A collection of Mad City 45's

The Madison bargain hunt was a hit and miss.  Sometimes you find things that you can play more than twice, others it's back to the donation file.  Basically, it's pointless to drive two and half hours back just to exchange a dollar album.  But like the last trip, there was no shortage of interesting artifacts we call 45's.  And to prove it, yours truly will point out what they are and their worth.

1.  The Girl From Ipanema-Zakariah P.I.P PD-6511 1975  Disco. At that time, disco was the big happening and each and every song got the disco treatment.  (Baby Face, Frankie Avalon's Venus done disco style, etc). The kind folks at Pickwick International Productions led the way with disco singles that didn't make much of an impact.  Look at it this way,  disco have been scorned back then but thank your lucky stars they didn't have auto tuner to fuck it up even more.  This has a bit of jazz thrown in, and the sax player has a bit of Coltraine in him but all this song does is to get your booty on the dance floor.  Nothing less, nothing more.

2.   You Can Do Magic-America Capitol PB-5142 1982  Their biggest hit since the big comeback, they went from folk rock to Adult Contemporary by the time Warner Brothers dropped them to when Captiol picked them up for a couple uneven albums. I have a love hate of their music at times and this song is a prime example of that.  Produced and written by Russ Ballard (of Argent fame) this song gets played many times on your local radio station.  Hell it was even playing when I was at Big Lots in Davenport when I was there.

3.  Breaking Away-Balance   Portrait 24-02177 1981   A one hit wonder that got some airplay in the early 80's.  Alas, I didn't check this 45 very well, for I discovered a GD crack on the beginning of the song.  Since I won't be able to find another 45 of this may have to search for the vinyl album.  Lead singer sounded a lot like Roger Daltrey.

4.  Ain't No Sunshine-Bill Withers   Sussex SUX 219 1971  Probably the most influential 2 minute song from 1971, so compact that the DJ would play this before the top of the hour.  One of those songs that I thought I would buy right off the bat but not till almost 40 years later.  Favorite part still remains when ole' Bill goes into I know, I know I know for half the song's timing.  Produced by Booker T Jones which is why the song is part timeless, part classic.

5.  Boys Do Fall In Love-Robin Gibb   Mirage 7-99743 1984  A strange one but I do remember hearing this on the radio.  At that time The Bee Gees were taking a break and Robin signed up with Atlantic to release a solo album and this forgotten top 80 single.  Has a catchy chorus line but most of the time Robin sings in a pre auto tuned voice that wouldn't sound out of place on Trans, Neil Young's album.  And not as memorable.

6.  Layin'  It On The Line-Jefferson Starship   Grunt FB-13872  1984  The last decent rocking single from The Starship before We Built This City forever labeled them as sell outs, this got a bunch of airplay when MTV was showing videos.  Back when MTV was good, I know that was before most of kids of today were even born.  I did like The Starship when they rocked out, cared less when they slowed it down and best thing about the album was the title Nuclear Furniture. Ron Nevison produced this as well as the Freedom At Point Zero and Modern Times and did a good job on those but Nuclear Furniture he was becoming Mr. Schlock.  For further proof see Heart or Chicago 19.

7.  Somebody Loves, Somebody Wins-Rosie Flores   Reprise 7-28134 1987  Produced by Pete Anderson of Dwight Yoakam fame Flores was a up and coming country singer and her album got great reviews but never played on country.  Neither was this song which she sounds a bit like Patsy Cline.

8.  Two Tribes-Frankie Goes To Hollywood   Island/ZTT  7-99695  1984  The followup to Relax and remembered most for a video of a Reagan lookalike going against a Breshev lookalike in a wrestling match. Had the 12 remix which went on for about 6 minutes.  The 45 is half that long.  Sounds dated too.  Produced by Trevor Horn (of the Buggles and Yes fame).

9.  Forever One Day At A Time-Don Gibson   MCA-41031  1979  Don Gibson was my favorite of all country singers growing up and his tenure at RCA was his best but after that he moved over to Hickory which later became ABC Records and later MCA Records.  A great songwriter of sorts but by the late 70's Gibson was getting songs from the likes of Gary S. Paxton and Eddy Raven who wrote this forgotten gem.

10.  Valerie-Steve Winwood   Island 7-28231  1987  By the late 80s I quit buying 45's. Perhaps it was the fact that I didn't like having the barcode on the label which diminished the value of watching spinning around the turntable.   In my second renascence of vinyl hunting, I tend to be bit more forgiving if the record is in good shape.  Originally on his Talking Back To The Night, it got remixed with a brighter sound and took off on the charts to promote Chronicles, Winwood's best of.  Kind of a strange set up, since all of the other Island acts were moved over to Atlantic/Atco division (later Polygram and of course Universal)  and Winwood remained under the WB umbrella for about 15 years.  Winwood would enjoy strong record sales under his comeback Back In The High Life album and then Roll With It which begain a new era for him at Virgin Records.  Chronicles was Island/WB contractual obligation album.  Ironically, this single as well as the vinyl album of Chronicles were found in Madison on a earlier bargain hunt.