The Cast of Characters box is a prized possession of mine.

 

Almost forgot about "Get Outta Yourself"! So smooooooooooth.

 

Just spun the newly aquired SHM CD of Partners In Crime. Amazing life like sound and was happy to get rid of my old flat cd from 1994.

 

Funny story regarding the drummers, of course, looking back in hindsight that is!

I truly love every song on this album, which is clearly a great example of a "singer/songwriter" at his best. Every cut, although a few of which are slightly, over the top in their production (namely "Lunch Hour" and "Get Outta Yourself", which features 100 Rupert's on top of himself and arrangements which almost go Broadway), are great, cut to the chase, radio ready songs. If I had to choose my favorite song from this album, it would have to be "Nearsighted". My least favorite is actually the title track, as it kind of prods along at times and gets a bit repetitious.

For those that have never heard it, here is "Nearsighted" ...

 

The album of Rupert's that has so far truly not faired well "sound wise" to me on compact disc, is "Adventure". The vinyl sounds great, but my early Japanese CD and the same tracks on the out of print "Cast Of Characters" box set, just sound muffled in comparison.

I'm so very happy that Rupert has found fame in books, TV, movies made from his books and of course, his shows on Broadway, but I still sit and wait for one more album, which I know that I will sadly never get. "Scenario" (Japanese only released CD) and the previously unreleased tracks on that box set are probably the last of the singer/songwriter.

 

Glad he got something for his hard work in the music business.

 

Typical drummers.

Did you know that Rupe picked his stage name from Rupert Bear and Sherlock Holmes - he wanted something awfully English, you see. But Sherlock Bear didn't fall of the tongue.