Bradley's Buzz

Bubbatunes Goes 1978

ONLY 14 DAYS UNTIL MY BIRTHDAY!!!

And today we have some fantastic new Bubbatunes to talk about - Two albums both from 1978 that have yet to and probably never will see an actual record company CD release. The two CDs today have a lot in common - first they are both by women (imagine), the two women who released the albums both started as singers yet are more known for their acting, or at least their television shows than as singers, they also both had a number of variety specials in the 70's and early 80's and I love them... yes, today I give you bubbatunes versions of the debut record albums by Cheryl Ladd and Lynda Carter! Could you just die?? I almost did...

bub84 Cheryl Ladd - Cheryl Ladd (1978; May 1, 2007)
I have told you many times now how much I love me my Miss Ladd, even with her sometimes botoxed new face on her menopause commercial - I say it's botox because her face only looks like that occassionally, in most of the newer pictures and on the TV series Las Vegas, she doesn't look all that different from what she should look like, but every now and then you get a strange Nicollette Sheridan type of pic of my girl and I have to say I don't like it...

but we're not here to talk about Cheryl of 2007, instead we are travelling back almost a full 30 years to when she was one of the Angels. In fact, this album came out the summer after she made her first year on Charlie's Angels, as the sweet rookie Kris Munroe. But Cheryl was more than just a cute face and body, she was lovable and she could sing. Her career started by performing in a band and travelling the country on tour before launching as the singing voice of Melody, the drummer of the cartoon Josie & The Pussycats even putting out a bunch of 45's and an album by the Pussycats. So it was inevitable that once super stardom hit, and believe me when I say at the time Cheryl Ladd was most definitely a superstar, she would be able to record her debut album, and she did.

Unfortunetly for those involved it wasn't a huge success, her debut single, the piano driven loungy pop of "Think It Over" hit the top 40 but whether that was because it's a fun song or if it was on her name alone will probably always be a mystery. I didn't know what to expect when I got the songs on CD but let me say I can't stop listening to the album. Ten songs of love ballads and snappy little 1978 pop songs, she is more Melissa Manchester than Donna Summer, as there really isn't any disco-ish type of stuff on here, just Olivia-ish pop and that's not a bad thing. In fact Cheryl records a few songs over the years that others will end up making more famous, on the debut album she does Dionne Warwick's 1979 hit "I'll Never Love This Way Again" and I will admit Dionne's is the definitive version but that doesn't mean you can pass off Miss Ladd's version as nothing, after all she did do the song first, and in fact the whole album (and her next album 1979's Dance Forever) are produced by big wig Gary Klein who ended up producing much of Dolly Parton's late 70's early 80's albums including her big foray into pop music.

I know a lot of people pass off Cheryl Ladd as just another come up actress wanna be singer but she's actually good, no one is ever going to say she's the Whitney of the 70's or anything but she more than passes on these songs and like I said I have been listening to the album non stop since I made it.

Most of the cuts are in the same poppy vein as the single, "Walking In The Rain" and "The Rose Nobody Knows" have very similar piano lines as the opening cut and she passes off the happy yet mournful tales of love quite well - my ultimate favorite is a little ballad called "Lady Gray" telling the tale of our poor Cheryl who is so sad she's way past being blue, because "blue is the sky/blue is the sea/ gray is nothing/ just like me..." I love it. The second single "Good Good Lovin'" is a jumpy little pop song along the lines of the other songs will Cheryl pumping up a bit more attitude in it, while "Skinnydippin'" is somewhat disco-ish but mostly just a little bit dirty, in the Olivia Newton-John Sandy Olsen way.

Lest you think just because her music is hard to find that I wouldn't be able to scroung up some bonus tracks, well huh, you don't know me very well. On top of the ten tracks that make up the Cheryl Ladd we have two fun little tracks from her follow up album Dance Forever including the title track and the bouncy "Still Awake" which reminds me of (wait for it, wait for it) Lisa frickin' Hartman! After Dance Forever, Cheryl stopped recording for her US audiences and instead catered to her biggest musical fan base, the Japanese - her 1980 The Best Of Cheryl Ladd included two new songs "Where's Someone To Love Me" and the fun "Just Like Old Times" ("please forget to write/ let's neglect to call/ I guess losing you was no loss at all"). Then in 1981 she recorded her last full lenghted album Take A Chance, which was also only released in Japan - we have included the title track which is one of those strange little variety show type of songs about trying to be a star, while her co-write on "Television" makes it even more exciting as a little new wavey type of song (when I say a little I mean a very little) and the poppy "Fascinated" before ending with the ballad "I Love How You Love Me" another song that would become famous by a ton of other artists, though I can't for the life of me think of who recorded it, but I'm sure it was Faith Hill or someone like that...

All in all, Cheryl Ladd is probably the better of our two albums here, and I know I've been playing it a lot and though she doesn't rock out as much as Lisa Hartman, another of the actress/singers people tend to disregard, I really enjoy the whole Cheryl Ladd Musical Experience and see it for what it is, a jumpy bouncy little piece of pop music that does what it's supposed to do - sing along and smile those pearly Angel whites.

Cheryl Ladd - Cheryl Ladd (bub84) Track List:
01. Think It Over 02. Walking In The Rain 03. Skinnydippin' 04. I Know I'll Never Love This Way Again 05. Lady Gray 06. Good Good Lovin' 07. You Turn Me Around 08. I'll Come Runnin' 09. Here Is A Song 10. The Rose Nobody Knows
Bonus Tracks: 11. Dance Forever 12. Still Awake 13. Where Is Someone To Love Me 14. Just Like Old Times 15. Take A Chance 16. Television 17. Fascinated 18. I Love How You Love Me


bub 85 Lynda Carter - Portrait (1978; May 1, 2007)
First of all, whoever came up with the cover of this album should've been fired, this isn't the typical shot of 1978 Lynda Carter and it makes the whole thing look a tad sappy. The back cover was the hot shot of Lynda with her shirt tucked up in between her boobs that became a monster selling poster so at least Portrait had that going on for it.

As for the singing, well like Cheryl, Lynda Carter was also a singer first and an actress second, of course anyone who could pull off Wonder Woman like Lynda is bound to become forever immortalized as that character, but she did make numerous TV variety specials in the 70s and all the way up to 1984, so it's not like any fan didn't know she could sing and dance.

What's so cool about her debut album is it's so much more modern that Cheryl Ladd.. not that it isn't sappy or anything but it sounds a little more like 1978 pop than Cheryl Ladd's does.. I'm not quite sure how to explain except perhaps to look at a few of the songs, Lynda does her share of covers including "Just One Look" and Billy Joel's "She's Always A Woman" switcing the lyrics to, "she's always a woman like me..." which makes the whole thing strange yet kind of alluring. "Tumbledown Love" starts as a ballad type of music before the chorus, "I want to love someone/ but doesn't everyone?" comes in. "Fantasy Man" has elements of disco in it, and "Want To Get Beside You" and "You're The Only One Who Understands" keeps you bopping in that Dolly Parton 1979 way. Lynda co-writes three songs which gives her a bit of an edge of Miss Ladd, but that doesn't necessarily mean her songs are great.. the ending ballad "Toto (It Feels Like Paradise)" became a single and didn't chart, she even sang it on one episode of Wonder Woman, but why all the push I won't understand, because to me it's the lowest point of the set.. the opening track of Portrait, is the disco ballad of "All Night Song" that I thought I could dismiss, but every time it comes on, I turn it up just a bit louder. It was the first single and again didn't show any chart action but it, over all of the songs on both Lynda's Portrait and Cheryl Ladd, "All Night Song" is the song that sounds the most 1978.

Lynda's voice is deeper than I thought it would be, and I remember seeing those specials, but on most of it, I couldn't figure out just who she sounded like, yet I kept thinking it was someone else, well I finally figured it out, she sounds like Rindy Ross, the lead singer of Quarterflash, so if you're into that tone you will instantly recognize it in Lynda's voice, though in earlier songs she sounds like someone else all together.

All in all, I've come to really appreciate the album as well. I knew I would like them both but even I have to admit that sometimes a song just isn't good or a performer's performance just isn't all that and I figured even after burning these I'd end up just putting them on the shelf, saying, "ha, now I have them..." but I've come to really like these albums as not only a little testament of the pop culture that was Cheryl Ladd and Lynda Carter, but because they are actually entertaining little albums.

And like Cheryl Ladd, I wasn't about to miss the opportunity to put on some bonus Lynda tracks, so we get both the A and B side of her 1980 UK single "The Last Song" which was performed for her TV movie of the same name. The B-side is the very country twinged "What's A Little Love Between Friends" that is so familiar I just know someone else recorded it but I just can't figure out who. "Somehow I'll Go On" is the last recorded material of Miss Carter from a 1993 movie and the song is a tad overblown and dramatic but something true fans would appreciate, while "Always" is a fairly crappy recording from the ending theme song from her TV specials but something I felt I should put on... Also here is a pirated copy of her performance as Mama in the West End production of Chicago singing, what else?, "When You're Good To Mama" which she rips up and I just wish I had a perfect recording of it, cause she proves in this 2005 performance that she can sing...

Also on hand are two demo songs she did in 1971 which sound better than some of the rare stuff but still doesn't hold up to the sound quality of the full album though I wish they were prestine versions as her ripping through "It Might As Well Stay Monday" and "I Believe In Music" makes her sound like a fervored Karen Carpenter, and that's a good thing. Her oldies covers from her performance as Rita Hayworth, particularly of "Put the Blame On Mame" is fun though the sound is off. The very last big cut is a bad sounding (all around I'm afraid) version of Otis Redding's "Hard To Handle" with her band from 1971; I'm sure if the sound quality would be better it would kick it, but as it is you can only do so much with what you steal from other people's websites...

LYNDA CARTER - Portrait (bub85) Track List:
01. All Night Song 02. She's Always A Woman 03. Tumbledown Love 04. Just One Look 05. Fantasy Man 06. Lines 07. Want To Get Beside You 08. You're The Only One Who Understands 09. Put On A Show 10. Toto (It Feels Like Paradise)
Bonus Tracks 11. The Last Song 12. What's A Little Love Between Friends 13. Put The Blame On Mame 14. Let There Be Song 15. Somehow I'll Go On 16. When You're Good To Mama 17. It Might As Well Stay Monday 18. I Believe In Music 19. Hard To Handle 20. Always

Labels: Actress, Bubbatunes, Charlie's Angels, Cheryl Ladd, Lynda Carter, Portrait, Singers, Wonder Woman

posted by swivek @ 8:56 AM