That’s right, I’m at it again with another Mystery Date! This one won’t be nearly as involved as the previous, as there isn’t much to say about this particular tune.
I’m not sure how good of a mystery this is, you won’t need to be Sherlock Holmes to crack it. At least three members of this band went on to other, more successful, musical enterprises. It won’t surprise me if your blind date ends at “Hello,” but try to stick it out a little bit. After all, you don’t want to hurt your Mystery Guest’s feelings, do you?
Give a listen – can you place the day, the time and any other details you care to note?
Enjoy?
Let’s review the ground rules here…
The Mystery Date song is not necessarily something I believe to be good. So feel free to rip it or praise it. Rather the song is something of interest due to the artist, influences, time period… Your job is to decipher as much as you can about the artist without research. Who do you think it is? Or, Who do you think it sounds like? When do you think it was recorded? Etc…
If you know who it is, don’t spoil it for the rest. Anyone who knows it can play the “mockcarr option.” (And I’ve got a hunch at least one of you know this one.) This option is for those of you who just can’t hold your tongue and must let everyone know just how in-the-know you are by calling it. So if you know who it is and want everyone else to know that you know, email Mr. Moderator at mrmoderator [at] rocktownhall [dot] com. If correct we will post how brilliant you are in the Comments section.
The real test of strength though is to guess as close as possible without knowing. Ready, steady, go!
This is what I imagine a young Jon Bon Jovi, Eddie Money, and someone from Foreigner or Mott the Hoople might cook up. It’s catchy as he’ll despite trafficking in some grandiose sense of power balladry.
Man, that sounds familiar. 80’s. Aiming for the top of the charts, but missing because he’s not Brooce. The singer’s voice is good on that until he the end, when he becomes his own backup singer. I’ve never heard anyone’s voice sound so mismatched when singing by themselves.
2000 Man, that is a great observation! I was going to comment that two things that seem to keep this song from being in the big leagues in terms of its sound would be the backing vocals and the drum sound. To me, the backing vocals seem cluttered and not always matching the phrasing of the lead closely enough. But I think you’re right, his voice doesn’t blend with itself, as though even the backing vocals want to emote and add little ornaments, he gets in his own way. The drums just need to sound fatter, maybe some gated ambience or other thickening trick would give it more of that Mutt Lange hyper-reality.
This is a young somebody – but not anybody Mr. Mod has named.
I feel kind of bad about posting this song, now that it’s here. It’s like I served you a meal that I knew was terrible but I did it anyway. To me, this song is the worst kind of pandering tripe, choosing a standard chord progression from column A and pairing it with a parade of hackneyed lyrics from column B – “we could have everything,” “love me tonight,” “we’ve got to break away.” And yet, it is a terrible ear worm. Chalk it up as “music for people who don’t really like music.”
Was this something that was recorded in the West Coast circa 1977-1982? That was probably the period before the drum sounds began to be fattened. Also, I swear that I actually heard this on the radio on WBCN. Was this a minor hit single?
Diskojoe – you have the era right-on. Not West Coast, but then, I’m not sure this sound was ever really particularly regional. You may have heard this on the radio.
Also, I just read the production credit on this one and realize I have bad-mouthed the work of one of the greats. Shame on me?
Somebody has to ID this singer!
OK, what immediately popped into my mind is “that singer sounds just like Michael Bolton”.
There you go. Jig is up!
So does that mean a little Michael Bolton goes a long way?
I’ll just “reveal” here:
This is “Blackjack,” a band from the late 70’s and early 80’s which consisted of Michael Bolotin (he changed his last name), Bruce Kulick (later in Kiss) and Jimmy Haslip on bass, later a member of the fusion group the Yellowjackets. Plus, a drummer who seems to be a session guy. Apparently this was produced by the great Tom Dowd at Criterea Studios in Miami. To quote the film “Bad Santa,” – they can’t all be winners, can they?
Since you’ve already heard the song, you can watch the video with the sound off. The bass player is sporting an oddly familiar look.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCGMdf3qNIE
Ok so the mystery guest has been revealed, but would I be crazy to suggest that in the verses the lead singer sounds a little like Paul Weller.
Well, Mr. Mod hit the nail on the head in terms of who these guys looked like. The bass player has one hell of a Derek Smalls (Spinal Tap) ‘stache going there.
I was thinking Dio. But slim jade guessed it right off the bat.
I just want to say that I am shocked and amazed that so many of you know what Michael Bolton sounds like.
You’re all BUSTED!!
You like Michael Bolton, you like Michael Bolton!
I was away when this was posted but it gives me no pleasure to say that I was almost certain it was Michael Bolton, although I had no recollection of the song or the band or the video. All I can say is that Bolton has a distinctive voice and the ability to suck mightily in a variety of musical settings.
I enjoyed one of the comments in the video that stated that Bolton had “sold out” to sing pop songs. What a strange perspective!