Whats the Real Story Behind the Fall of Breathe and David Glasper?

Mark-T

Well-Known Member
So many theories and few answers. The band behind Hands to Heaven disappears in a couple of years. What’s the real story?
 
Also in 1991, the song "Does She Love That Man" (from "Peace Of Mind") was their last big song. After that, zero!!
 
This one's pretty simple. A singles band that didn't move albums. At a time when the single was on life support. ALL THAT JAZZ had three top ten singles and still stalled at #34. Three years to a follow-up and PEACE OF MIND made #116. By that point Herb & Jerry had sold A&M to Polygram, but with those numbers, Jerry would have dumped them anyway.
 
Contrast this "2 and done" album experience with an earlier era, when A&M was still independent and H&J gave greater leeway for artists to develop. Supertramp's first two LPs were not great sellers, nor did they yield a single that did well. The 3rd release, 'CRIME OF THE CENTURY' got some FM airplay and minor singles. But A&M believed in them and allowed the band to persevere until they finally hit the big time.

JB
 
Contrast this "2 and done" album experience with an earlier era, when A&M was still independent and H&J gave greater leeway for artists to develop. Supertramp's first two LPs were not great sellers, nor did they yield a single that did well. The 3rd release, 'CRIME OF THE CENTURY' got some FM airplay and minor singles. But A&M believed in them and allowed the band to persevere until they finally hit the big time.

JB
Sure. But for every Supertramp, there are two acts that Jerry dumped after one or two albums.
 
This one's pretty simple. A singles band that didn't move albums. At a time when the single was on life support. ALL THAT JAZZ had three top ten singles and still stalled at #34. Three years to a follow-up and PEACE OF MIND made #116. By that point Herb & Jerry had sold A&M to Polygram, but with those numbers, Jerry would have dumped them anyway.
Did they ever have a tour in the USA? That could be the main reason the album stalled at 34. A foreign band needs to promote a tour with a band that has a name to get their music to a larger audience.
 
Did they ever have a tour in the USA? That could be the main reason the album stalled at 34. A foreign band needs to promote a tour with a band that has a name to get their music to a larger audience.
They never toured the U.S.

They did tour the UK twice, but they were arguably less successful there. While ALL THAT JAZZ peaked at #22 there as opposed to #34 here, “Hands To Heaven” was their only single to do better than #45 in the UK…peaking at #4.
 
They never toured the U.S.

They did tour the UK twice, but they were arguably less successful there. While ALL THAT JAZZ peaked at #22 there as opposed to #34 here, “Hands To Heaven” was their only single to do better than #45 in the UK…peaking at #4.
I never bought any of the singles but I bought the album beacuse of the singles. I never saw the followup but heard Say A Prayer on the radio but its airplay did not last anywhere near the length of time of airplay for the first three singles.
 
The album audience is very strange at times. Here we have a very good debut, the audience gets it to a good level for a debut on the charts but the group waited too long for a second release. Most of the audience abandoned the group as many may not have ever heard the singles that followed or distributors did not send it out to as many retailers. As far as I know, the song Does She Love That Man never got airplay here
 
Breathe was Spandau Ballet without the R&B. Glasper has a very nice voice for sure. I believe they were actually signed to Siren Records in the UK and A&M just handled releases here in the US. The aforementioned "Does She..." didn't do much in the U.S. anyway so there real success was limited to their debut album.

Ed
 
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Personally, I love that band - I play both All That Jazz and Peace of Mind regularly - and wish they'd lasted much longer. Glasper was a great vocalist, and they also knew how to write some great singles. "Hands to Heaven" is the one that everyone most seems to remember, but I personally like their other four Top 40 hits - "How Can I Fall?", "Don't Tell Me Lies," "Say a Prayer," and "Does She Love That Man" - even better. ("Does She Love That Man" is so, so underrated! That song never fails to knock me out every time I go back and listen to it. If that had come out just two or three years earlier, that would have been a near-surefire Top Ten hit.) They also had some great album tracks in their catalog, too, the title cut of All That Jazz being one of my personal favorites. But I think they let just a tad too much time elapse between their two albums, and the early '90s proved to be a brutal time - in the U.S., at least - for a lot of the better adult-contemporary and sophisti-pop acts of the late '80s in general. Heck, just look at Simply Red; their first album of the '90s (Stars, arguably the greatest record they ever made) sold like hotcakes in pretty much every other major country around the world except the U.S..
 
Also grunge rock from Seattle & alternative rock took over in early 1992!! Also Garth Brooks & Alan Jackson took over country.
 
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