Bradley's Buzz

Today's Bubbatune - Lisa Hartman

You had to know this day was coming. For a lot of people Lisa Hartman (Black) is an actress who married country star Clint Black. Some don't even know that much, others are aware of her acting career but not her singing career, while still others don't even know who Lisa Hartman is. I hate those people. Anyone who knows me knows who Lisa Hartman is, for I love her. She came to Hollywood in 1976 a fresh faced 19 year old with a recording contract and a dream. Unfortunately her singing career didn't take off, but that didn't stop her from trying. Four albums came out of that hot little number with the ice blue eyes, and I loved them all. But poor Lisa never had that hit she longed for (not until she met Clint anyway) but I have to wonder, had she been say as popular as Madonna or even Olivia Newton-John, would I love her as much as I do? After all, I am always rooting for the underdog...

LISA HARTMAN: LETTEROCK (bub 47)
Album Reissue Designed by Bradley Jacobson

Track List:
1. Hidin' From Love
2. Why Baby
3. Johnny's Always On My Mind
4. If Love Must Go
5. Hole In My Heart
6. Two To Do
7. Games
8. Miss You (Like I Do)
9. Don't Let Me Go
10. New Romance (It's A Mystery)
11. Where The Boys Are (Bonus Track)

THE STORY
My mother would spend hours upon hours working on crafts, sewing little stuffed animals, doing hodge podge and just about anything else that grabbed her fancy. When she would do these projects, she would need some kind of background noise, as the screeching of three kids was apparently not enough for her. In most cases, the noise she wanted would come from the television set. Of course these were the days of the big three networks and you watched CBS, ABC, NBC or nothing at all. If I played it just right, my mother would get lost in her work and I would be able to stay up and watch the grown up shows that were on at 9 o’clock Midwest time. It happened that of all the shows I could or would stay up to watch I remember a little nugget known as Knots Landing.

I was very young at the time but in the years the show was on in the background I recall a few things. I remember an episode where Valene's Mama came to town and they showed these terrible flashbacks of Valene running through the woods with her baby, knocking on Mama's door and asking to come in because "JR's boys are trying to take my baby." Mama wouldn't let Valene in because she had a music promoter in her shack and he would never send her out on tour if he knew she was a Mama to an adult child, let alone a Grandmother. So Lilimae Clements (that was Mama) sent Val back into the woods. The boys knocked Val down and took that baby to be raised by the Ewing’s of Dallas. For that baby's (Lucy) father was black sheep Ewing boy, Gary. Thus was the saga of Valene and Gary Ewing who in 1979 moved from Dallas to the Southern California community of Knots Landing and into a cul-de-sac named Seaview Circle. (The last part I learned years later).

Another episode I recall seeing as my mother hodged her podge was one in which Sid Fairgate is driving his car when all of a sudden his brakes go out. The car goes over a cliff and the shot is freeze framed. I would learn this was called a "cliff hanger" and in this case, it literally was.

There was one more episode I remember quite vividly. In it Valene walks into a bedroom where she sees Gary (her husband) in bed (wearing only very tight shorts) with some blonde hooch. Val is so upset, she runs home, locks the door behind her, packs her bags and heads into her little car with Gary knocking on the side of the car pleading for Val to listen to him. But she won’t listen. I didn’t understand completely what was happening but I did realize it was very emotional and Val was driving a fricking Ford Pinto just like Sabrina on Charlie’s Angels… I loved it!

Then in the spring of 1983, something happened that changed my life forever. My mother was completely engrossed in her latest project, giving a little teddy bear some new eyes and sewing a head for the little guy. I wondered whom, and hoped it wasn’t me, was getting this latest gift from my mother’s sewing machine. As she worked away, I watched the television once again - back in that little seaside cul-de-sac known as Knots Landing. But this time there was something more! Something unexpected, something so great I could’ve never imagined it.

A woman with big rock hair and a little alien looking cocktail dress hopped up to a microphone and began singing rock and roll. I had to check channels. Was this indeed that nighttime soap opera? Sure enough, there was Gary and Val and Abby and Ginger, all of them, right there as this woman sang her rock n roll heart out! I was ecstatic!

When she was done singing all the residents applauded and congratulated “Ciji Dunne” on the great song! I just about flipped out. Ciji, not only was this one cool chick but she had one cool name! Not CG mind you, but “C-I-J-I” (which I later found out was how she had originally introduced herself).

I had to know who this woman was. I researched my TV Guides and found out Lisa Hartman played this wonderful character. I also found out almost all the songs she was singing were off of her own album Letterock. I told my mother we were going to the record store the very next day as I couldn’t go on without a copy of this album. In the meantime, I grabbed our pet tabby Fluffy, christened her Ciji by putting some of my mother’s Avon perfume behind her big ears and sent her hissing and scratching out into the night with her new name! I wonder what ever happened to that cat.

From that moment my immense obsession with Knots Landing had begun. I didn’t care about any bedtime rules anymore, I was going to watch this Lisa Hartman/Ciji Dunne vixen and no one was going to stop me. Luckily, my mother didn’t seem to have too much of a problem with that and every Thursday I was found watching the nighttime soap and waiting to hear what pop confection this Lisa Hartman was going to give me. My mother would say, “People are going to get mad they are playing this loud music on the show,” but I knew she was wrong. I knew this was gold.

But then just as soon as I had met and fell in love with Ciji, something horrible happened. The night of Ciji Dunne’s big record release party no one could find her. Sure, Ciji had been through many a drama by this time but why would she just disappear? I didn't really understand all the drama yet but I did know that no matter what drama Ciji had found herself in she would always end it with some kind of rock and roll delight. But this particular night, it looked like there would be no more rock to sing for the episode ended with my Ciji Dunne on the beach…dead!

Thus became the first murder mystery in Knots Landing. I personally was quite ticked off that the only glimpses I now got of my girl were pf her on a slab in the county morgue. But how I remember the episode where they uncover her body. The blanket coming off the “Jane Doe” and Mack declaring, “What are you doing here?” knowing it was Ciji Dunne – dead, dead, dead.

I recall the moment I was in my elementary school library reading the TV Guide when I saw the announcement that Lisa was returning to the show. How? How could that happen? Who really cared, it just proved to me that despite my mother’s insistence the rock and roll playing in a soap opera was not a sure fire way to get your show cancelled. In fact, Lisa proved to be so popular she did end up back on the show, as another character – a look alike named Cathy Geary (finally CG) but she was no typical look alike for the writers turned it into a Vertigo inspired scenario having Cathy hired by Abby to distract Gary because of her resemblance to Ciji.

Cathy would grace the Knots Landing landscape for another three years before taking off on a never-ending tour – for Cathy was a singer too. The minute she left Knots Landing so did I. But I returned after a very breif hiatus as by that time I was pretty invested in the other characters as well. Besides Lisa was always around appearing in TV Movies every other week.

Meanwhile, Knots became part of my life. All through middle school I would bond with the big fat girl bully who rode my bus. We would talk about Val’s missing babies and then we would go our separate ways. Through high school, I would live through the teasing of having to be home by 9 o’clock every Thursday to watch the newest shenanigans and through college I recruited new viewers to watch the show. Of course Lisa was long gone by then but I was hooked.

Should you think this story ends with my love of the show and Lisa’s influence of it, you obviously have never had a conversation with me. This is only the beginning, for the story that begins in 1983 ends yesterday!

All those years of television viewing had made me wondering about the locations used. I was bound and determined to find every locale of my favorite movies and television shows. When I moved to Minneapolis, the very first thing I did when I saw that skyline was put in the song “Love Is All Around” (the Joan Jett version as this was a new era of ‘making it after all.’) then before I even unpacked, I walked Nicolett Mall just like Mary Richards had done 30 some years before. Then I found the Mary/Rhoda/Phyllis apartment building and I made strangers take pictures of me throwing my hat up in the air! It was great.

When I moved to California, I was fully aware I had hit the mother lode of location shots, for just about everything no matter where it’s set is really filmed here. On a trip to the beach that I so loved, I ended up driving right past Rydell High from Grease. I freaked out and then it occurred to me, Knots Landingis somewhere in this town and I’m going to find every locale they ever used.

I started with the Holy Land – the sacred cul-de-sac where all great fans go to pay homage to the actor gods of our beloved show. This is where the magic of television editing takes a turn. The opening credits of Knots Landing has the camera panning over the Pacific Ocean, climbing the cliffs and showing all the cliffside houses - supposedly Knots Landing. Then in a trick of editing, the camera flips around and closes in on the actual cul-de-sac. This is magic because the cliffs and ocean are filmed off of Palos Verdes and the actual cul-de-sac where my characters lived is in Granada Hills, about 20 miles away and no where near the ocean.

Once I got the actual address to the cul-de-sac, I grabbed my Alf (that's a boyfriend, well not just A boyfriend, my boyfriend) and his camera and we were off. I can’t even explain the excitement I had as we entered Crystallaire Place, which is the real name of the street the houses are on. Of course in the show it was known as Seaview Circle but apparently leaving that sign up would confuse the postman who delivered the packages to the real life residents.

As we pulled up to the street, I was halfway out of the car before it ever came to a stop. I saw the cul-de-sac, I saw Karen Fairgate Mackenzie’s house at the end of it and that’s when I passed out – the first time.

I woke up quick enough and began my descent upon the place. I was bound and determined to act out every single scene I had in my memory, whether or not the residents liked it. Luckily, it was Memorial Day Weekend and it appeared Valene was having a party – there were cars everywhere and they all faced those iron gates. I figured if people thought I was acting a bit strange in their neighborhood I would just introduce myself as a long lost Clements and they’d invite me in for “a bite to eat” and to stay for a season or two. It always worked that way on the show.

So with Alf in tow, we began our rounds around the cul-de-sac. I hit the Wards house, though I didn’t know exactly what to do since those poor people barely had anything to do on the show. Then I went to Abby’s house, where I watered make believe flowers and waited for Gary to come up behind me in his tight little boxers.

Then onto the Avery/Williams house where I put on giant glasses, made some sarcastic comments, rolled my eyes and generally was Laura Avery. I changed into short red and white shorts and acted out the “Ciji being thrown out of the house by Richard” scene. Then I gave my ode to Lynne Moody. Lynne played Pat Williams who lived in the house after Laura. A drunken Danny Waleska ran down poor Pat in the middle of the cul-de-sac, when all she was doing was coming home with a pint of Spumoni ice cream to make up with her husband. She didn’t make it, but I did it.

I reenacted that giant car coming around the bend, hitting me, knocking me and my ice cream to the street. I lied on the hot asphalt and waited for the camera to finish the scene.

Then it was onto the Holy Grails (there are two holy grails aren't there? I'm sure of it)… Karen and Val’s houses. At Karen’s, I had to reenact her passionate season four finale scene. Karen finds out her bratty daughter Diana has taken off with Chip – the Ciji killer and she runs to her house. In my haste to reenact everything I had the scene screwed up and ended up running from Karen’s house to Val’s house but none the less, I acted it out and screamed, “Diiiaaannaaa!” the whole way.

Then onto my girl Valene and her lovely home, hidden behind iron gates. Iron gates I so love. Poor Val, the endless victim. Through the length of the series, Val grew from a pony tailed farm dress wearing hick who would say, “How do,” whenever she met anyone, to a best selling author who could run a marathon if given the chance. She ran so far and so fast she once ended up in Tennessee with a whole new personality, but such was the troubled Valene Clements Ewing Gibson Waleska Ewing.

The one thing Val loved more than anything (okay “Geery” withstanding) was the beach. I know, it’s uncanny isn’t it? I love the beach, I love Geery, I write, okay I don’t jog, but hey I could if I didn’t smoke and drink so much. I am basically just like Val!

At Val’s house, I opted to pretend I just came home from one of my endless jogs. I wanted to throw on a Rhoda head wrap and coo and caw over missing twins but I couldn’t find any extras to play the twins or Lilimae – let alone get my hands on a Rhoda head wrap.

Since that fateful day in Granada Hills, I have returned several times. I have yet to act out more scenes but as soon as the props department comes through, my pal Jen and I are headed up there and those residents will think it’s 1983 all over again.

I’ve also found other great Knots sites since then. I found Paige Matheson’s apartment building just up the street from where I live and I found Jean Hackney’s lingerie shop at the end of the block where I work but yesterday, I found something that has changed my life. I found Knots Landing Beach!

In the very first episode of Knots Landing, Val and Gary come to town and our Val is a little skeptical of the whole place. It doesn’t help that Annie Fairgate; Sid’s daughter from a previous marriage is staying next door and wreaking all kinds of havoc. After all, her bratty ways and big mouth does remind Val of their precious Lucy – left back in Dallas.

As Gary heads off to his first day of work, Val gets a call from Annie. The Fairgate child has been arrested for soliciting so Val heads off to pick her up. Though Annie is innocent (“Let’s just say ‘not guilty’ Karen will later say) she doesn’t want to go back to Seaview Circle and her father’s loving home just yet. Val tells her, “Well there is somewhere I’ve been dying to go,” and so we head off to one of my favorite scenes of the entire series, for Val has “never seen the ocean.” A line that sends tingles up the spine of any true Knots Landing fan.

Val and Annie park the car and Val looks out over the hillside to the Pacific Ocean. As the Knots Landing theme song begins to quietly play, Val and Annie walk down this ramp with wooden handrails to the beach. Val throws her pocket book, keys and sensible shoes down and runs to the surf. The music swells louder and louder as Val dips her bumpkin tootsies into the water. She kicks, she screams, she laughs, she giggles, she makes me smile.

Through out the series, the beach came to be as important to the show as the cul-de-sac itself. The first season particularly has a lot of beach scenes and it’s all set at the same beach – Knots Landing Beach. They walk up and down that ramp with such frequency I felt I just had to know where this place was.

As the series progressed, Val became one of my all time favorites and from that moment in the pilot, Val’s only real solace ever came from the beach. Should any drama beseech our girl you knew where she could be found. I too have that same feeling for the water and like Val I had never seen the ocean either. Since then I have spent many a day at the beach but the one thing I never did was dip my bumpkin tootsies in the Pacific off of Knots Landing Beach… until yesterday.

Alf and I took a morning trip to his parents in Harbor City and he made sure I grabbed the camera as he had a feeling that wooden railed ramp I talked so much about led down to Torrance Beach where my Leivas (that’s Alf if you’re nasty) had spent many a teenage summer night. I wanted to believe him, I wanted to think that all those years ago my boyfriend, the man I love had swam his little teenage heart out along side the likes of Eric Fairgate and Valene Ewing; but I was still a tad skeptical.

We parked the car, we grabbed the camera, I realized how much I love beach side communities and then we hit the beach. We walked down a little skinny ramp which looked like it could be a part of Knots Landing Beach but I knew the whole Fairgate family had walked up that wooden railed ramp and though Michele Lee and Claudia Lonow are probably tooth picks they aren’t this skinny.

So we walked, I looked around and for some reason everything looked pretty familiar. Up in the distance was the Palos Verdes of the opening credits. That in itself made me tingle but when we got to the only wide ramp, the only wide ramp still supporting wooden rails, the only wide ramp still supporting wooden rails that my cast walked down and up over and over – I passed out.

I awoke with Alfred and the camera ready to take pictures of me at my beloved Knots Landing Beach. How I had dreamed of this day and now it all was coming true. There was Knots Landing in the background, there was the ramp that led to the beach, there was the food stand where Diana snuck into a guy’s van and drank his beer. There was the water where Joan Van Ark had danced like a lunatic in pigtails and a farm dress, and there was a surfer boy looking an awful lot like Eric Fairgate! The last part could’ve been my imagination because between the heat and the excitement I swear I saw the whole cast being terrorized by a motorcycle gang in front of me.

I walked up the ramp, I walked down the ramp, I had my picture taken in, above and around that ramp, and then I did my interpretation of that famous Val scene. I ran into the surf like it was the greatest thing I had ever done in my life, and in a way it was.

We gathered ourselves and headed back up the ramp just like the end of one of my beloved Knots Landing episodes...As we got into the Leivas’ new black sedan and headed back to West Hollywood the beguiling notes of Clint Black and Lisa Hartman Black singing “Easy For Me To Say” filled the car. I realized I had just come full circle, making a circle in the sands of Knots Landing Beach and though I owe the day to my Leivas, I owe just a tad to a certain little chanteuse named Lisa Hartman.

P.S. For pictures of this blessed event (and the Cul-de-sac experience) go to
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/swivek/my_photos and check out the photo album labeled (what else) Knots Landing.




THE SONGS
There are five Lisa Hartman albums in the bubbatunes series, the first is a 2 CD compilation called The Collection that came about when one of my lovely Internet pals was nice enough to burn me two CDs of Lisa’s music. After gathering a few more tunes, I decided to do a reissue series of all four of Lisa Hartman’s solo albums with fancy artwork and bonus tracks. The idea was great and the CDs all turned out wonderful but it’s Letterock that holds the place in my heart as my favorite. Not because it’s the music that first introduced me to Lisa Hartman or even the fact it’s the 80s personified or even the shot of Lisa in a blue teddy, I just happen to think it’s a damn good album and why it didn’t score with radio is a mystery to me.

The album opens with “Hidin’ From Love” a rocking little number that sounds like so many other 80s songs only this is Lisa singing it. The song is actually a Bryan Adams written ditty and has been covered by others, but Lisa did it first. It was the first (and only) single released from the album and it’s always been one of my favorites. “Hidin’” along with a few of the other tracks has a little countrified rock sound going on that was so typical of 1982. Not quite as country as say Juice Newton but not quite as rock as say Pat Benatar. Riding somewhere in between (“Riding in the middle/you’re halfway into me”) it should’ve struck a chord with someone. Lisa sasses her way through the song hoping her guy will stop hiding from love, “You were hoping love was something else/ I was hoping it was you.” Interestingly enough this song is one she didn’t perform on Knots Landing – though she would begin performing it when the album was re-released in 1984.

“Why Baby” opens with the background synthesized “aaahs” of some male singers and a breezy new wave country feel. Like most of the songs on the album, the topic is love or lost love but Lisa is riding on different territory so it isn’t so much a song of desperation as it is of confused turmoil. She gave her best but “you were lying” so “Why Baby, why are you back on my mind again?” The song originally appeared in the 1981 TV Movie Valley Of The Dolls where Lisa played the Neely O’Hara character. Apparently Lisa liked it enough to record a different version for this album.

“Johnny’s Always On My Mind” has to be one of those 1980s gems that everyone wanted to do. It’s the rock version of the new wave pseudo hit “Johnny Are You Queer?” telling the tale of a boy named Johnny that the singer is in love with. Unfortunately John has a boyfriend, “His name is Don and he’s a major disappointment.” But that won’t stop Lisa, she’s going to “make it with his roommate” while he’s gone - anything to get Johnny off her mind. It’s hilarious, it’s topical, it’s something she did not perform on Knots Landing. Though with the subtext of Laura and Ciji being lesbian lovers, the song may have been perfect.

Now for the goods, “If Love Must Go” begins with a twang, a ballad of 1980s Urban Cowboy mentality. Lisa performed the song on Knots Landing the very first time she ever donned the famous red alien dress. In the show, she sings the song as the characters’ love lives are falling apart; a poignant moment of the series and a great performance on record. In fact Lisa, whose voice isn’t all that edgy or full of range, performs her little heart out and trying to sing along is a lot harder than you would think. In spite of or even because of the country twang in the song, I really like it. It has the feeling of a smoky small town bar where the lights are coming up, the booze has been drunk and your love life is in the toilet. Lisa has a way of singing about heartbreak in the most delicious manner.

In 1981, another soap star by the name of Rick Springfield made an album called Working Class Dog. The album contained a little ditty known as “Jessie’s Girl” and Rick became an international music star leaving behind his soap opera days. Like Lisa, Rick was originally a singer way before ever trying his hand at acting. Unlike Lisa, Rick found that international success and got to leave the acting behind him. It’s almost ironic that Lisa chose a Rick Springfield song to cover. Even choosing one off of Working Class Dog but that's exactly what she did with “Hole In My Heart”. Perhaps it wasn't irony at all but just very well thought out publicity since "Hole In My Heart" is also the Lisa song that was most heavily promoted on Knots Landing. (For nit pickers, I said it’s almost ironic, I’m still rather confused – I blame Alanis of course, for a lesbian comedienne recently told me, Alanis did not have “ironic” experiences but rather she had “unfortunate” things happen to her – irony is “a Scottish man cloning a sheep” and not a “black fly in your Chardonnay.” – so whether or not this is ironic, is really up to you – it is at least interesting, right?)

I didn’t have the Rick Springfield album until years later so it was Lisa’s version of “Hole In My Heart” that I heard first. I’m still a little torn between which version I like the best. I know I like the ending of the Rick version better which ends with an overdubbed version of the chorus just hanging mid air, but I have to say Lisa does a bang up killer job on this rocking track.

The imagery of the song, the lyrics, (“I must’ve looked like a prime one/running after you thinking we still could survive/but nobody I ever loved ever hurt me like you did/and I can feel it…”) and Lisa’s best growling through the verses and the long-winded “Iiiiiiveee got a hoooole in my heeeaart” make this one enjoyable ditty and open to repeated listenings. Once again it’s a bitch to sing along with, though that doesn’t stop anyone I know.

“Two To Do” begins with keyboards churning, rock guitars crunching, a piano pounding away and Lisa crooning “when you’re alone the night can last forever/it takes love to get you through and love takes two to do.” Not necessarily the most clever lyric but the passionate approach and the general electricity make the track so 1982 enjoyable.

“Games” is pseudo ballad/pseudo new wave in the vein of “Why Baby,” only this time we have some pretty clever lyrics. Comparing love to a game of cards is probably nothing new (“Queen Of Hearts” anyone) but I’ve always liked this particular lyric. It’s also one of Lisa’s best vocal performances declaring, “Those Games that you play/don’t you play them with me.”

I’ve always loved female performers but I am especially partial to those that are sassy, no holds barred, not to be messed around with women. Of course I’m also an 80s aficionado who loves a good pop hook and this song pretty much has it all. The background “Aaahs”, the keyboards, the guitar solo all help to make this song one of the best on the album. Again, it’s a song she performed on Knots Landing so Lisa must’ve enjoyed it as well.

Like “Hidin’ From Love” and “Why Baby” it borders on the country pop line but with its stops and starts, the keyboard running through it, the guitar solo and Lisa screaming, “no baby no baby no no!” at the end, it rises up above those two songs and I love it! It’s another I have to wonder, "Why baby, why wasn’t this a hit?"

Where “If Love Must Go” was the ballad with the guitar, “Miss You (Like I Do)” is the full on piano ballad. It’s fairly reminiscent of the material Lisa did on her previous album, 1979’s Hold On, but instead of being 1970s shtick, it’s very modern (1982 modern but modern nonetheless). Thanks to the minimalist instrumentation this one may stand up in the contemporary world than others on the album.

One of my favorite Lisa ballads is “Don’t You Love Me Anymore” from Hold On and this one is a close runner up to that song. Lisa’s high pitched crooning, emphasizing every note and word, touches me somehow. Like any good ballad, the song starts slow and quiet and gears up from there. The first verse is piano and then the drums and guitars kick in, then the bridge. I am a sucker for a good bridge and this song has one of the best, “For some folks it can be so hard/depending on who thought who was true/but as it stands/ well all I’ve got/is too much time trying to figure out/ how a love so strong/ could go so wrong/I miss you like I do” then a guitar solo. I tell you this song has it all. It’s a sweet little number that I always end up replaying after I listen to it.

The album’s closers are where Lisa really letserock (get it?). It’s rock and rock in 1982 new wave fashion and probably not coincidentally these two songs seem to be the most popular among her fans as well. It’s really no wonder once you hear them.

“Don’t Let Me Go” kicks in with a hard new wave drumbeat and guitar then Lisa takes it from there, growling and squeaking her vocals. “Oh baby don’t let me go/I’ll do what you do (oouh!)/I’ll go where you go/still I don’t know/what’s going on/ between you and me/it’s not like it’s supposed to be/I sit around by the telephone/I wait for your call/you left hours ago/and I’m tired of waiting around/hanging around/just a goin’ around.”

The song is obviously a plead not to be thrown away by her lover but the power that lies in the thumping beat and Lisa’s hardcore vocal take lead you to believe she doesn’t really care if you let her go or not. Perhaps Johnny is still on her mind. The versatile song combining high hats, a great guitar solo and drum rolls severe could’ve been a hit for anyone from Josie Cotton to Olivia Newton-John to the Go Go’s. The performance and the music is new wave at some of its finest. Again, why wasn’t this a hit? I would’ve roller-skated to it.

The final track of the original album is “New Romance (It’s A Mystery)” which is a song whose story and connections could probably write a full biography. Written by Holly Knight and Anton Fig of the band Spider it was a top 40 (#39) hit for the band in 1981. It would be their only single chart success but tucked away inside of the band’s two albums was not only this little nugget but a song called “Better Be Good To Me” which Tina Turner made into a hit, “Changes” a hit for John Waite and “Little Darlin’” a song that Rachel Sweet took to new levels. Spider (with lead vocals by Amanda Blue) would only have a hit with “New Romance” but Holly would go on to better things – not only as co-writer of the above mentioned songs but also “The Warrior” (Scandal), “Love Is A Battlefield” and “Invincible” (Pat Benatar) and a few more for just about every artist involved in 80s rock.

I recently found the two Spider albums conveniently released on one CD. I hadn’t known how exactly I was going to react to their “New Romance” as to me it will always be Lisa’s song. I was particularly afraid I might like the original better. Luckily, I was wrong. Lisa takes the song to completely different levels. Amanda’s voice is low and manly and somewhat off key while Lisa does a Benatar impression and I think it’s her version that should’ve hit the top 40. Incidentally, Spider’s version of “Better Be Good To Me” is killer.

Lisa’s “New Romance (It’s A Mystery)” is a new wave confection, starting with a keyboard whirlwind and a drumbeat roll blended by a thumping guitar lick which pushes through the first verse … “I fell in love today/never thought I’d feel this way/been so tired of one night stands/now I’m ready for a new romance” before the “ooh’s” kick in and the beat changes, “oooh it’s a mystery/I can’t figure it out/oooh it’s a mystery/do you know what I’m talking about”, then the beat changes again adding a harder edged kick, “Do you love me? Do you want me? Maybe it’s crazy/Give it a chance/I think I like this New Romance.” Then the whole idea starts over for the second verse.

On Knots Landing, this song could arguably be dubbed as Lisa’s (and thus Ciji’s) theme song. It’s the first song Ciji is actually able to lay down a track for when recording her album and the episode “Celebration” which is the one in which Ciji ends up dead on the beach, begins as a pseudo music video for the song.

The episode begins with different shots of Ciji riding her bike through Knots Landing. Wearing short shorts cut in one side red/one side white, she whizzes through the street as the song plays. We get practically the whole song in those first three minutes of the show and it’s a great send off not only for the Ciji Dunne character but for the Letterock album as well. Again...single? Hit? Why?

When Lisa Hartman signed onto Knots Landing in 1982 it was for the sole purpose of exposing more people to her music. She had just released Letterock when filming began and she thought it would be the perfect vehicle for such a thing. For some reason, it didn’t work out that way. After Lisa had been back on the show and again making a splash in the waves off of Knots Landing, the album was re-released and re-named Lisa Hartman. The front and back cover was switched around putting the shot of Lisa in her neon blue negligee front and center. There was even a huge sticker stuck to the front, declaring, “Lisa Hartman, singer of TV’s Knots Landing.” Again, the album didn’t sell.

In between leaving and returning Knots Landing, Lisa starred in a little known series called High Performance and got her big movie break. She took one of the leads in yet another classic remake when she starred in Where The Boys Are ‘84.

The movie is about four-college girls heading to Fort Lauderdale for Spring Break. Lisa is a music major who meets one of her friend’s classic music loving cousins. Meanwhile, a more rock and roll guy also has his eye on Lisa. The movie is pure T&A comedy so typical of the 80s but it gave Lisa a chance to release one more single in the theme song.

I had the luxury of seeing her perform “Where The Boys Are” on Solid Gold when I was a kid and the sheer excitement of it all was a tad too intense for my little frame. I had to see the movie, but alas I couldn’t for it was “filth” in my mother’s words. Eventually, I would see it and so typical of almost everything Lisa has done, it’s yet to see an official DVD release – just like this CD!

When I wanted to do a cover of a Lisa Hartman song my intitial choice was of course "New Romance" but once those beats starting dripping out of my head, I knew a pop dance cover of "Where The Boys Are" was the way to go. Actually, it came to me one day while listening to this very album. I thought, "What a great song to cover," and initially the song was going to be a lot closer to this version. Of course, Lisa's version isn't all that different from the original Connie Francis version so I took a completely different direction. And MOST people seem to enjoy it, I wonder what the queen Mrs. Black would think of it, someone will have to ask her!

The "Where The Boys Are" single, like the Letterock album, and to some extent, the movie itself, didn’t make much of a dent in the charts, or pop culture for that matter, and just like the single, the Letterock album and the movie, the reasons for the lack of success aren't very clear. Lisa’s musical performances are of no less caliber than any of the female rockers of the day who happened to have hits.

Lisa definitely had the look, she had the talent, and she had the sass, plus she seemed down right likeable. Perhaps it was timing, musical tastes were changing, other females were coming up, perhaps it was the radio stations. Pat Benatar said even during her highest career point some radio programmers would tell her they were already playing one female on the radio and didn’t have room for more.

By the mid 80s (and Lisa’s next album) the landscape was different, but again it didn’t work out for our girl, perhaps by then there were just too many women rock performers. Whatever the reasons, and there are plenty of them, Letterock didn’t take off but it hasn’t left my CD player since I made this reissue or anyone else’s who happens to have a copy of it… and that should say something about the lasting power of Lisa Hartman’s music.

Tomorrow stay tuned as we get torn apart by Tanya Tucker and a story about another girl who could tear you limb from limb and not think twice -- my pal Holly Quarderer.

posted by swivek @ 10:38 AM