🎵 AotW Billy Rankin - GROWIN' UP TOO FAST (SP-4977)

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LPJim

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Billy Rankin
GROWIN' UP TOO FAST

A&M SP-4977

sp4977.jpg


A1 Baby Come Back 3:02
A2 Rip It UpGuitar [Additional] – Zal Cleminson 3:45
A3 Think I'm In Love 4:05
A4 Where Are You NowWritten-By – B. Rankin*, D. McCafferty*, D. Sweet*, M. Charlton*, P. Agnew* 4:10
A5 Baby's Got A Run 3:00
B1 Never In A Million Years 4:15
B2 Call Me AutomaticGuitar [Additional] – Zal Cleminson 3:28
B3 A Day In The Life 3:48
B4 I Wanna Be Alone Tonight 3:58
B5 Burning Down 4:55
Credits
  • Bass – Jeremy Meek
  • Drums, Percussion – Ted McKenna
  • Producer – John Ryan
  • Synthesizer – Adrian Cook (2)
  • Vocals, Guitar, Keyboards, Drums, Percussion, Written-By – Billy Rankin
  • Entered the Billboard Top 200 on March 24, 1984
  • Reached Number 119 and charted for eleven weeks

JB
 
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Ah! One of my top favorite A&M obscurities from the '80s!
I actually wasn't at all familiar with Rankin (who, as I would find out later, was actually an alumnus of A&M hard-rockers Nazareth) or his music when I first picked up this album. I found it in a budget-bin at the local Camelot in the late '80s and gave it a shot for no other reason than that the A&M logo was on it. :D
I can't quite figure out why he, or this album, didn't fare better on the charts. The songwriting, for the most part, is absolutely fantastic and overflowing with hooks that grab you immediately. Unfortunately, most of this album's best songs - at least, in my opinion, anyway - are on the second side, so if you don't listen to it all the way through, it could admittedly be a little bit underwhelming, since Side One tapers off in quality somewhat after "Baby Got Back," which is a fabulous single. (I can't recall its exact chart peak, but I know it did manage to land relatively high on the Hot 100 but stopped short of cracking the Top 40.)
Side Two, though, is just wall-to-wall, non-stop hooks. I can't listen to just one song on that second side without going back and listening to the other four as well. "A Day in the Life," "Never in a Million Years," and "I Wanna Be Alone Tonight" are probably my favorite songs on the album.
The cassette edition of the album (which I unfortunately lost years ago) tacks on a fine and faithful cover of T. Rex's "Bang a Gong (Get It On)" at the end of Side Two.
 
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