Elizabeth Daily's "Love in the Shadows." Here's the re-recorded version, from her 1986 debut album Wild Child.
Annabella's "Passion Play"
The 1984 film Thief of Hearts was obviously supposed to be a re-do of the previous year's Flashdance. Same film producer (Jerry Bruckheimer), same musical composer (Giorgio Moroder), and even the Flashdance font (Mistral, if you care) was evoked in the movie's title. But it didn't work. The film, which I've never seen, was about a stalker/robber, not dancing. It bombed, making $10 million for a #79 rank for the year, just below Rick Springfield's Hard To Hold and above Streets of Fire. At least those two films generated Top 10 hits. The best this could muster was the title track performed by Melissa Manchester, which stole off the charts after 6 weeks with only a peak of #86. The album itself didn't do much better, making only #179. How is the music? Well, the only thing Moroder contributed was Manchester's song, easily the highlight. The rest was handed off to, help us all, Harold Faltermeyer. His instrumental tracks that artists added vocals and lyrics too aren't too bad, the best being "Love in the Shadows" by Elizabeth Daily (later "Dottie" in Pee Wee's Big Adventure and the voice of Buttercup on The Powerpuff Girls long after that), and Annabella adds some tribal whooping reminiscent of her old band Bow Wow Wow to her track "Passion Play." Faltermeyer's instrumental score, with the exception of "Collage," is uninteresting, with the film's love theme sounding like a direct copy of Moroder's piano recital romantic interlude from Flashdance. Evidently, lessons were learned and the whole team of Bruckheimer, Moroder and Faltermeyer got back together in 1986 and had a sky-high mega-hit with the Top Gun soundtrack, which was probably more successful because Moroder created compositions this time. Grade: B- Highlights: Melissa Manchester's "Thief of Hearts"
Elizabeth Daily's "Love in the Shadows." Here's the re-recorded version, from her 1986 debut album Wild Child. Annabella's "Passion Play"
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As all music fans and pop culture junkies like myself celebrate the 50th anniversary of Sgt. Pepper and the "Summer of Love" and all that trippy stuff, I would just like to remind you of what passed for hippieness for the "squares" in corporate America. Jefferson Airplane this ain't. By the way, this cover of a 1934 Cole Porter tune made #43 in September 1967. The blond dude on the left is Ted Templeman, who would discover the Doobie Brothers and produce many hits for them and Van Halen in the 1970s and '80s.
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Walburgh's BlogMostly retro, mainly music, but generally whatever's on my mind. Archives
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