SoulMusic Records Is “Born to Love” With Reissues from Peabo and Roberta, Nancy Wilson and Tavares

With its latest batch of reissues, including titles from Peabo Bryson and Roberta Flack, Tavares, and Nancy Wilson, Cherry Red’s SoulMusic Records imprint can truly be said to cover a wide swath of the soulful spectrum.

Duets have long been staples of great R&B.  Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell, Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway, James Ingram and Patti Austin, and Otis Redding and Carla Thomas – just to name a few in the pantheon – all proved that “it takes two.”  (That title, in fact, gave Gaye and Kim Weston a hit.)  Flack first teamed with Peabo Bryson for the 1980 Atlantic Records live album Live and More before the duo reteamed at Capitol for 1983’s Born to Love, now available in an expanded and remastered edition from SoulMusic.  As was the custom for countless albums released in the 1980s, numerous producers were enlisted for Flack and Bryson’s studio set.  They enlisted the cream of the crop, however.  Michael Masser helmed two tracks, both written with Brill Building legend Gerry Goffin.  Burt Bacharach and Carole Bayer Sager produced another pair, and Bob Gaudio and Bob Crewe of Four Seasons fame handled another three songs.  To round out the LP, Flack and Bryson each produced a song.

Despite their varied CVs, the various production teams all turned out music in a sleek, then-contemporary R&B vein.  Masser and Goffin (“Theme from Mahogany,” “Nothing’s Gonna Change My Love for You,” “Saving All My Love for You”) were behind the biggest hit off Born to Love, opening track “Tonight I Celebrate My Love.”  The song had been written for Julio Iglesias and Diana Ross, but hadn’t been recorded by the “All of You” pair, setting the stage for a Top 5 single in the hands of Bryson and Flack.  Masser and Goffin also wrote the up-tempo “Comin’ Alive” with burbling synths from Robbie Buchanan.

Bacharach and Sager, in the early years of their songwriting partnership and marriage, supplied two ballads, “Blame It on Me” and “Maybe.”  Both songs featured an all-star cast of musicians including Abe Laboriel (bass), Jim Keltner (drums), Greg Phillinganes (keyboards) and Paulinho da Costa (percussion), and the latter had another key member of the musical team: Sager’s ex-boyfriend Marvin Hamlisch.  The romantic “Maybe” (described in the new liner notes by Flack as “one of the most beautiful songs ever written”) was crafted from one of Hamlisch’s themes for the 1983 film Romantic Comedy and can be heard over the end credits to that film.  It’s the only writing collaboration between the two titans of melody, Bacharach and Hamlisch, though the two did have a history together: Hamlisch arranged the music for the movie The April Fools, which featured a title song written by Bacharach and Hal David.

Gaudio and Crewe brought Bryson and Flack the rhythmic “Heaven Above Me,” the disco-flavored title song of Frankie Valli’s 1980 solo album, as well as the sweet “You’re Lookin’ Like Love to Me,” which they co-wrote with Sugarloaf’s Jerry Corbetta.  For their third production, they selected Terry Skinner, Kenneth Bell and J.L. Wallace’s “I Just Came Here to Dance.”  Bryson wrote, produced and sang “Born to Love,” the only solo song on the album, and Flack produced and co-wrote (with Al Johnson) the closing track “Can We Find Love Again.”

SoulMusic’s reissue has been expanded with three bonus tracks, the 7-inch and 12-inch single versions of “Heaven Above Me,” and the 7-inch single version of “You’re Looking Like Love to Me.”  Alan Wilson has remastered, and Gail Mitchell of Billboard supplies new liner notes which draw on fresh quotes from Roberta Flack.  The expanded Born to Love is available now, and after the jump, you’ll find the full track listing and order links.  Plus: the scoops on Tavares and Nancy Wilson!

The Softer Side of UMe’s Budget Compilation Lines: “Ballads” Released

Having recently introduced some EMI-controlled artists to the ICON roster, Universal now incorporates some of those artists (and some of their most treasured R&B and country acts) into a new budget-oriented series, Ballads.

And while none of the artists covered here really, truly need more compilations on the market – and, one can assume, the assembly of these is as low-impact as the ICON series – there’s actually some promise to be had here. The overall selection of artists isn’t terrible, particularly on the EMI side; new sets from culled from the catalogues of Peabo Bryson and Freddie Jackson as well as The O’Jays three albums on EMI America in the late 1980s/early 1990s are all anthologized here, giving fans perhaps a lesser-seen side of these acts.

And that’s the case throughout: from country crooners (Trisha Yearwood, Vince Gill) to Motown acts (Marvin Gaye, New Edition) and other soul acts (Barry White, The Impressions, Kool & The Gang), there’s not a terrible amount of “same old, same old” tracks. Some barely have any singles on them, making for a good “second step” if you’ve got any of these group’s earlier compilations.

All titles can be found after the jump and can be ordered or bought in stores now.

Release Round-Up: Week of March 15

Queen, Queen / Queen II / Sheer Heart Attack / A Night at the Opera / A Day at the Races: Deluxe Editions (Island/UMe)

Deluxe editions of the band’s first five albums are out in the U.K., all remastered with bonus discs of rare or unreleased content. (They’ll be out in the U.S. in May!) (Official site)

Nick Lowe, Labour of Lust (Proper (U.K.)/Yep Roc (U.S.))

Lowe’s New Wave classic, featuring the immortal “Cruel to Be Kind,” is reissued on both sides of the Atlantic, featuring all the tracks heard on original U.K. and U.S. pressings and a non-LP B-side. (Yep Roc)

Rick Springfield, Eartha Kitt, Django Reinhardt, Steve Vai, Nina Simone, The 5th Dimension, Paul Revere and The Raiders and Ricky Skaggs, The Essential(RCA/Columbia/Epic/Legacy)

New two-disc compilations for each of the above artist, each featuring their share of hits and deeper cuts. (We’ve posted the track lists for The 5th Dimension and Paul Revere and The Raiders and will post the remaining track lists later today.) (Amazon)

Peabo Bryson, Reaching for the Sky / Crosswinds: Expanded Edition / Billy Preston, Everybody Likes Some Kind of Music / Jennifer Holliday, I’m on Your Side (Soul Music/Cherry Red)

Remastered editions of four soul classics (the Peabo set is expanded with some U.S. single edits) coming out in the U.K. today. (Soul Music: Peabo, Preston, Holliday)

The Collage, The Collage: Expanded Edition (Now Sounds)

A lost psych-pop classic with some impressive people involved in its recording and production gets a deluxe release on the Now Sounds label in the U.S., having been out for two weeks in England. (Now Sounds)

Inner City: Original Broadway Cast Recording (Masterworks Broadway/Arkiv)

The out-of-print soundtrack to the Tony-winning musical is out through Arkiv as a made-to-order CD-R. (Masterworks)

Various Artists, American Idol 10th Anniversary: The Hits (19/RCA)

Notable tracks from various winners and finalists of American Idol in America. (Official site)

Cherry Red Reissues A-Plenty in March

As if the impressive release schedule from Big Break Records wasn’t enough to excite catalogue fans, next month will see another impressive wave of reissues from other labels in the Cherry Red family. 7Ts, Cherry Pop and Soul Music are all planning some impressive remastered and expanded discs which will bring some pop, rock and R&B acts from the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s back into print.

From 7Ts comes expansions of the first two LPs by singer/actress Suzi Quatro. While these two glam-rock LPs attracted little attention in the U.S., they were both considerably successful in Europe. (Quatro’s Stateside success began with a guest role as Leather Tuscadero on Happy Days and culminated in the Top 5 hit “Stumblin’ In” in 1979.) These reissues of Suzi Quatro (1973) and Quatro (1974) are augmented with non-LP singles and B-sides, which along with the albums themselves were largely written and produced by Mike Chapman and Nicky Chinn (who wrote another big hit around the same time, Sweet’s “Ballroom Blitz,” and would write or co-write plenty of hits in the ’80s for Pat Benatar, Huey Lewis and The News and Tina Turner).

Cherry Pop has prepped reissues of both the first and last albums by the classic line-up of A Flock of Seagulls. The quintessential ’80s band, known for both the worldwide (except for the band’s native U.K.) hit “I Ran” and lead singer/keyboardist Mike Score’s distinctive haircut, will see expanded versions of the band’s self-titled 1982 debut and 1986’s Dream Come True, all augmented with bonus B-sides and remixes. (The band released one last album in 1995, The Light at the End of the World, but Mike Score was the only original member involved.)

Finally, the Soul Music label has four albums coming back into print. Peabo Bryson’s first two albums for Capitol (his second and third overall), Reaching for the Sky (1977) and Crosswinds (1978), will be released together as a two-disc set with three U.S. single edits as bonus tracks. The label will also issue straight remasters of Everybody Likes Some Kind of Music, the 1973 LP by Billy Preston, and I’m on Your Side (1991), the most recent pop album by Jennifer Holliday, famed for her Tony-winning turn in Dreamgirls and the hit “And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going.”

The Soul Music titles have a U.K. release date of March 14, while the rest hit U.K. shops a week later. Full track lists and order links are after the jump.