Renée Geyer - "Winner" (1978)

'I Miss You'


'Save Me'


'Apartment C & D'

One day soon we'll move on from Renée Geyer at this site, but some great things are appearing so we'll keep going for now :
Although her first U.S. release "Moving Along" (see previous post) had its troubles in the international market, there was enough interest for Polydor to fund the recording of a second album. Motown's Frank Wilson once again manned the console, however this time the Renée Geyer Band provided the rhythm section, ably supported by U.S. session players like Neil Larsen, Ernie Watts, Nate Morgan and the Tower Of Power horns (see credits below).

However, Geyer wasn't happy with either the mix or the promotion that Polydor were providing, and negotiated a release from her contract. She then brought the tapes home to Australia and remixed the album herself with the help of John Sayers and Christo Curtis. She toured the country promoting it, but neither the album nor the two singles released from it enjoyed the same success as previous releases.

One wonders whether Wilson's original mix of the album was more of the polished style that he applied to 1977's "Moving Along", but in any case, we've got a rawer final album here, more in the style of her 1975 album "Ready To Deal" (see previous post) with plenty of Rhodes, some good tracks and, of course, some great vocals.

Perhaps unhappy with its commercial failure, Renée herself has since referred to this album as "Loser", but she's being harsh : "I Miss You" stands out as a great piece of orchestrated jazzy soul, with even a bit of scatting; "Bad Side of the Blues" has a great vocal performance that precurses her later move into more blues-oriented territory; "Apartment C & D" is another one of those big production 70s soul numbers like "Stares and Whispers" on the previous album, with massive orchestration and some of the same writing team, and there's some good slow funk in "Save Me" and "Sweet Kisses". I put up a preview clip of "Money" at the previous "Rarities" post.

BIG BIG thanks to Micko from MidOzTouch for the 320 vinyl rip.

TRACKLIST

01. "Money (That's What I Want)" - 5.19 (Berry Gordy / Janie Bradford)
02. "I Miss You" - 4.50 (Melvin Robinson / Judy Wieder)
03. "Save Me" - 4.13 (Mark Punch / Garry Paige)
04. "Baby I'm the One" - 4.36 (Dee Erwin/Alexandra Brown)
05. "Baby Be Mine" - 3.46 (Jean Mc Clain)
06. "Sweet Kisses" - 6.28 (Mark Punch)
07. "The Magic is Still There" - 3.58 (Mark Punch / Garry Paige)
08. "Bad Side of the Blues" - 4.03 (John Finley / Katherine Ornelas)
09. "Apartment C & D" - 3.54 (John Footman / Judy Wieder / Ron Cederlund)
10. "I Don't Wanna Lose a Good Thing" - 3.50 (Jack Allen / Shelby Flint)

RENEE GEYER BAND

Renée Geyer: Vocals, Backing Vocals

Mark Punch: Guitar

Tim Partridge: Bass

Greg Tell: Drums

OTHER MUSICIANS

Guitars: Melvin Robinson

Piano, Clavinet, Synthesizer: Nate Morgan

Special Synthesizer Work: Michael Boddicker

Keyboards (Tracks 1,5): Neil Larsen

Saxophone: Ernie Watts

Horns (3,5,7): Tower Of Power Horns

Percussion: Jack Ashford; Frederick Lewis

OTHER CREDITS

Producer: Frank Wilson

Recorded at Crystal Sound Recording, Los Angeles, California

Mixing: John Sayers, Renée Geyer, Christo Curtis at Studio 301, Sydney, Australia

Horn Arrangements : Bruce Miller (Tower Of Power Horns)

String arangements : Bruce Miller, Sonny Burke, Jim Martin

Cover Illustration: Shane ConroyDetails from Wikipedia

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