Post by erik on Mar 4, 2012 13:16:01 GMT -5
Two and a half years without releasing a new album, at least back in the 70s and early 80s, would often cause a lot of record companies a lot of worry. And it seemed that way with respect to Linda and her supporters and her bosses at Elektra/Asylum. Though she hadn't totally fallen below the pop music radar, she was involved in a project that a lot of the public probably didn't get during that time, namely The Pirates Of Penzance, which went down well as a stage production (with Linda even grabbing her single Tony nomination), and, due to studio ineptitude (releasing it both in theatres and on pay-per-view cable TV the same day!), not so well as a film. This may have something to do with why Get Closer, though it did get a significant amount of praise, didn't match the success of its six predecessors and go Platinum, at least not instantly.
With a (shockingly low, for Linda) chart placement of #31 on the Billboard Top 200 Album Chart (#19 C&W), Get Closer was deemed a flop by a lot of people, selling only 900,000 copies in its first year of release. For anyone else, especially a new artist, that would be a success; for Linda, it wasn't--in the minds of some, anyway (Get Closer eventually did go Platinum). But the relative commercial "failure" of the album doesn't take away from the eclectic nature of Linda's music. There are full-bore rockers; a dose of R&B oldies; her first dive into Jimmy Webb's songwriting pool, another song ("Talk To Me Of Mendocino") from the McGarrigle Sisters; and some C&W leftovers from a few years before. This really isn't too terribly different from the six albums that came before it, even though neither the album nor the singles released from it exactly set the charts on fire like before.
GET CLOSER
10/02/82--#72 (her 27th Hot 100 entry)
10/09/82--#62
10/16/82--#47
10/23/82--#40 (her 17th Top 40 entry)
10/30/82--#34
11/06/82--#31
11/13/82--#29
11/20/82--#29
11/27/82--#56
12/04/82--#81
12/11/82--#96
12/18/82--#99
The title track has since been derided by more than a few die-hard Ronstadt fans, partly because it was later used as the jingle for a Close-Up toothpaste commercial. It also has a kind of unusual beat, and a slightly cheesy, 80s-style synthesizer solo in the middle. But it also has one of Linda's most vibrant, sexy, and spunky rock vocals as well. She even copped two Grammy nominations for that song, one for Best Female Rock Vocal (losing, as she did two years before, to Pat Benatar), and another for Best Female Pop Vocal (losing, quite shockingly too, to Melissa Manchester). Much of the song's popularity could be owed to its getting airplay on Album-Oriented Rock, though the accompanying video did fairly well on MTV for a time (maybe Linda's only venture on what even then was a fairly tacky music video network). It's B-side, a holdover from 1977, a remake of George Jones' 1962 hit "Sometimes You Just Can't Win", a duet with J.D. Souther, got up to #27 on the C&W singles chart.
Not long after, the next single from Get Closer came out--this one a Top 20 hit for Billy Joe Royal in 1965, written by the same writer, Joe South, who hit in 1969 with "Games People Play", and wrote "I Never Promised You A Rose Garden", a big pop/country crossover smash for Lynn Anderson in 1971.
I KNEW YOU WHEN
12/11/82--#77 (her 28th Hot 100 entry)
12/18/82--#66
12/25/82--#53
01/01/83--#53
01/08/83--#51
01/15/83--#46
01/22/83--#42
01/29/83--#38 (her 18th Top 40 entry)
02/05/83--#38
02/12/83--#37 (her last solo Top 40 appearance to date)
02/19/83--#83
02/26/83--#94
Another impassioned rock ballad from the lady who helped invent the form, boosted by the strength she had inherited from her months on Broadway as Mabel, somehow fell through the radio cracks as it could not compete with the synth bands, the hair bands, and the like (it did reach #29 on the Adult Contemporary Chart, and #84 on the C&W chart). It was the last Top 40 hit of any kind she would have until January 1987.
The third and final one from Get Closer was from the pen of Jimmy Webb, the man who had written dozens of huge hits in the previous fifteen years, including many of Glen Campbell's best-known ones ("Wichita Lineman"; "Galveston"; "By The Time I Get To Phoenix").
EASY FOR YOU TO SAY
04/23/83--#77 (her 29th Hot 100 entry)
04/30/83--#68
05/07/83--#65
05/14/83--#60
05/21/83--#57
05/28/83--#54
06/04/83--#56
06/11/83--#76
06/18/83--#91
06/25/83--#100
Despite the rather bitter tone of the lyrics that Jimmy had written, the song was bolstered by Linda's usual sexy, come-hither vocals, and it got enough airplay on AC stations to give it a #7 charting on the Adult Contemporary Chart. Its flip-side, "Mr. Radio", a swampy bit of synth and steel guitar, would be covered a little more than a decade later by Linda's spiritual protégé Trisha Yearwood on The Song Remembers When.
Despite the supposed "failure" of Get Closer, Linda was still able to sell out a lot of venues, including L.A.'s Universal Amphitheater; and on July 4, 1983, she played to a sold-out crowd at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, her biggest crowd up to that time. But it was also that summer that Linda, for the first time ever in her career, found herself having to defend what was then a hugely controversial decision to appear at Sun City in South Africa while that country still lived under the yoke of apartheid. The rock press savaged her mercilessly for this, and it took her a very long time to get back into their good graces (and with some, she never did), especially since she was not only paid $500,000 to perform there, but took the money and ran.
In the meantime, Linda, tired of having to play in sports arenas and stadiums that had sadly dampened her love of rock, had decided to make a move into the Great American Songbook, this time with the man who had arranged for the Chairman Of The Board. The three albums that came from this collaboration will be the focus of the next segment.
With a (shockingly low, for Linda) chart placement of #31 on the Billboard Top 200 Album Chart (#19 C&W), Get Closer was deemed a flop by a lot of people, selling only 900,000 copies in its first year of release. For anyone else, especially a new artist, that would be a success; for Linda, it wasn't--in the minds of some, anyway (Get Closer eventually did go Platinum). But the relative commercial "failure" of the album doesn't take away from the eclectic nature of Linda's music. There are full-bore rockers; a dose of R&B oldies; her first dive into Jimmy Webb's songwriting pool, another song ("Talk To Me Of Mendocino") from the McGarrigle Sisters; and some C&W leftovers from a few years before. This really isn't too terribly different from the six albums that came before it, even though neither the album nor the singles released from it exactly set the charts on fire like before.
GET CLOSER
10/02/82--#72 (her 27th Hot 100 entry)
10/09/82--#62
10/16/82--#47
10/23/82--#40 (her 17th Top 40 entry)
10/30/82--#34
11/06/82--#31
11/13/82--#29
11/20/82--#29
11/27/82--#56
12/04/82--#81
12/11/82--#96
12/18/82--#99
The title track has since been derided by more than a few die-hard Ronstadt fans, partly because it was later used as the jingle for a Close-Up toothpaste commercial. It also has a kind of unusual beat, and a slightly cheesy, 80s-style synthesizer solo in the middle. But it also has one of Linda's most vibrant, sexy, and spunky rock vocals as well. She even copped two Grammy nominations for that song, one for Best Female Rock Vocal (losing, as she did two years before, to Pat Benatar), and another for Best Female Pop Vocal (losing, quite shockingly too, to Melissa Manchester). Much of the song's popularity could be owed to its getting airplay on Album-Oriented Rock, though the accompanying video did fairly well on MTV for a time (maybe Linda's only venture on what even then was a fairly tacky music video network). It's B-side, a holdover from 1977, a remake of George Jones' 1962 hit "Sometimes You Just Can't Win", a duet with J.D. Souther, got up to #27 on the C&W singles chart.
Not long after, the next single from Get Closer came out--this one a Top 20 hit for Billy Joe Royal in 1965, written by the same writer, Joe South, who hit in 1969 with "Games People Play", and wrote "I Never Promised You A Rose Garden", a big pop/country crossover smash for Lynn Anderson in 1971.
I KNEW YOU WHEN
12/11/82--#77 (her 28th Hot 100 entry)
12/18/82--#66
12/25/82--#53
01/01/83--#53
01/08/83--#51
01/15/83--#46
01/22/83--#42
01/29/83--#38 (her 18th Top 40 entry)
02/05/83--#38
02/12/83--#37 (her last solo Top 40 appearance to date)
02/19/83--#83
02/26/83--#94
Another impassioned rock ballad from the lady who helped invent the form, boosted by the strength she had inherited from her months on Broadway as Mabel, somehow fell through the radio cracks as it could not compete with the synth bands, the hair bands, and the like (it did reach #29 on the Adult Contemporary Chart, and #84 on the C&W chart). It was the last Top 40 hit of any kind she would have until January 1987.
The third and final one from Get Closer was from the pen of Jimmy Webb, the man who had written dozens of huge hits in the previous fifteen years, including many of Glen Campbell's best-known ones ("Wichita Lineman"; "Galveston"; "By The Time I Get To Phoenix").
EASY FOR YOU TO SAY
04/23/83--#77 (her 29th Hot 100 entry)
04/30/83--#68
05/07/83--#65
05/14/83--#60
05/21/83--#57
05/28/83--#54
06/04/83--#56
06/11/83--#76
06/18/83--#91
06/25/83--#100
Despite the rather bitter tone of the lyrics that Jimmy had written, the song was bolstered by Linda's usual sexy, come-hither vocals, and it got enough airplay on AC stations to give it a #7 charting on the Adult Contemporary Chart. Its flip-side, "Mr. Radio", a swampy bit of synth and steel guitar, would be covered a little more than a decade later by Linda's spiritual protégé Trisha Yearwood on The Song Remembers When.
Despite the supposed "failure" of Get Closer, Linda was still able to sell out a lot of venues, including L.A.'s Universal Amphitheater; and on July 4, 1983, she played to a sold-out crowd at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, her biggest crowd up to that time. But it was also that summer that Linda, for the first time ever in her career, found herself having to defend what was then a hugely controversial decision to appear at Sun City in South Africa while that country still lived under the yoke of apartheid. The rock press savaged her mercilessly for this, and it took her a very long time to get back into their good graces (and with some, she never did), especially since she was not only paid $500,000 to perform there, but took the money and ran.
In the meantime, Linda, tired of having to play in sports arenas and stadiums that had sadly dampened her love of rock, had decided to make a move into the Great American Songbook, this time with the man who had arranged for the Chairman Of The Board. The three albums that came from this collaboration will be the focus of the next segment.
At any rate, I agree with viking in that the Get Closer video was embarrassingly bad. I just don't understand the concept at all! I was never a big fan of the song. It had an unusual beat, but Linda's voice was dynamite I have to admit. At any rate, I remember gathering all my friends in front of the TV for the first viewing of Linda's first video. We were all excited. I remember seeing her silhouette in the beginning and thinking, "Oh, this is going to be good." The minute she twirled around, everybody laughed...loudly! I was kind of embarrassed for her...and me! I remember wincing and just rolling my eyes. What was she doing?!?!?! It was kind of a Mick Jagger move, which I felt was odd...even for Linda. So here she was, this sort of MILF channeling Mick Jagger which was very strange and just went downhill from there. The Tony Basil choreography was, quite frankly, dreadful. I did like the stage set, though. Her dress could have been shorter IMHO 
