Spotlight: Lani Hall - HELLO IT'S ME (SP-4508)

[Captain Bacardi]

Lani Hall
HELLO IT'S ME
A&M SP-4508

Released 1975

Format: Vinyl/8-Track/Cassette

Produced and Arranged by Herb Alpert

Songs & Musicians:

• 1. Hello It's Me (Todd Rundgren) - 3:35[list:f09977f542]Larry Carlton - Guitar
  Wilton Felder - Bass
  Clarence McDonald - Piano
  Mark Stevens - Drums

2. Peace In The Valley (Carole King/Toni Stern) - 4:10

• Larry Carlton - Guitar
  Jim Hughart - Bass
  Mike Melvoin - Piano
  Clarence McDonald - Organ
  Jim Gordon - Drums
  Pete Jolly - Accordion
  Herb Alpert - Voice

3. Time Will Tell (Richard Mattley Jr./David Shire) - 4:16

• John Pisano - Guitar
  Ernie McDaniels - Bass
  Herb Alpert - Piano
  Julius Wechter - Bells
  Vince Charles - Percussion
  Nick Ceroli - Drums
  Dave Frishberg - Organ
  Bob Edmondson - Trombone
  Bob Findley - Trumpet

4. Banquet (Joni Mitchell) - 2:48

• Larry Carlton - Guitar
  Jim Hughart - Bass
  Jim Gordon - Drums
  Mike Melvoin - Piano
  Herb Alpert - Anvil, Voice

5. Wheelers And Dealers (Dave Frishberg) - 2:35

• John Pisano - Guitar
  Papito Hernandez - Bass
  Steve Schaeffer - Drums
  Dave Frishberg - Piano
  Vince Charles - Maracas
  Julius Wechter - Vibes

6. Happy Woman (Happy Man) (Peter Cetera) - 2:35

• John Pisano - Guitar
  Papito Hernandez - Bass
  Steve Schaeffer - Drums
  Clarence McDonald - Organ, Piano
  Vince Charles - Percussion

7. Exclusively For Me (Colin Blunstone/David Jones) - 3:40

• Larry Carlton - Guitar
  Jim Hughart - Bass
  Michel Colombier - Piano, Electric Piano
  Emil Richards - Cymbalom

8. Save The Sunlight (Buie/Cobb/Lee) - 3:14

• John Pisano - Guitar
  Papito Hernandez - Bass
  Steve Schaeffer - Drums
  Julius Wechter - Marimba
  Vince Charles - Percussion
  Bob Findley - Trumpet
  Bob Edmondson - Trombone

9. Sweet Jams And Jellies (Lani Hall) - 3:31

• Lani Hall - Piano
  Clarence McDonald - Mellotron, Electric Piano

10. Corrida De Jangada (Edu Lobo/J. Capinan) - 1:54

• John Pisano - Guitar
  Papito Hernandez - Bass
  Dave Frishberg - Piano
  Steve Schaeffer - Drums
  Vince Charles - Conga

Orchestration on "Exclusively For Me" - Michel Colombier[/list:u:f09977f542]

Engineers: Larry Levine, Larry Forkner, Ray Gerhardt
Re-Mix: Herb Alpert and Lani Hall
Mastering Engineer: Bernie Grundman
Recorded at A&M Studios, Hollywood, California
Photography: Herb Alpert
Art Direction: Roland Young
Design: Chuck Beeson



Capt. Bacardi

 

[Mike Blakesley]

A good album, not quite as masterful as SUN DOWN LADY, but has a lot of great tracks. My two favorites are the title tune (I think she nails it almost as well as Todd Rundgren's version) and "Banquet," which I think is far better than Joni Mitchell's. Other strong tracks are 'Peace in the Valley," "Exclusively For Me," "Wheelers and Dealers" (although I WISH they would release the Midnight Special "live" version which was great) and of course the ever popular Brasilian tune, "Corrida de Jangada."

 

[Steven J. Gross]

This is far and away my favorite Lani Hall album. Made me a diehard Todd Rundgren fan too..
Beautiful album design...amazingly flawless tracks.
Tough album to get nowadays, would make a great CD....
For me, this is to Lani what "Warm" is to Herb....

 

[Harry]

Lani Hall backed by the T.J.B.! Yet the album still sounds like it belongs to Lani.

I've always viewed this album as kind of a SUN DOWN LADY, part II, with a lot of pop songs of the day with spare instrumentation. One difference is that each side of the album ended with a good uptempo tune, and early on it was those I gravitated towards, as it was those that were most remeniscent of the Brasil '66 sound.

But in recent years, I've come to appreciate more the heartfelt readings of songs like "Time Will Tell", so that gets a vote for favorite.

Harry

 

[Dave]

I thought "Exclusively For Me", sounds great done "Exclusively BY HER...!!!!" And sounds especially moody & dramatic with a "cryptic" Cymbalom added...

I don't think I've ever yet heard the original, done by ex-Zombie, Colin Blunstone, and I have a version by Dusty Springfield on her long-previously unreleased Longings album, which Lani's version is on a fairly equal par with...

Done in the same manner as Lani's debut, and although quiet & intimate it does reach a very insightful outreaching, too...

Very hard to decide on "Banquet" and "Peace In The Valley", as these are both, also very good songs with Herb Alpert weighing in with an anvil (the one used on "The Work Song"?) on the former and on the latter helping out with the vocals, as the song develops a curious spiraling upward motion...

This, to me, coincides with the con-current Herb Alpert solo albums, as a small recognition of their careers and an "after-math" of their former groups, definitely merging an array of the essential elements of each, --musically, maritally, and spiritually...



Dave

 

[Captain Bacardi]

"Wheelers and Dealers" (although I WISH they would release the Midnight Special "live" version which was great)

Are you sure you don't mean the '74 TV Special instead? I wasn't aware that Lani was ever on the Midnight Special. She definitely wasn't when Herb was the host in 1975.



Capt. Bacardi

 

[Captain Bacardi]

This is a huge favorite album of mine, but it's so hard to find a really clean copy on vinyl.

I also chose "Time Will Tell" as my favorite. I just love the emotion she puts into this song, especially when the horns come in. It's a great lyric anyway. "Peace In The Valley" and "Wheelers And Dealers" are a very close second and third choice.

Harry mentions the TJB, which is true enough, but it's also the different incarnations of the 70's TJB, given that the tracks were recorded from '73-'75. The early version of the 70's TJB had Nick Ceroli and Ernie McDaniels, who were eventually replaced by Steve Schaeffer and Papito Hernandez.



Capt. Bacardi

 

[Harry]

This is a huge favorite album of mine, but it's so hard to find a really clean copy on vinyl.

Ain't that the truth.

I lucked out on that when I first got a CD-Recorder - one of those stand-alone recorders. After getting some Tijuana Brass favorites onto CD-R, my next project was Lani Hall. I had some email conversations with Paula, who forwarded me some of her new vinyl that she'd managed to save over the years.

The best copy she had of HELLO IT'S ME had really quiet vinyl throughout - with this one annoyingly loud tick at exactly the 1:00 mark in "Time Will Tell". Since she said she could live with that, that's the copy I used, and it's remarkably good other than that.

Later on, with the assistance of the Blakesley Noise Reduction Company in Montana , the tick was finally removed.

But I can attest to the fact that the copies of this LP that I've heard over the years all tend to be a bit noisy.

Harry

 

[Dave]

Hmmmm...sorry I didn't keep what seemed to my "quiet copy", then...

After going through a succession of 'em, too, of course... Same with my Quincy Jones Body Heat; I went through tons of copies of that before a decent one came along only to have suddenly found it on CD...

Back to Lani's album, my main problem has always been the sleeve always coming unglued... Seems to have happened more with Hello, It's Me than anything else I've owned...



Dave

 

[Steven J. Gross]

This would be a good time for a CD release of this album...