Any Major Dude With Half A Heart

I have previously expressed my disdain for the term “yacht rock” to describe… well, the kind of music featured in the Not Feeling Guilty series, whose name itself is a play on another hated phrase, “guilty pleasures”. But this 12th volume does sound like sunshine and wind in your hair (if you have any). Like you might experience on a yacht.

Though, since most of us are not oligarchs, the sun and wind effect might be more likely achieved by driving in an open-top car. But since most of us aren’t rich, we may need to make do with riding on a bicycle on a sunny day while playing this mix. But that, in turn, creates health-and-safety problems: firstly, you ought to wear helmet on your hair, and secondly you should be alert to traffic noises, unadulterated by the great music on this collection. Either way, the term yacht rock is crap, even if the music it describes evokes beautiful summer days and sweet summer nights.

On this collection we meet again several acts that featured on previous mixes, and a number which enter the series at this stage. One of these in an English act from Manchester, Sad Café. The featured song, Every Day Hurts, was a UK #3 hit in 1979. Lead singer Paul Young (not that one) later became co-lead singer with Paul Carrack in Michael + The Mechanics. Carrack, in turn, had been the lead singer of Ace, another English band which featured on Not Feeling Guilty Vol. 1 and Vol. 5.

The lead singer of The Doobie Brothers makes a solo appearance here. Having left the band in 1982, Patrick Simmons had a bit of a hit with the disco track So Wrong (and it was). The featured track, Why You Givin’ Up, is from the same album, Arcade. You can almost hear Michael McDonald in that song (there is another song on which you actually do hear McDonald, but more on that later).

Also not exactly obscure, Felix Cavaliere makes his first appearance here. The former singer and organist of the Young Rascals had a successful soft-rock period, scoring a hit in 1980 with Only A Lonely Heart Sees, which is on my Not Feeling Guilty shortlist, but I doubt it will ever feature. The far superior featured track is from 1975.

That’s the same year The Rhinestones issues their eponymous album which includes the happiness-inducing One Time Love. The group was led by Kal David (formerly of Illinois Speed Press) and Harvey Brooks (Electric Flag) and for their first few excellent albums went by the name of The Fabulous Rhinestones. Their R&B-flavoured rock was popular with the critics but that didn’t translate to commercial success. For their last album in 1975, without founding member Marty Gebb (formerly of The Buckinghams) as a permanent member, they dropped the “Fabulous” from their name.  We encounter Kal David a few songs and five years later, doing backing vocals on Robbie Dupree’s It’s Too Late.

It’s a pity Homi & Jarvis released only one album. On their one effort, in 1983, they were backed by some fusion heavyweights, including Marcus Miller, Dave Grusin and Lee Ritenour. English-born Amanda Homi, who was of Indian descent, had a lovely voice with an impressive range, reminiscent of Deniece Williams. It was well-complemented by the soft-rock stylings of Brian Jarvis. Homi never achieved commercial success, but has made a career of picking up musical traditions from countries as various as Greece, Jamaica and Senegal.

South Africa’s Karl Kilkillus featured on Not Feeling Guilty Vol. 4 with the excellent Another Shore. Here is the rare flip-side. At the time Kikillus was a popular radio DJ, and he’d go on to become a popular TV presenter of South Africa’s only pop videos show in the 1980s. To my knowledge, he recorded nothing else.

The mix closes with a track from 1980 by the Canadian band Straight Lines. They went on to have a big hit in 1982 with the ballad Letting Go. But when the follow-up singles flopped, the band split later that year. By the time Straight Lines won a Juno Award (the Canadian equivalent of the Grammys) for Letting Go in 1983, they no longer were together. Everybody Wants To Be A Star — but they weren’t.

As promised when I posted the Carole Bayer Sager Songbook, here’s her original of It’s The Falling In Love, which is better known in Michael Jackson’s version on Off The Wall. Carole Bayer Sager’s version, which is gloriously arranged, features Michael McDonald on backing vocals.

Bayer Sager co-wrote a few tracks on the album from which Melissa Manchester’s Just Too Many People comes from, titled Melissa, but this featured track was written by Manchester united with producer Vini Poncia. Another track on that album is Party People, with The Rhinestones on backing vocals (they also recorded it on their album).

As always, the mix is timed to fit on a standard CD-R for that retro CD player in the car you’ll cruise down the summer roads as you play this superb mix. Home-sailed covers are included, as well as an illustrated PDF with all the bumph above. PW in comments.

1. The Rhinestones – One Time Love (1975)
2. Felix Cavaliere – Never Felt Love Before (1975)
3. Rita Coolidge – You (1978)
4. Heat – Whatever It Is (1980)
5. Average White Band – For You, For Love (1980)
6. Robbie Dupree – It’s A Feeling (1980)
7. Brooklyn Dreams – Fallin’ In Love (1980)
8. David Roberts – Never Gonna Let You Go (1982)
9. Karl Kikillus – Fallen Angel (1983)
10. Patrick Simmons – Why You Givin’ Up (1983)
11. Homi & Jarvis – I’m In Love Again (1983)
12. Carole Bayer Sager – It’s The Falling In Love (1978)
13. Terence Boylan – Shake It (1977)
14. Pages – If I Saw You Again (1978)
15. Sad Café – Every Day Hurts (1979)
16. Bill Champlin – Gotta Get Back To Love (1981)
17. Melissa Manchester – Just Too Many People (1975)
18. America – You Could’ve Been The One (1980)
19. Exile – Take Me Down (1980)
20. Straight Lines – Everybody Wants To Be A Star (1980)

GET IT!

Not Feeling Guilty Mix 1
Not Feeling Guilty Mix 2
Not Feeling Guilty Mix 3
Not Feeling Guilty Mix 4
Not Feeling Guilty Mix 5
Not Feeling Guilty Vol. 6
Not Feeling Guilty Vol. 7
Not Feeling Guilty Vol. 8
Not Feeling Guilty Vol. 9
Not Feeling Guilty Vol. 10
Not Feeling Guilty Vol. 11