For the past few months I've been listening to all of my CDs in order of release and as of today we are in September of 1981 and that means we have hit another Bubbatunes - and it's another Cheryl Ladd classic. In fact, it's probably her best of the 3 albums she released. Unfortunetly TAKE A CHANCE was only released in Japan so not many people have heard it.
The album continues on her soft pop vibe with ballads like the beautiful (and oft covered) "I Love How You Love Me", also her vocals on the ballad "It's Only Love" are incredible. The faster songs include the title track which was released as a single prior to the album (again only in Japan). "Lesson From The Leaving" seems to use sports metaphors to talk about a break up but it's catchy as hell and I keep singing it everytime I hear the title. "Victim Of The Circumstance" closes the album with a song that seems to be about her ex-husband Allan Ladd - nothing horrible just a kind of love letter type of thing.
Also released as a single is the up tempo "Just Another Lover Tonight" about some girl or guy who just takes lovers and throws them away, it's pretty fun but the ultimate two on the album are "Fascinated" which should have been a single everywhere (see the video from one of Cheryl's specials below) and "Television" - a song she co-wrote with her husband Brian Russell. In order to get over a break up our girl watches a lot of TV - the lyrics are fantastic and hilarious.
So here you go, another Bubbatunes exclusive - get it while you can!
bub144 CHERYL LADD - TAKE A CHANCE (December 20, 2011)
Track List: 01. TAKE A CHANCE 02. FASCINATED 03. HOLD ON TO LOVE 04. I LOVE HOW YOU LOVE ME 05. TELEVISION 06. JUST ANOTHER LOVER TONIGHT 07. COLD AS ICE 08. LESSON FROM THE LEAVING 09. TRY A SMILE 10. THE FOOL IN ME 11. IT'S ONLY LOVE 12. VICTIM OF THE CIRCUMSTANCE
Download CHERYL LADD - TAKE A CHANCE
It's been awhile since we did a new Bubbatunes but I got new ink and paper for Christmas so I've been working on a few things. Also, a few months ago I decided to go through my entire CD collection and listen to them in order of their release. As it happens, I am now in April of 1979 when this little ditty was released.
Several times a year I tell everyone how much I love Cheryl Ladd. She was my favorite Charlie's Angel and she happens to be the only one of them who was also a singer. I've already posted her debut album way back in 2007 and it took me this long to get her next two albums - Dance Forever & Take A Chance; but here we are finally.
Like her debut album from the previous year, Dance Forever goes between soft pop ballads and some upbeat soft pop. I think Dance Forever is a better album and it's probably because more outside professional songwriters were brought in. She does an awesome cover of Melissa Manchester's "Better Days" and the upbeat "You're The Only One I Ever Needed" was re-recorded by Dolly Parton a year later for her album Dolly, Dolly, Dolly. "Still Awake" is bouncy fun and "Missing You" issued as a single has a sassy disco-ish beat. There is a 12" remix running around but I haven't been able to find out so it didn't make it as a bonus track on the album. But the bonus tracks we did get are "Where Is Someone To Love Me" released in 1980 to the Japan market (Cheryl's music was big in Japan) and it's flip side "Just Like Old Times" - one of my all time fav Cheryl songs - "So let's forget to write/ please neglect to call/ Maybe losing you's no loss at all" - sassy fun.
So for a limited time enjoy some Cheryl - we'll be back soon with Take A Chance.
CHERYL LADD - DANCE FOREVER (bub143) Track List: 01. Dance Forever 02. Better Days 03. Still Awake 04. On The Run 05. Teach Me Tonight 06. You're The Only One I Ever Needed 07. Thunder In The Distance 08. Missing You 09. Whatever Would I Do Without You 10. Rock And Roll Slave Bonus Tracks: 11. Where Is Someone To Love Me 12. Just Like Old Times
Just to keep you all in daily posts I find it quite easy and entertaining to bring you RandombubbaTUNES so here is yet another one. And this time it's a doozy. It's my ultimate favorite Charlie's Angel Kris Munroe (thanks Lisa for my season 4 DVD!!!) Cheryl Ladd and her video representation of her song "FASCINATED" - enjoy it if you can handle all the fun.
Welcome to this week's edition of A Few Of My Favorite Things... so let's get to it.
My whole frickin' life (all of these 20-something years huh umm) I've wanted a Ford Mustang - just about any version of the car would do. One of my earliest TV memories is of Farrah Fawcett and Cheryl Ladd driving the white with blue striped Ford Mustang Cobra II on Charlie's Angels and then today I was walking to work and I saw a brand new Mustang with the same paint job and it is now one of my favorite things - though instead of the classic Shelby name I think they should've called it the Munroe Edition since it was driven by Jill and Kris Munroe on Charlie's Angels.
A video shot of my pals Shitting Glitter and Rich N. Famous performing "I'm A Vampire" at Eleven this past Tuesday.
And after you've the genius that are my friends in Shitting Glitter, drop on in on this hilarious website where people post pictures of well, like it says Awkward Boners... no nudes, that's not really awkward, just poor boys who get snapped for having a little extra something going on in their pants at some more inopportune moments.
I always have so many favorite things kicking around in my head and this week isn't any different..
First of all, one of my all time favorite things is GREEN DAY. I have loved this band forever. Billy Joe is like a hero to me .. they had Pansy Division tour with them, they wrote and had a hit with a song about jerkin' off, they had a whole album now to be a musical based on their hatred for George W's America and now they have told Wal Mart to shove it when the big chain refused to sell their new album 21st Century Breakdown uncensored. It sucks as Wal Mart is now the biggest retail chain for carrying music but the band makes an excellant point saying the decision by Wal Fart will have negative effect on new artists trying to break out and not being able to say what they want... oh and the album still debuted at #1 anyway. OLD TV SHOWS ON DVD part 1,069 - I know this comes up a lot on my favorites this but come on they are finally releasing some great ones. Four years after releasing the Charlie's Angels season 3 DVD set the Powers that Be are finally releasing season 4 next month. Sure the Shelley Hack season is a bust because of her, but the cover shot is one of my all time fav Angels shots and I'm sure she's not that horrible, plus Cheryl Ladd really takes over once 'Bri is gone and finally it means there's only one more to go - the brilliant season 5 with sassy pants red head Julie Rodgers played by Tanya Roberts.. believe me when that is announced it will make this list too.
and finally BIRTHDAYS! I love birthdays, I love the look on someone's face knowing that this is their special day and pretty much only their day - no one else's. But I really like MY BIRTHDAY as it is my special day - MINE, NO ONE ELSE'S - and it's the only holiday where I don't have to reciprocate by giving someone a return gift.... and did I mention tomorrow is my birthday???
So very sorry for not writing as of late but it suddenly occured to me I have a bunch of self induced projects going on. First and foremost I'm still working on that damn new Swivek album, but with all the work going into it I can tell you it's going to be good. I even wrote three new songs in the last few weeks so things are a rocking. Obviously with next week being Thanksgiving and Christmas only a few weeks away, I'm pushing the date for Everybody Hates You to next year... but it will be sometime in the early parts. This gives me the extra time to fine tune the songs I am definitely including, finally figure out the track list - there are 8 songs for absolute sure - "Everybody Hates You", "Art Attacks", "Wounded", "Rock Hard", "Fabulous", "Cry Baby", "This Is A Town" and "Suck Out The Sun" -
luckily the only reason I can't come up with a definite track list is I like all 23 (yes 23!) songs I recorded for the album... and I'm going to have my pal Jules come over and add her angelic voice to some harmony on a few songs and since she's as busy as a busy busy b, I'll be lucky if she can hit the mic before New Year's.... plus with the extra time we can make a video or two! I really want to shoot a cool (as cool as cheap can be) for the next single which will be "Rock Hard"... I also am sending some songs over to my ingenius godson/nephew Z who makes videos with his friends so he can whip up a Swivek video...
Then I just realized I HAVE to go Christmas shopping this weekend or anyone not in my immediate residency won't get their Christmas presents on time. Luckily, I found some cool things for my little nephew - he's fun to shop for.
and for almost two years now I've been promising the second (and final) season of Carlton Heights, and I have my notes all together and the first episode almost complete, but it just takes me a bit to get back into it.. and everytime I hit the computer I end up working on music. So once that's wrapped up we'll be good to go.
And then there's that little Bubbatunes CD re-release project that is never ending.. hopefully I will have a couple more before year's end including a few more Kim Wilde CDs, two Cheryl Ladd CDs, Scott Baio, Kirsty MacColl and a few more... I know what would you do without my odd taste in tunage...
and for the Cher fan who loved "Prisoner" and was looking for more Cher, I have to search out the blog with "Take Me Home" on it, but I'm sure it's here somewhere and as for the other Cher albums on CD, they're still a coming - sometime in the future, I plan on putting, "Stars", "I'd Rather Believe In You", "Allman & Woman" and "Cherished" on CD and a compilation of Cher Misses (the songs that just didn't hit)...
Alright I'm off to find something to do... but will be next week with more posts ( I swear )
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 Tracks11. 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
Last week I posted about my undying affection for Cheryl Ladd, and as much as I love that blonde angel, there is one 70's icon that takes her place as my ultimate favorite. Lynda Carter will always be Wonder Woman to millions and millions and it's so hard to even conceive that someone else would be able to play the superhero, which is why I think the movie idea has always been pushed back. I mean firstly how does one bring Wonder Woman to the big screen and how do you find someone to fill that suit the way Lynda did?
As a kid I loved Wonder Woman, okay as an adult I love Wonder Woman, I even have the DVD sets and love watching them. I saw all of Lynda Carter's variety specials in the 80's and constantly am on the internet scouting out to find them on DVD and to find her album Portrait. That's right the girl made an album too. In her defense, she was a singer prior to the landing of WW so it made sense she'd want to make an album.
I even owned the poster you see here, it is apparantly the biggest seller ever even outselling Farrah's nipple pic. Lynda won an award for the biggest selling poster of 1978 for the thing. I loved all of her TV movies including The Last Song (which I own on DVD) and the excellant Stillwatch (1987) which had three things going for it - Lynda, Angie Dickinson and it was based on a Mary Higgins Clark novel. Then her 1984 TV series Partners In Crime with Loni Anderson had this pre pubescent boy glued to my TV set on Saturday nights.
Anyway, to reiterate I love Lynda and am always looking for stuff about her. So imagine my ultimate shock when I hit the motherlode and found a website that had somehow eluded me all of these years. The Wonderland Site is dedicated to Lynda with a ton of pictures, videos of her work including her variety specials! and downloads of her frickin' songs. You know a Bubbatunes is on its way.
For anyone who loves Lynda, Wonder Woman or pure kitch, I highly suggest you bop over to for a look - you'll be left in pure wonderment.
One of my all time favorite shows from when I was but a wee tyke is Charlie's Angels - I mean who doesn't love that show? Everyone who loves the show has a favorite Angel - most are Farrah fans with Jaclyn Smith right up there and then there's my ultimate favorite Cheryl Ladd. I love her, and did from the moment she strutted onto the show in its second season. I mean I even stole my cousin Paula's Cheryl Ladd doll - though my mother caught me as I stuffed it into my jacket. She always caught me doing that crap..
A few years ago when Charlie's Angels was finally released on DVD, I opted not to buy it as first I'm fairly frugal and second, I wanted to make sure the seasons with Cheryl were going to be released. So season 2 finally made its debut and I still didn't buy it cause the damn thing is expensive man - so I still don't own it but finally thanks to Amoeba and a $20 selling price I got my mugs on Charlie's Angels Season 3 which is of course with Cheryl, and it happens to be Kate Jackson's last season. My pal and partner in all that is 70's and 80's Jen came over last weekend and we watched a few episodes and realized how much we really love it.
Now if the seasons continue on DVD I will be in Angel Heaven - I really want season 5 because though it may be a strange choice, I really liked the final season with Tanya Roberts as Julie Rogers - she was street wise and hot, and her introduction in the first episode of season 5 is great - as for season 4 Shelley Hack has always been to me a bit of a, well hack. She's the lesser version of Priscilla Barnes and that's a strange thing to be. I still haven't found that elusive Charlie's fan who goes ape shizz crazy for Tiffany Welles, but something tells me he's out there (you know it's a boy)...
But the highlight of this rambling little ode to all that is Charlie's and Cheryl is this - the season 3 two part opener has the Angels headed to Vegas and as they all go undercover, they throw Kris Munroe (my Cheryl) into a gig as a singer. That's when I remembered that Cheryl had recorded a few albums in the 70's. She even scored a top 40 hit with "Think It Over", a very 70's adult contemp type of tune. I'm not even kidding when I say she was big in Japan.
Anyhoos, I thought it would be so cool to track down that song. Luckily for us all, Cheryl is an internet type of Angel and if you go to her official website, supposedly updated by the woman herself at her music page on www.cherylladd.com you can download 18 songs from her short career! I just about fell over. Her singing voice is much deeper than I would've imagined - though the sound quality is a little off on some of them, never fear because you know there's a Bubbatunes mix with 'remastering' in the works... until then enjoy the sweet sounds of 70's (it's very Melissa Manchester-ish and not disco at all) including the ultimate highlight "Television"...
and if you really feel the need, let's talk Angels - who's your fav? Shelley Hack's stoney performance of Tiffany Welles???
Location: West Hollywood, California, United States
SHORT VERSION: Bradley Jacobson is a singer/songwriter, sometime actor, sometime writer, audio engineer and producer, and all around happy dude. He was the singer/songwriter of the electronic trashy punky pop band Swivek, but is now a "solo" artist releasing music under his own name.
