Tavares - Sky High (1976) (LP) - €10,00

Sky High! is the fourth studio album by the American soul/R&B group Tavares, released in 1976 on the Capitol label.

The album peaked at no. 20 on the R&B albums chart. It also reached no. 24 on the Billboard 200. The album features the singles "Heaven Must Be Missing an Angel" and "Don't Take Away the Music".

Thanks to producer Freddie Perren, Tavares acquired a lot of disco gloss on their fourth album, Sky High! 

The producers Tavares had worked with on previous efforts -- first Johnny Bristol on Check It Out, then the Dennis Lambert/Brian Potter team on Hard Core Poetry and In the City -- saw them as primarily a Northern soul vocal quintet. 

Perren didn't forget about Tavares' Northern soul heritage, but he made sure that the up-tempo selections would appeal to disco audiences in a major way. 

The joyous "Heaven Must Be Missing an Angel" (a number three R&B hit) and the equally exuberant "Don't Take Away the Music" became dancefloor favorites, and pop fans who knew Tavares for those gems started to think of them as a disco group instead of a soul group. 

But it would be a mistake to believe that Sky High! isn't relevant to soul; in fact, "To the Other Man" and "Guiding Star" are exactly the type of smooth Northern soul ballads that had put Tavares on the map in 1973 and 1974. And "Don't Take Away the Music," like the Trammps' best recordings, is a perfect marriage of Philadelphia soul and Philadelphia disco -- it has just the right blend of grit and gloss. 

Side one

1.  Mighty Power of Love   (3:58)

2.  Ridin’ High   (4:05)

3.  To the Other Man   (4:34)

4.  Heaven Must Be Missing an Angel   (6:32)

Side two

1.  Bein’ With You   (3:45)

2.  Wonderful   (4:00)

3.  Guiding Star   (6:34)

4.  Don’t Take Away the Music   (6:18)

Personnel

• James Gadson – drums
• John Barnes – piano
• Scott Edwards – bass
• Bob "Boogie" Bowles, Melvin "Wah Wah" Ragin – guitar
• Bob Zimmitti, Paulinho Magalhaes, Paulinho da Costa, Freddie Perren – percussion
• Electric Ivory Experience (John Barnes, Bob Robitaille) – synthesizers

Companies, etc.

• Manufactured By – EMI-Bovema Holland
• Phonographic Copyright ℗ – Capitol Records, Inc.

Credits

• Arranged By [Rhythm] – Freddie Perren
• Arranged By [Synthesizer] – Electric Ivory Experience
• Bass – Scott Edwards 
• Drums – James Gadson
• Engineer – Larry Miles
• Engineer [Apprentice] – Tyrone Williams
• Engineer [Assistant] – Ron Alvarez
• Guitar – Bob "Boogie" Bowles, Melvin "Wah Wah" Ragin
• Mastered By – Wally Traugott
• Percussion – Bob Zimitti, Freddie Perren, Paulinho DeCosta, Paulinho Magalhaes
• Piano – John Barnes
• Producer – Freddie Perren
• Synthesizer – Electric Ivory Experience

Notes

Release: 1976

Format:  LP, Vinyl

Genre:  Soul, Disco

Label:  Capitol Records

Catalog#  E-ST 11533

Vinyl:  Goed (VG)

Cover:  Goed (VG)

Prijs: €10,00