Worth Another Listen - Joan Osborne

After I ran the last Sunday Worship, I was prepared to be running another post on her as an artist I really love. But I also got a tweet from one of my indie boys, Aiden James. It said:



So, at that point, I knew I had to do it, because once I can earn a little bit of 'street cred' with an artist I love that will be backed by working singers, I might get the free pass when I put up one of my pop wunderkind that I am sure has people rolling their eyes. And it will be happening soon, since I love my Pop music, and have my own fair share of guilty pleasures. But no matter, because Aiden actually was talking about one of my two favorites songs from Joan's album Relish. He sent the link to St. Teresa, which is just a brilliant vocal performance of a great song.



Relish was released in 1995, with 12 songs, most of which were written by Osborne, Rick Chertoff and two members of the Hooters, Eric Bazilian and Rob Hyman. In fact, it was those four who wrote St. Teresa. And, with the addition of Don Glen Vliet, they also wrote my other favorite, Right-Hand Man. Again Osborne puts on a show with the vocals, although in a totally different way than in the St. Teresa. Osborne flat out rocks the hell out of the song, giving a strong and nuanced performance that was just as steeped in sexuality as it was in meaning. I mean, after listening to it repeatedly, I was nearly ready to go str8 for Joan Osborne.



The big single off the album was, of course, One of Us, featured in the earlier post. For the life of me, with the three very different songs all delivered with such ease and vocal prowess, I have no idea why Osborne didn't become a much bigger star. I mean, part of the reason was it took five years to get a follow-up album, and then the 3rd came out the next year. The third was How Sweet It Is, a album of covers of a variety of songs from Motown favorites like the title song, to The Weight by The Band. Hard to say how much airtime radio would be giving those covers.



Nonetheless, I think she is exceptional. In 2008, she came out with the new album, Little Wild One, which reunited the writing team from Relish for many of the songs, although it was not on a major studio label, so again, granted little airtime on the radio.



You can find out more about Joan Osborne on her official website here.

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Sunday Worship - Joan Osborne - One of Us

Well, not only do I like Joan Osborne as a singer, but I love this song. It was written by Eric Bazilian, a member of The Hooters, on of my favorite Philly bands. And I think the sentiment behind the song speaks to me these days, a point in time when people are voting on whether 'other' people should have rights the voter already has.

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Worth Another Listen - The Hooters

The Hooters are a Philadelphia-based band I was crazy about in the 80s. Eric Bazilian and Rob Hyman made up the core of the band, and wrote much of the music. With them, David Uosikkinem, Bobby Woods and John Kuzma were The Hooters. The band formed in 1980, first playing live in Philly, and then branching out to the East Coast as their popularity grew. In 1982, they were asked to work with a little-known talent, Cyndi Lauper. They played, arranged, and wrote for her debut CD. Hyman co-wrote the song Time After Time for her. Between the success of their live shows and their songwriting skills, The Hooters were signed to a major label in 1984.




In 1985 they released their first label release, Nervous Night. And We Danced was the first song released to radio, and it scored the highest of all the Hooters Billboard Top 100 rankings, getting to 21. But on the Mainstream Rock chart, it zoomed up the #3. The Hooters brought many influences to their music, from zydeco to rock to folk to ska, using instrumentation not big on radio at the time. But the explosive power of the songs and their tight production made them threats to jump on the charts with every release. Here is And We Danced.



The Hooters had another 5 songs climb to the Mainstream Rock Top 20 in the 80s, including Day By Day, Satellite, Johnny B, 500 Miles, and All You Zombies. Brother Don't You Walk Away and Where Do The Children Go just missed, landing in the 30s. Here is a personal favorite of mine, All You Zombies.



Although Nervous Night went double Platinum, and the follow-up, One Way Home, went gold, it was really performing live that was the bread and butter for The Hooters. Their shows were legendary in the Philly area, known for the charismatic nature of the band, fueled by the energy of a crowd primed to love them. They also made inroads in the European market with live shows. The band is still performing both in the US and Europe, with Hyman and Bazilian still firmly entrenched with the Hooters.



To find out more about The Hooter, check out their website here. They just released a new CD, Both Sides Live, with them playing some of their greatest hits and favorite songs live in concert, and also in a studio recorded live. I have it, and will be reviewing soon!

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