great lps/songs that brought an artist back from a major slump.
batmon
27,574 Posts
Major slump? I dunno.
But ill add....
MJ - Off The Wall as a rebirth, after losing a little bit of gloss after the Gamble & Huff run.
Dr.Octagon was Kool Keith's introduction to folks that didnt know his Ultra career.
Marvin Gaye - Midnight Love (Sexual healing) was a big comeback despite being a mediocre album overall.
R. Kelly lost a little luster after TP2.Com and got his heat back w/ Chocolate Factory.
I dont know how many times the Isley Brothers reclaimed their heat?
Master Ace - Disposable Arts?
But ill add....
MJ - Off The Wall as a rebirth, after losing a little bit of gloss after the Gamble & Huff run.
Dr.Octagon was Kool Keith's introduction to folks that didnt know his Ultra career.
Marvin Gaye - Midnight Love (Sexual healing) was a big comeback despite being a mediocre album overall.
R. Kelly lost a little luster after TP2.Com and got his heat back w/ Chocolate Factory.
I dont know how many times the Isley Brothers reclaimed their heat?
Master Ace - Disposable Arts?
Comments
Tina Turner - What's Love Gotta Do With It
Santana with that song that was big for him a few years ago.
Johnny Cash, as I said before.
??????
that album had multiple top 10 singles and completely revived her career, made her a huge star again with movie roles, a book, a biopic ...
True.
raekwon and OBCL2 is a recent example
But was this album really "great", as the title of the tread applies.
If so, we should also include this terd
Wasnt Marvin "chirp" for a long minute? Here My Dear was a flop.
WIth Santana, I'm disinclined to call "Supernatural" a great artistic comeback but maybe I'm just biased.
Heads jumped on Here My Dear 15/20 years later.
I never heard anything off that album in 78. Not on the radio, at parties, in neighbors collectrons. Nuffin.
Givin the state he and Motown/Gordy was in during that album I doubt it was even promoted heavily.
I'd have to go back to the Ritz book to see if they mention how it was handled.
But i recall Sexual Healing being touted as Marvin being back on the scene after being off the charts since I Want You. I thought his death was extra tragic because he was on some old man shit that got his swagger back and died right after his return.
Got To Give it Up was '77. ML/SH was '83.
I think Sexual Healing was both a commercial and an artistic comeback.
The Ritz book talks about HMD a lot. Not sure what it says, Moody, divorce, settlement, flop... stuff like that I think.
This is the album that made Tony Bennett a star again. Sure, it only made it to #160 on the Billboard Top 200, but the fact that it charted at all meant that this LP was being bought.
In 1986, this kind of mainstream pop music was passe like a motherfucker. Sinatra was the only one left who was selling records, and even he only released new albums intermittently. Although I'm sure Bennett was still working, this one brought him back into the game for real. I even remember USA Today, around the time of this album, running a story about how out-of-nowhere his new success was...
Was this the start to his 90s exposure to the MTV generation?
He had been on Chess near abouts his whole life, then they dumped him.
His last lp of new music for Chess was The Woodstock Album in 1975. (one of my favorites but I don't think it sold).
In 1977 he did Hard Again for Blue Sky. It was a return to the sound of his road band (+Johnny Winters) and received rave reviews and sold well leading to a string of similar lps.
Also, Roy Orbison (on the commercial tip) with all that stuff he did in the 80s with big rock stars.
Yeah, you can say that...although he had already been "back" for a while by the time that audience discovered him.
Chess didn't dump him, he left voluntarily.
The label was pretty much at the end of the line, anyway. The Muddy Waters Woodstock Album likely would have been one of the last recordings of new material that company issued.
I thought I remembered at the time (that the Blue Sky records came out) Muddy saying he was pissed the way Chess dumped him after all those years. Maybe he said treated him. No doubt Chess was all but dead then.
Probably he meant the way they treated him. If you spend half your life working for a smallish family-run company that all of a sudden goes corporate, there will be changes. He was probably glad to be gone, anyway; in 1975, Chess was a sinking ship, and those Blue Sky/CBS albums probably gave him his biggest notoriety since The London Muddy Waters Sessions (1972).
Many fans and critics thought Prince had kind of lost his way after the "Around The World In A Day" and "Parade" LP's, and especially after the flop that was "Under The Cherry Moon". This LP proved that the man was still at the top of his game and was probably the last real creative peak he had. He had #1 LP's and singles after this, but no more great complete LP's IMO.
1984: Purple Rain
1985: Around the world in a day
1986: Parade
1987: Sign of the Times
1987: Black Album
1988: Lovesexy
If he scored a no 1 album with multiple hits next year that would be a comeback.
I recall folks that wanted Purple Rain Part 2 poo-pooing Around The World In A Day.
Parade accompanied the Movie so that wasnt a drop off or slump.
Sign Of The Times wasnt a comeback do i do recall it as a regular BIG Prince album vs ATWIAD & Parade concept albums.
As far a creative peak dude for me caught fire w/ 1999 BEFORE Purple Rain,IMO, with all previous albums, having much heet.
Rain was when he became household, w/ a following who already knew the deal.
To be honest with you, I can't remember a time since 1983 when Prince WASN'T in the public eye. No matter how good or bad his previous album was, if he talked, people listened. I don't recall him ever totally receding into the background like Johnny Cash or Tony Bennett.
Yeah - I think dude has been "slumping" recently, but your right.