New Edition- All For Love

We are ending this month with records that celebrate Black History and no better record than this.  I bought this because I really wanted to write about New Edition in some regards.  However, a slow computer is killing it for me today.  Plus it is Saturday.  So we are going to unfortunately make this post brief.

This record was released in 1985, right after the great success of their second record which contained “Mr Telephone Man” which is the song I greatly associated these Roxbury, Mass teens with.  The video was all of tv at the time.  It was a catchy song.

Today, most people remember Bobby Brown from the band as well as members Ricky Bell, Michael Bivens, and Ronnie DeVoe.  However, the lead singer was Ralph Tresvant and at the time of the recording of this album, a rift between him and Brown had developed.  Brown wanted more time up front.  He was also dissatisfied with the group’s bubble gum image.  Tensions would continue, eventually leading to Brown and the band to part ways (reunions would later follow).  Who left who is debatable (mainly because I do not want to dig any further), but New Edition continued successfully.  Brown became a mega star.  The point of all this is that this was Brown’s last album from the 1980’s with the group.

Decent album.  Was very successful.  It produced three Top Ten Soul singles.  The record went platinum.  Again, I meant to say more but I am going to leave it at this.  For a sample, I went with “Kickback”.

Satisfactory.  See you next month.

Dolly Parton- 9 to 5 and Odd Jobs

Whew! Glad to have this month and Oktoberfest over.  This was $3.50. My folks had it when I was a kid so I recognized the cover.

This album was released in 1980 and coincided with the release of the movie, 9 to 5, starring Dolly Parton along with Lily Tomlin, Jane Fonda, and Dabney Coleman.  The underlying theme of this album was working and the album marked a return to a pop-country sound after a few more polished efforts.  The album went to #1 on the country charts and spawned three hit singles including the title track which was also nominated for an Academy Award for best song (it would lose to “Fame”).

Pretty good album but I am done writing for this month so here is Merle Travis’ classic “Dark As A Dungeon”.

Good album.  Satisfactory.  See you next month.