Spirits rise and their dance is unrehearsed

Continuing my trip back through the 1977 album charts.

01/05/77 : A Star Is Born OST - Barbra Streisand & Kris Kristofferson

OK - this is the second time in the past month or so I've somewhat broken the rules - but I do have another very good reason, honest!  Last time it was to avoid two weeks of Taylor in a row but this time it's to avoid a fate even worse - yes, if I didn't change my mind and suddenly decide this album was super-culturally relevant then I'd have to listen to...

...CLIFF RICHARD - aaargh!  To be fair to me, I did listen to the first three tracks and they all sounded like countrified Status Quo - and who needs to hear me giving my "unbiased" opinion on that?!?  So A Star Is Born it is (finally!).

And well, after all that - it's not great.  I’ve not seen the film but the soundtrack has brought a definite image to mind of Barbra trying to play the sweet innocent and then blossoming into the star in about three seconds flat.  It’s all very cheesy but that comes with the territory I suspect - I do have to admit I'd quite like to watch both this and the later version of the film though just to see what I've been missing.  It is nice to hear a woman’s voice though - it’s been eight weeks since we heard some female voices on The Manhattan Transfer and before that, it was another seven weeks previous with The Muppets.  Which isn't GREAT in the equality stakes...

We're at #8 in the charts this week on its fifth week of a 47 week run, with it peaking at #1 in its 13th and 14th week - for some completely unclear reason it also spent six weeks in the chart in '81/'82.  The top five were ABBA, The Shadows best-of, Eagles, The Stranglers and a Frank Sinatra best-of (one of many) and the highest new entry was Hit Action (#24) which is a very, very poor compilation album.  And, for completeness, Cliff Richard was #21 and I'm super happy to see that I've got two weeks coming up with it at #8, so I'm going to have to come up with some very good reasons to continue to avoid it.

Wikipedia has very little on the album other than noting how successful it was - it spent six weeks at #1 in the US and sold FOUR MILLION copies over there.  The film's entry is somewhat lengthier - did you know Joan Didion was one of the writers, it's a remake of a 1937 film, "Evergreen" won an Oscar or Robert Englund (Freddy Krueger) appears in the film?  Admit it, you didn't...

"Customers also listened to" Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper (quelle surprise!), Bette Midler, Liza Minelli and Robin Gibb - some subtle understated performers there.  I wasn't a huge fan of this - it just sounded very show-offy and dated, but there's no denying Barbra has a nice voice.

24/04/77 - Too long
08/05/77 - Surprisingly enjoyable

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