Pat Benatar's "True Love" Blues Turns 20

Impacting in 1979, Pat Benatar made her largest waves during the 1980's. Fierce and feminine, Benatar redefined the rock and roll music model for women. In spite of the Atlas-like weight of carrying that torch, Benatar's classically trained voice was bigger than rock and was evidenced on True Love (1991).

The History
In 1984 Benatar released Tropico. Assistance in the creation of this legendary recording was lent by Neil "Spyder" Giraldo: lead guitarist, husband, and musical partner. Tropico's mission to widen her artistic lane was successfully broached. The triumph was only surpassed by arrival of their first daughter during the same period. Unfortunately, the mood got doused by recurring spats with Benatar's label Chrysalis Records. A successful, if uneasy union had finally come to a head when they forced Benatar & Co. back into the studio directly after giving birth to begin work on what became Seven the Hard Way (1985). Wide Awake in Dreamland followed in 1988. Both records were strong but showed the commercial wear and tear that characterized Chrysalis' record-tour-record format. The public had become as exhausted as Benatar.

In the wake of this, a dramatic retooling of Benatar's label court and contracts happened. These changes allowed Benatar a significant amount of space to recharge from a non-stop schedule of touring and recording, as well as a larger retroactive percentage of royalties from her previous albums. In the period between Wide Awake in Dreamland and True Love, it was Neil Giraldo who nurtured the seedling of a "jump blues" record. That seed, planted with Tropico's the "Ooh Ooh Song," was finally going to surface as Benatar's first offering of the 1990's.

The Record
In Benatar's 2010 memoir, In Between a Heart and a Rock Place, Benatar recalled the initial reaction in 1990 on her end to her husband's inquiry to record a blues album:

"Absolutely not. There's no way we're doing that." Spyder and I had loved the blues all our lives. It was the music we played at home, for personal enjoyment. He was convinced we would make an amazing record, but I was pretty sure that he'd lost his mind. I didn't want to be one more white chick trying to sing the blues, and Christ, who was whiter than me?"

Benatar agreed finally and the record began to form. The True Love schematic split the recording into two halves: part covers, part original material. The covers encompassed work by blues legends like Hank Penny ("Bloodshot Eyes"), Albert King ("I Get Evil"), and B.B. King ("Payin' the Cost to be the Boss," "I've Got Papers On You") to name some.

With the map of True Love set down, the Benatar band long timers on board were: Neil Giraldo (guitar), Charlie Giordano (piano, organ, accordion), and Myron Grombacher (drums). Additionally, a gathering of session musician excellence was brought in to make True Love as accomplished as possible.

Originating in 1967, and still active today, The Roomful of Blues are a conglomerate of musicians boasting, at various times, over 50 revolving members. They tour as their own attraction and back other notable musicians in their respective blues genre. Their collaborations lists the likes of the already mentioned B.B. King, Otis Rush, Stevie Ray Vaughn, and Eric Clapton. The line-up present for this album was: Greg Accolo (tenor sax), Doug James (baritone sax), Rich Lataille* (alto sax), Carl Querfurth (trombone), Bob Enos (trumpet), and John Rossi (drums).

The talent didn't stop there, Benatar & Co. were joined by Lenny Castro on percussion (Al Jarreau, Alien Ant Farm, Olivia Newton-John) and the late bassist Chuck Dominaco (Natalie Cole, Manhattan Transfer, Joni Mitchell). All of these big names may have invited the idea that True Love was nothing more than just a professional showcase. That wasn't true at all.

Everyone came together in an exuberant balance, creating ample arrangements for Benatar's voice. Throughout, Benatar was  versatile, giving unaffected, vivacious vocals over a wide swath of blues: swing, boogie-woogie, and jump. The "tear it up" gender reversal on B.B. King's "Payin' the Cost to be the Boss" was nothing less than sexy. Its gold plated brass and piano was heady.

The victory scores rolled on with an electric rendition of "I Get Evil" and the Charles Brown Christmas diamond "Please Come for Christmas." The original material held its own too. The velvet title track, with its thick bass pizzicato, ranked as one of the Benatar's most unsung recorded moments in her career. The “jump ‘n’ jive” energy on "I Feel Lucky" allowed everyone a space to show off their skills with instrumental breaks. Fiery ("Don't Happen No More") and forlorn ("So Long") in both hands, Benatar sounded rejuvenated. True Love was the sound of an artist rediscovering the joy for her craft.

The Impact
True Love, Benatar's first offering of the 1990's was released domestically on April 9th, 1991. Promoted by a small scale tour focusing on this album, to the annoyance of some, True Love had a tough, but not unconquerable sell. Many who greeted the record with skepticism, as seen in Jim Farber's assessment in Entertainment Weekly:

"Pat Benatar has just released the comedy record of the year. She's out to become the ultimate tough blues mama, someone who's been singing for decades about hard liquor and harder men. All she does well, though, is sing loudly. Admittedly that was the main requirement for her former persona as she-wolf of suburban hard rock, but here when she sings something like ''I Get Evil'' you get the idea that the worst sin she could imagine would be purposely not to tell her friends about a sale at Neiman-Marcus. At times her backup band (the respected Roomful of Blues) really burns, but Benatar still makes everything sound like the funkier parts of Suzanne Somers' Vegas act."

All Music Guide, via the opinion of Alex Henderson, remarked in a fair fashion:

"A radical departure from the type of slick pop/rock she'd been embracing on albums like Tropico and Wide Awake in Dreamland, True Love found Pat Benatar embracing blues and early pre-rock R&B. Opting for less production and a much rawer approach, an inspired Benatar ditches the synthesizers and keyboards and sounds like she's leading a bar band in a Chicago dive. From Albert King's "I Get Evil" to B.B. King's "Payin' the Cost to Be the Boss" to Charles Brown's "Please Come Home for Christmas," the results aren't breathtaking, but are generally honest and soulful. Quite clearly, this was an album Benatar was eager to make."

The now defunct Stereo Review magazine, via critic Parke Puterbaugh, showered the album with praise:

"True Love is an unpretentious romp through a set of jump blues, and Benatar has enough of an aptitude for the form to know not to overdo it. She's always sung sassily, but the way she wraps her voice around a song like "Bloodshot Eyes," assisted by a solid shot of reverb, is a minor revelation. A pleasurable comeback album for Pat Benatar, who may have hit us with her best shot when we least expected it."

"True Love" VH-1 Documentary, Circa 1991


Commercially, the record didn't solve Benatar's sales woes. The record placed #37 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Album Chart and moved 339,000** copies overall in America. These were Pat Benatar's first Soundscan numbers since it was implemented in tracking sales of music in the U.S. The album placed at #40 on the UK Album Charts and #42 on the ARIA (Australian) charts, the only international showings for the record.

Three singles were birthed from True Love: the title track, "So Long," and "Payin' the Cost to Be the Boss." "Boss" hit #17 on the Hot Mainstream Rock Chart in the States, a chart Benatar continued to hold sway over after her other U.S. chart appearances cooled. The former two made no waves on any subsequent formats in America, though "True Love" was a minor Dutch hit (#21).

Benatar followed up with Gravity's Rainbow (1993), which returned her to rock. It was her last album for Chrysalis, though two other fine efforts materialized in the aftermath of her Chrysalis departure: Innamorata (1997, CMC International) and Go! (2003, Bel Chiasso). Benatar remains a highly in demand live act, but hasn't released a record of original work since 2003. In viewing her discography in hindsight, emphasis placed on True Love, it becomes clear that Pat Benatar lived up to her own lore. Long seen as a rule breaker in the male world of rock, Benatar made her own way. True Love's stylistic step forward was proof that even her own genre wouldn't inhibit her artistic credibility. Five out of five stars.-QH

[Editor's Note: *=Mr. Rich Lataille is the sole remaining original member of The Roomful of Blues. **=Billboard cited sales figure. True Love is still in print, and can be located used or new in most indie record stores or online retailers. For current information on Pat Benatar, visit www.benatar.com -QH]

Mariah Carey's "Glitter" Redux 10 Years On

In 2001, Mariah Carey unveiled her seventh album and gambled on a crossover into the movie medium. Spending the past decade defying obstacles and winning hearts, no one, least of all Carey herself saw the doom ahead.

Glitter as an album signaled a larger query of Carey's conflicts with quality over quantity. Unlike previous bouts, Glitter was Carey's first recording to offer a spotlight to her best and worst moments in one place.

The History
Capping off her golden period at Columbia Records, Carey made an energized maneuver to sign with Virgin Records in 2000. Settling in quickly, Carey began drawing on all her abilities to create her seventh album and its partner film. Under the working title of "All That Glitters," the film became Glitter. Barring the obvious allusions of Billie Frank, the film heroine, being a biracial singer and native New Yorker, the comparisons between Carey and Frank stopped there. The Vondie Curtis-Hall directed work placed Carey as Frank in a post-disco, early 1980's New York City. There, Frank/Carey struggled with romance, career aspirations, and other plot devices that amorous period pieces like this are made of. The movie featured additional acting appearances from Max Beesley, Eric Benét, Shawntae Harris (Da Brat), Terrence Howard, and Tia Texada. Carey's first movie was made grander by its soundtrack, which for all intents and purposes was an album Carey seemed destined to record since 1995.

The Record
Not the same age as Billie Frank in Glitter, Carey was a teenager in New York when it was rife with exciting changes. Black music was bravely soaring to new horizons in dance and a harsher art form known as hip-hop. These styles coalesced into the black new wave Glitter took place in, roughly 1983.

Great artists from this era heard in the film included Whodini ("Freaks Come Out At Night"), D-Train ("You're the One For Me"), Zapp ("Dance Floor"), The System ("You Are in My System"), and the S.O.S. Band ("Tell Me If You Still Care"). Carey's own music leading up to Glitter peered back to her youth. Read the liner notes to the Daydream (1995) cut "Fantasy" to see Tom Tom Club's "Genius of Love" sampled. The-then recent "Heartbreaker" from Rainbow (1999) styled Stacy Lattisaw's "Attack of the Name Game" into roller rink bliss. Carey's musical legitimacy was potent to record the ultimate resurrection of '80's R&B on an album. It was something many of her fans and knowing critics had pined for.

Carey ushered in assistance from three men who helped shape that span of time: Jimmy Jam, Terry Lewis, and the late Rick James. Additional production duties fell to Walter Afanasieff, James "Big Jim" Wright, Damizza, D.J. Clue, and  Clark Kent.

Twelve songs, including a tangled, guest star riddled remix of the lead single "Loverboy," filled Glitter. The ballads, Carey's watermark, were some of her most silken. The Afanasieff number "Lead the Way" was majestic, if by-the-numbers. "Twister," a harmonious slice of soul, was written as a tribute to a friend and stylist of Carey's who passed away. "Reflections (Care Enough)" lyrically eyed the film plot and brought with it a gospel stained emotion that echoed Mariah Carey (1990). Detailing Carey's gift as a writer, it received larger notoriety on The Ballads in 2009. "Never Too Far," a massive, orchestral beauty was one of the criminally forgotten Carey songs of the last decade.

The Rick James produced and penned "All My Life" situated itself as the major player of Glitter. Surrounded by opulent flutes and florid keyboards, Carey gave her sexiest performance. "Want You," a duet with Eric Benét, (who played Rafael in the flick) was inspired by Nick Martinelli, the producer associated with the '80's U.K. soul sounds of Loose Ends. The sensual tune put the listener into the midnight skyline of New York City.

The jubilant "Loverboy" sampled Cameo's "Candy" (ironically released in 1986); both Larry Blackmon and Thomas Jenkins (of Cameo) appeared in the song (and video). Carey's layered coos, giggles, and sighs either charmed or grated. Busier than her previous sample-led singles, "Loverboy" was the last in that lane to date. The cut and paste of Carey's voice over Cherrelle's "I Didn't Mean to Turn You On," from '84's Fragile, was baffling. The pressurized dance cut actually fit Carey well. It begged the question as to why Jam and Lewis, the producers of the original and repeated form here, didn't construct a new song out of the production cloth of "I Didn't Mean to Turn You On." The film used this as the song that breaks Billie Frank.

Lazy covers of InDeep's "Last Night a D.J. Saved My Life" and Tom Browne's "Funkin' For Jamaica (N.Y.)," recast as "(Don't Stop) Funkin' for Jamaica" wasted the potential these songs had to move Carey closer to her '80's R&B retro nirvana. "Last Night" was clumsily mobbed by Fabulous, D.J. Clue, and Busta Rhymes; Mystikal's verses on "(Don't Stop) Funkin' for Jamaica" reduced Carey to a hook girl on her own album. "If We" furthered the hook girl dilemma by supplanting Carey to chorus status while Ja Rule and the late Nate Dogg delivered dire verses. These creative breakdowns hounded Carey throughout Glitter, its combination of good and bad on one record made the assessment of the LP arduous.


The Impact
The film and its album were preceded by "Loverboy" on 7/17/01. "Loverboy" topped the U.S. Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop chart and landed at a comfortable #2 position on the Billboard Hot 100. As the single certified gold, more was made over the David LaChapelle directed video that portrayed Carey as a race track girl to the chagrin of critics. Internationally, the single was met with lukewarm or fair receptions: Canada (#3), Australia (#7), U.K. (#12), Japan (#52).

Later, Carey's behavior began to lean toward the erratic during the press blitz for the film and album. It culminated in an unscheduled appearance on the Carson Daly hosted MTV Total Request Live program. Carey had a brief respite from public appearances at which time the film and album were pushed back. The movie hit cinemas on 9/21/01 while disastrously the companion record dropped on 9/11/01. Characterized as "mental exhaustion," Carey emerged from her break refreshed to finish plugging her projects.

The film was slammed by poor sales and reviews, whereas the album was met with mixed thoughts.

All Music Guide hard nose Stephen Thomas Erlewine stated:

...this album shows that Mariah needs some guiding force, something to keep her on track. Otherwise, she sinks into gormless ballads, covers of early-'80s funk tunes that sound exactly like the originals, hip-hop funk that plays plastic and stiff. This touches on everything Mariah tried before, but nothing works, not the oversinging, not the sentimental, not the desperate attempts for street cred.

His thoughts were furthered by David Browne of Entertainment Weekly:

...it's Mariah, business as usual: a few overemoted ballads, a few doses of lite-FM hip-hop, all of it as gauzy and shapeless as her previous work.

Though, there were critics that championed the areas of Glitter that showed growth. Sal Cinquemani, of Slant Magazine, reflected:

"All My Life," a collaboration with Rick James, would make a daring yet commercially viable single. Its Studio 54-era synth-flutes and sultry vocal could, at the very least, rub up against the boundaries of pop radio like no other Carey tune has since 1995's "Fantasy." "Want You," a duet with "Glitter" co-star Eric Benét is another retro gem, featuring grinding bass and Carey's distinctive vocal phrasing (she uncurls seemingly verbose adjectives like "painstakingly" with unrivaled ease).

The most fair and accurate review came from Rolling Stone writer Rob Sheffield in the 8/30/01 issue of the magazine. Sheffield captured the ethos of this album as thus:

The vintage-flavored music evokes classic R&B groups like Ready for the World, Atlantic Starr, Skyy and even my beloved Klymaxx. With Glitter, Mariah takes a step toward staking her claim as a grown-up.

"Never Too Far"
Directed By: Vondie Curtis-Hall


Commercially, the record continued the downward arc started with Rainbow, moving just 100,000 its first week of release. Glitter garnered respectable positions on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Album Chart (#7) and the U.S. Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Album Chart (#6). It claimed platinum status quickly in America. The worldwide audiences received Glitter better: Japan (#1), Spain (#3), France (#5) U.K. (#10), Australia (#13).

As such, a plethora of promotional singles were pulled from Glitter to keep the album afloat in the international territories. These singles included "(Don't Stop) Funkin' for Jamaica," "Reflections (Care Enough)," and "Last Night a D.J. Saved My Life." A video for "(Don't Stop)..." can be currently seen on Youtube, but received no push. The major follow-up to "Loverboy" in the United States was "Never Too Far," promoted with a performance segment of the song taken from the movie. The single missed the U.S. Pop and R&B charts altogether, but performed at U.S. Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks (#17). Currently, Glitter has shifted 3 million units worldwide.

The fallout from this caused Virgin Records to buy-out the $100 million dollar contract they had given Carey, effectively paying her to leave the label. Carey inked a deal with Island/Def Jam Records who released Charmbracelet (2002), The Emancipation of Mimi (2005), E=MC² (2008), Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel (2009), and Merry Christmas II You (2010).

Mimi returned Carey to commercial and critical favor, its creative slant not nearly as interesting as Glitter's best sides. That honor went to 2009's Memoirs, which had Carey in her best voice since Glitter, but like that album it staged Carey's constant musical schism. This is, and may always be, Carey's battle. Carey's unwillingness to balance or explore a particular artistic path has left her discography ravaged with holes. Glitter was a tool that easily might have broadened her sound. Without the risk, there is no reward and for Carey it's not too late to grasp the risk. In the meantime, one can look at the erroneous ends of Glitter and forgive them.The songs that do it right do it well. Three stars out of five.

[Editor's Note-Glitter is still readily in print and can be located in most music retailers. For current news on Mariah Carey, visit Mariah Carey Official.-QH]

Jennifer Lopez's "Love?" Lacks Lola

"Fresh Out the Oven", the first breath from the Love? project, had Lopez confident and aware. The cut gripped the listener in its clasp of late night disco whispered come-on's. A perfectly placed feature from Mr. Armando Christian Perez, a.k.a Pitbull, gave it an even ruder feel. Then, with what promised to be the return of Jennifer Lopez as Lola in 2009, became one of the two years that saw the Love? album setback repeatedly.

Epic Records, unsure of how to promote the track and its subliminal video, wrote off "Fresh..." as a mere "buzz track." They backtracked with a more climate friendly taster in "Louboutins" in 2010. That song, to the knowing, was a clone to the superior fashionista feminism manifesto "Miles in These Shoes" from Brave (2007). When that song, despite some of Lopez's strongest live performances to date, failed to catch on Epic dropped Lopez into the lap of Island/Def Jam Records. There, Lopez began to wrap up an album that still lacked an identity outside of restoring her sales status. In the meantime Lopez found time to take a seat on the American Idol judge panel with Randy Jackson and Aerosmith fronter Steven Tyler.

Love?, Jennifer Lopez's seventh record, attempts to solve the commercial conundrum Lopez courted as early as 2005 with the "only platinum" peak of Rebirth. The real elephant in the room, dismissing its low selling point, was that the previous album Brave was fantastic. Brave's only challengers were Como Ama Una Mujer (2007) and This is Me...Then (2002). All three albums presented that Jennifer Lopez had more bite than her harshest critics ever led the public to believe.

Does Love? tightrope between legacy longevity or "for today" fortunes? The answer is a resounding no to the former and yes to the latter. There is no mistaking that Lopez was never a non-commercial entity, but she did gracefully pick up artistic mileage with each record recorded. Love? barely approaching the transitional highs of Rebirth ties J.Lo (2000) as her worst offering.

Production duties on this fiasco mainly incriminate RedOne, Lady Gaga, Terius "The-Dream" Nash, Christopher "Tricky" Stewart, Danja, and several other mainstream mobsters who warp Lopez's sound into faceless Top 40 oblivion. Previously, La Lopez exerted heavier themes, so "Starting Over" and "Until It Beats No More" shouldn't  have been an issue. They fail on Love? as musically they don't provide adequate staging for her vocal growth to make the songs convincing."On the Floor", the current chart hit, almost raises pulses with a sultry riff of Kaoma's "Lambada" merging with Lopez's voice to echo the sweet rush that made "Waiting For Tonight" a transcendent modern classic. The bulky dance beat hits harder than needed, resulting in "On the Floor's" melodic appeal being bludgeoned by RedOne's production. Mentioning RedOne, his and Lady Gaga's "Invading My Mind" and "Hypnotico" evidence from their overwrought titles, to their listless electro-pop that Gaga's sound isn't one size fits all. "I'm Into You" is sweet enough, though the cameo assist from Lil' Wayne is like sliding a platinum grill front over an already beautiful smile.

Love? is not completely lost, three songs make the record worth the trek through unworthy fare. "Good Hit" is an update on Lopez's Boricua street power, dressing it up in cybertronic camp cool that bring to mind Robyn's "Fembot" from last year's Body Talk (2010). The execution of the playful fussiness that skips along on "Good Hit" is Lopez through and through.

"(What Is) Love?", one of the few tracks that survived the initial sessions of Love?, is where Lopez flourishes. A moving song, it looks to introspection and cute critique. Regardless of any criticism hurled at Jennifer Lopez, she always had spunk in major supply. Whether she was the round the way girl or the diva, Lopez built on her approach-ability by becoming a better singer and songwriter. Love? is the necessary evil of returning commercial clout to La Lopez, but it saps her of all her powers, leaving her unrecognizable. That may work for Britney Spears and her cult in 2011, but Jennifer Lopez's faithful require more stimulation. Or at the very least a little Lola.

"Good Hit" & "Take Care" Virals Behind the Scenes


"Everyone's got to make a living..." went the sampled tagline on her '02 hit "Jenny From the Block." Lopez does have a "brand" to maintain, but that brand always had a heart at its center. Hopefully with the sales coup of Love? it will allow Lopez to return back to being the pop maven she really is. Two and a half stars out of five.-QH

[Editor's Note: Love? in all music retailers now. For current news on Jennifer Lopez, visit her official site.-QH)