When somebody reaches for your heart - open up and let them through

Continuing my trip back through the 1981 album charts.

23/08/81 : Secret Combination - Randy Crawford

Only our third ever mention for Randy (with the previous one being her appearance in the top five last week). I know I know some of her tracks, but couldn't tell you what they are - I'm expecting to like it enough though.

Ah yes, I obviously recognised "You Might Need Somebody" which is a great track - originally by Turley Richards (who I've never heard of) but I actually prefer Shola Ama's version. I was also vaguely aware of "Rainy Night In Georgia" - originally by Tony Joe White, but popularised by Brook Benton (and I've never heard of either of them). The rest of the album is in a very similar vein - it's all very Gladys Knight-ish so I imagine the lovely Mrs Reed is a fan. I can't say I go quite that far but she's got a nice voice, it's all well done and it's nice to see another lady this year (they've been a bit lacking after a strong start).

We're at #4 in the charts this week on her sixteenth week of a very decent fifty week run, with it having peaked at #2 in its 10th-12th weeks, kept of the top by Cliff Richard (sigh). The rest of the top five this week were ELO, Cliff, the Royal Wedding album and Duran Duran, with the highest new entry being Bob Dylan (#6) - it's such a shame I missed early 80s Bob!

Wikipedia tells us it's her fifth album and that's about all it has on it, except for the curious information that, despite being American, she won Best British Female Solo Artist at the 1982 Brit Awards - the only non-British winner and (as far as I can tell) nominee ever (and there are some VERY interesting names across the years in that list). I checked out her entry to pad things out and I learned that, over the years, she has done quite a bit of singing with a lot of other people - who knew? She's retired now though, so she doesn't do so much singing as she used to. Back to the album, it was well reviewed by the globally renowned Globe and Mail (Canada's most read newspaper) and commercially it did best here but did get to #12 in the US R&B chart.

discogs.com tells us you can pick up a decent version for a quid but there's a shrink-wrapped (from '81!) original edition for £100 if you want to go wild. It's funny how we've gone from Duran Duran's VERY 80s album to this which isn't really of any time at all - but it obviously hit the spot for a lot of people at the time (and I imagine still brings back very fond memories for plenty).

30/08/81 - A strong debut


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