Randy Badazz on "Rise"

[Rudy]

I remember it did climb the charts a little--I was rooting for another repeat of "Rise" (didn't it reach into the 30's on the Billboard charts?), but I don't think the general public's taste was as good as mine.

 

[Captain Bacardi]

I remember it did climb the charts a little--I was rooting for another repeat of "Rise" (didn't it reach into the 30's on the Billboard charts?), but I don't think the general public's taste was as good as mine.

"Beyond" peaked at #50 on the Top 100, and was #39 on the AC charts. I also thought it would chart higher. Same with "Rotation".


Capt. Bacardi

 

[badazz]

I remember it did climb the charts a little--I was rooting for another repeat of "Rise" (didn't it reach into the 30's on the Billboard charts?), but I don't think the general public's taste was as good as mine.

"Beyond" peaked at #50 on the Top 100, and was #39 on the AC charts. I also thought it would chart higher. Same with "Rotation".


Capt. Bacardi

O well..... we tried to make a good record that was different then Rise. We knew within 2 days of release that radio was not going to play the record. The major A/C and top 40 programmers said that it was too different of a record. Too left of the mainstream. That's on top of it being an instrumental. It is very very very hard to get an instrumental record played on the radio. People generally want words to sing along with. How many major hit records during the past 30 years were instrumentals? Or even top 10 let alone #1??? Come on Captain I'm sure that you know right away just how many top 10's and #1's there were. I would really be curious.

Now days labels just don't release singles that an artist or producer thinks is a hit. Records are tested and re-tested in small secondary markets and played, by research firms, for test groups of people who submit answers to questions about the record. Questions like; do you like the tempo, the vocal, how does it make you feel, would you buy this record, what do you remember about it, what's the hook, etc etc. Instrumental records??? Forget about it......

 

[Rudy]

The last instrumental (and not a very good one IMHO) that I can remember hitting #1 was the "Miami Vice" theme, which I'd attribute to the country's fixation with a TV series and not the song itself.

Outside of that, I can't think of anything else. But again, I'd suspect a movie or TV theme, if anything.

Both of my Billboard books (#1 Hits, Top 40 Hits) are out of date, only current through the mid 80's. Given the state of most popular music these days, I haven't missed much.

 

[Captain Bacardi]

How many major hit records during the past 30 years were instrumentals? Or even top 10 let alone #1??? Come on Captain I'm sure that you know right away just how many top 10's and #1's there were. I would really be curious.

It's a short list, that's for sure. Outside of "Rise" the only ones that come to mind are Chuck Mangione's "Feels So Good", Jan Hammer's "Miami Vice" thing, Harold Faltermeyer's "Axel F" (from Beverly Hills Cop), Frank Mills' "Music Box Dancer". Then there's Kenny G - don't even get me started on him!!! That's part of why I think Herb is amazing - his ability to beat the long odds over the years.

Now days labels just don't release singles that an artist or producer thinks is a hit. Records are tested and re-tested in small secondary markets and played, by research firms, for test groups of people who submit answers to questions about the record. Questions like; do you like the tempo, the vocal, how does it make you feel, would you buy this record, what do you remember about it, what's the hook, etc etc. Instrumental records??? Forget about it......

Unfortunately, that's very true. I've mentioned in the past about a local station in the late 70's that would have a playlist of the rock tunes of the day, and would mix in some R&B, as well as some fusion-jazz/pop-jazz as Pat Metheny, Crusaders, Jean-Luc Ponty, Weather Report plus the 12" version of "Rotation". Those days are long gone. I keep thinking that there's some Nazi radio programmer in charge of all radio stations, telling everybody (in a stereotypical Nazi voice) "You vill play vhat we tell you to play. We vill shoot you if you don't". :bigevil: I'm 44, so they could care less about what I want to hear anyway. And they wonder why the music industry is having problems these days...


Capt. Bacardi

 

[DAN BOLTON]

I'll tell you what I'd really like...if the Weather Channel would only identify the background music they play behind the local forecasts...I'd buy a lot of stuff if I only knew what it was...SOMEBODY is missing a golden opportunity...


Dan, amazed at what he hears, and DOESN'T see...

 

[badazz]

The last instrumental (and not a very good one IMHO) that I can remember hitting #1 was the "Miami Vice" theme, which I'd attribute to the country's fixation with a TV series and not the song itself.

Outside of that, I can't think of anything else. But again, I'd suspect a movie or TV theme, if anything.

I didn't know that Miami Vice was #1. I do know that Herbie Hancock's Rock-it was a huge hit at top 40, R&B, dance, and modern rock. Was that a #1 record??

 

[Rudy]

I got very tired of "Rockit" since everyone was playing it at the time, but last year, I pulled out that CD again and damn did it sound good!!

Randy: I don't know if you've seen many of my older posts, but I was also a fan of the same types of music you were back then. A lot of good late 70's memories: Bell & James ("Livin' It Up, Friday Night"), Gary's Gang ("Keep On Dancin'" and "Do It At The Disco"), Chicago's extended jam on "Street Player" (still a heavy favorite after all these years), remixes by Tom Moulton and Bob Clearmountain, EW&F, George Clinton ("Atomic Dog"), that great McFadden & Whitehead classic "Ain't No Stoppin' Us Now", earlier Prince (1999 and anything prior) and all those other Minneapolis acts like The Time, Dan Hartman ("Instant Replay" and "Vertigo/Relight My Fire"), and even some funk jazz via Stanley Clarke, George Duke, Lenny White, etc. (I'm leaving out a LOT, too...the collection is downstairs.) I'd always found that I preferred the 12" mixes as opposed to LP or single mixes. It was all the more cool to me that Herb came out with something that fit exactly into what I was listening to at the time. And other than the Herb/Hugh album, I think it was probably the first Herb song friends wouldn't ridicule me for.

In recent years, I've been catching up, tracking down some 12" singles I missed (like the rare, promo mix of EW&F's "Let's Groove", and that Isaac Hayes dance hit "Don't Let Go"), discovering other bands I never got into (like Brothers Johnson), and finding even greater soul and R&B among everything else I listen to. Two years ago, I finally got into Bill Withers, and noticed that Herb did one of his songs on the Rise album, "Love Is." That song never did much for me until I made the connection, and realized it fit Withers' style.

As the Bro Jo's would say, "Ain't We Funkin' Now?"

 

[jimac51]

I'll tell you what I'd really like...if the Weather Channel would only identify the background music they play behind the local forecasts...I'd buy a lot of stuff if I only knew what it was...SOMEBODY is missing a golden opportunity...

Dan-www.weather.com has a monthly playlist of music used for the local forecasts plus archives since 1998. I think there is a legal conflict about identifying their background music on the air,though I know Polygram did a tie-in with Vivaldi's "Four Seasons" a few years ago. Surprisingly,for a 24/7 operation they don't use that much different music during the month. For example,during the Christmas season,they played only about 16 different selections from five different artists and four of the selections came from Vince Guarladi's "Charlie Brown Christmas". I wonder if any smooth jazz artist would slip the phrase "Here's your local forecast" into one of their albums(maybe list it as a special "Weather mix" vocal featuring Peabo Bryson, just for a bit of humor. There is also a forum like ours to ask,suggest and discuss the music(There is an ongoing mystery that is gradually being solved about the songs used during the early days of the channel). Mac

 

[Harry]

(There is an ongoing mystery that is gradually being solved about the songs used during the early days of the channel). Mac

I'm still convinced that Sergio's "Dream Hunter" from his return-to-A&M album in 1983 was used as a Weather channel local forecast background. Thanks to Mac, I'm slogging my way through the unknown mp3s at that site linked to from the Weather Channel board.

Harry
...listening to old local forecasts in search of Sergio, online...

 

[DAN BOLTON]

I'll tell you what I'd really like...if the Weather Channel would only identify the background music they play behind the local forecasts...I'd buy a lot of stuff if I only knew what it was...SOMEBODY is missing a golden opportunity...

Dan-www.weather.com has a monthly playlist of music used for the local forecasts plus archives since 1998. I think there is a legal conflict about identifying their background music on the air,though I know Polygram did a tie-in with Vivaldi's "Four Seasons" a few years ago. Surprisingly,for a 24/7 operation they don't use that much different music during the month. For example,during the Christmas season,they played only about 16 different selections from five different artists and four of the selections came from Vince Guarladi's "Charlie Brown Christmas". I wonder if any smooth jazz artist would slip the phrase "Here's your local forecast" into one of their albums(maybe list it as a special "Weather mix" vocal featuring Peabo Bryson, just for a bit of humor. There is also a forum like ours to ask,suggest and discuss the music(There is an ongoing mystery that is gradually being solved about the songs used during the early days of the channel). Mac

How do I access the playlist? I went to the site, and couldn't figure out how to get the info...I went to the forums and the Audio/video pages, as well...I'm glad to get this info...thanks for the tip.


Dan, confused but hopeful...

 

[Harry]

Dan, go to the main Weather.com page. Down at the bottom there's a bunch of links for other pages. Somewhere in there is one for Message Forums. Within that page you'll see a link for the "Local Forecast Music Forum". Within that, there's a thread for old Local Forecast music at someone named Matt's site. ON his site, there's an Unknown songs link. That's where I accessed the list of unidentified songs. I just finished downloading all of the mp3's that he had as unknown, hoping to find the Sergio song, but it's not there. It may have been used before this site's earliest time-frame.

Harry
...heading home, online...

 

[DAN BOLTON]

Thanks, guys....I now have some welcome additions to my favorites list.


Dan, looking forward to some very interesting downloads...