HUSH (Robert Berry) - Hot Tonight (1983)

Requested in "Request & Fill Corner" section...

Robert 'Bob' Berry is a musician with a serious pedigree, apart from leading great bands like Alliance and a prolific solo career, he has been part of legendary groups GTR or Ambrosia and recorded with Keith Emerson, Carl Palmer, Sammy Hagar, etc.

After high school, Berry entered San Jose State University as a music major and carefully balanced his academic and professional interests.
Together with members from several recently disbanded outfits from the Bay area, formed HUSH, his first band.
The group toured the bars and college circuit, and after some line-up changes they recorded a self financed single, which was also used as their entry in a 'battle of the bands' contest. HUSH won.
With the distinction as 'Northern California's best unsigned band', Berry and the boys realized that this was the time to make their move.

The first full length album simply titled HUSH was released in 1978. Everything went great; airplay was growing, sales were strong, and the band was on a cross country tour in support of the album. There was even a hit song in Japan.
Then their label broke up and left the band without contract and promotion.
The group continue touring regionally and recording demos for a possible 2nd album, but a legal litigation with the ex-label prevented the album from being released.

But by that time Berry opened his own recording facility studios, and as all the members of HUSH were songwriters and highly proficient musicians, they never stopped to write and record demos.
Next year, San Jose's FM powerhouse KSJO was sponsoring a 'Best of the Bay' album contest. HUSH's song written by Berry, "Gotta Get Back To You", was the winner and became one of the station's most requested cuts.
The band wasted no time and released "Hot Tonight" on their own label in 1983.
Good fortune shined again as "Hot Tonight" was nominated and won the Bay Area music Archive's Bammie Award for the year's Best Independent Album in March of 1984.
After a year touring and "Hot Tonight" still selling well, Robert Berry decided to release his first solo album and pursue a solo career.
HUSH did his two final concerts in june of 1985 dedicated to the local Bay Area fans that helped make them a success.

"Hot Tonight" is the typical commercial poppy / AOR album from that era, but featuring really good songs.
The title theme is a pompy AOR with gentle keyboards and a catchy rhythm.
Strangely, the second track "You Hold The Key" is a ballad, and the only one in this short LP. It's a beautiful one with an ELO and Queen flavor.
"Out On The Street" is extremely poppy, and "Money" sounds a bit prog, a Berry's trademark.

But the real winner here is "Gotta Get Back To You". One of my favorite AOR tracks of all time. A keyboard driven commercial poppy AOR, featuring a great melodic guitar solo and... that chorus. A simple song, but killer.
In the vein of the upcoming Berry's solo albums, "Runaway" is a catchy, melodic and contagious tune.
"It's All Too Much" is a mid-tempo running more than 6 min. but never boring, beautifully orchestrated and arranged. The most complex song on offer here and another highlight. I love this kind of stuff.

If you like 1981/84 radio oriented commercial rock don't miss this one.
Vinyl rip restored by me (not with today's standards) many years ago.
320 + art


01 - Hot Tonight
02 - You Hold The Key
03 - Out On The Street
04 - Money
05 - Gotta Get Back To You
06 - Runaway
07 - Let Me Live
08 - It's All Too Much

Robert Berry : Vocals, Keyboards, Guitar
Paul Keller : Guitars, Backing Vocals
Gene Perrault : Bass, Backing Vocals
Peter Adams : Drums, Backing Vocals



HUSH (Robert Berry) - Hot Tonight

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MARK FREE - Hidden Treasures Vol.9 'The Extra Mile'

Last volume of this awesome recording collection by the gifted M. Free.
"(To Be) The Best Of The Best" from the soundtrack of the movie 'Best Of The Best II' isn't an unreleased track, but was requested to be included by some readers. This is the full version with the orchestrated intro.
There's also a pre-Signal demo for the band/project 'The Game' featuring Free on vocals, a couple of rare Unruly Child lost tracks like the obscure "Words Get Lost Again", and some recordings for the songwriting team Paress - Cuomo.
"Hypnotized" is a very, very early '80s demo (that I should have included in Vol. 6), and tracks 10 to 13 are pretty rare, to my knowledge, never seen into other compilations of this great artist.

Vol.9 it's the only one on my own; song selection, tape cleaning, editing & artwork.
Again, thanks to Plattenpapst & Giles (just readers and music lovers like you) for their inestimable contribution on previous volumes.
It has been a pleasure to work on these tapes to get the best audio quality possible, and share them with all of you.





MARK FREE - Hidden Treasures Vol.9 NEW LINK

MARK FREE - Hidden Treasures Vol.8 'Studio Session B'

More M. Free sessions.
Comprising great AOR tracks like "Waiting For You", "State Of Mind", "Two Hearts", poppy tunes ("Union Of The Soul", "World Of Wonder", "So Close, Yet So Far"), beautiful ballads as "You Make Me Feel Brand New", "Wishing You Could Be With Me", several 'Signal era' songs and some pretty old and good material ("Superhero", "Angel In Chains")
Most of them with really good sound quality.

Thanks again to Giles Lavery for some song contribution.
Tape cleaning, enhancing, editing & artwork by me.
Last volume, # 9; 'The Extra Mile', including rarely seen demos, coming up very soon...





MARK FREE - Hidden Treasures Vol.8 - option1

MARK FREE - Hidden Treasures Vol.8 - option 2
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RICK SPRINGFIELD - Christmas With You (2007)

Requested on REQUEST & FILL CORNER 6, a special album by Rick Springfield for this holidays.
It covers Traditional Christmas classics with Rick's smooth voice, subtle backgrounds and warm ambience.

The title track 'Christmas With You' it's a Springfield original, written with Derek Hilland.
There are 2 instrumental songs in the disc as well, and they give this album a little something different.

Happy Holidays to All!
Grab it now, only for a few days...


01 - Christmas With You
02 - The First Noel
03 - Hark The Herald Angels Sing
04 - What Child Is This?
05 - God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
06 - It Came Upon A Midnight Clear
07 - Away In A Manger
08 - O Come All Ye Faithful
09 - Carol Of The Bells
10 - Do You Hear What I Hear?
11 - I'll Be Home For Christmas
12 - Silent Night
13 - Oh Little Town Of Bethlehem
14 - I Saw Three Ships
15 - Deck The Halls (With Boughs Of Longboards)
16 - White Christmas [bonus track]



HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

MARK FREE - Hidden Treasures Vol.7 'Studio Session A'

Another M. Free 'extra' volume.
This one easily could be the best of all, not only for the quality of the songs but also the excellent sound.
I've enhanced and cleaned these tapes with patience and love, and let me tell you, most of them sound like pre-production demos or finished pro / ready-to-be-released material.

Besides, these songs are amongst the most difficult to find between the extensive Free's session recordings.
Added a new version of "Secrets", with much better quality than the one included in Vol.1.
Thanks again Mr. Giles Lavery for your contribution.
Tape cleaning, enhancing, editing & artwork by me.
Vol 8, 'Studio Session B', coming soon...






MARK FREE - Hidden Treasures Vol.7

MARK FREE - Hidden Treasures Vol.6 'The Early Years'

I was finishing my own Mark / Marcie Free compilation (apart from the Plattenpapst series) when another reader of the blog contacted me.
He wants to share with us all his private collection of hard to find M. Free stuff.
Giles Lavery (that's his name) from Australia, gently sent me a great bunch of rare tracks only available long time ago on Free's website; her personal 'Vault'.

Half of the tracks in this new volume comes from Giles, including very early Marcie recordings, and some of the awesome jingle ads she did in the '80s. All with quite good sound.
I've cleaned, edited and de-noised when needed to get the best audio quality possible.
Myself made artwork following the 'Plattenpapst standards' to make these series homogeneous.
Don't miss this, it's a great one. Thanks Giles!
At least 3 volumes (with more rarities) in the making... coming soon.





MARK FREE - Hidden Treasures Vol.6

MARK FREE - Hidden Treasures Vol.5 'For Fans Only'

Final installment of Mark Free by Plattenpapst.
This one is basically the "12 lb Sledge" demos.
According to Plattenpapst:
" In 1993 Unruly Child, after losing their record deal with their label, had reformed under the moniker "Twelve Pound Sledge" and were writing new material in hopes of resigning with another U.S. label.
That never happened, and those songs from that writing session were released in 1996 as a solo album on independent labels in Germany and Japan, entitled Marcie Free "Tormented".
These are the original demos. "

Also included are some of the '80s recordings by Mark to songwriters Mark Baker, Barlow/Minto and as part of the 'Denver Project' ("Turn Your Head Around" was for the band Arrival)
Artwork, tracklist and song selection by Plattenpapst.
Cleaning, edition and de-noising by me.





MARK FREE - Hidden Treasures Vol.5

MARK FREE - Hidden Treasures Vol.4 'The Pop Collection'

This 4th volume compiles the Pop oriented tracks by Mark the sessionist.
Actually, you can smell some AORish scent on many tracks, like opener "Dancing On The Edge" or "I've Heard Everything Now"
But "Arms Of Love", "Arms Of Love" or "Everywhere I Turn" to name a few, are truly poppy.

I've added 6 extra songs to the compilation originally made by Plattenpapst, to offer a more meaty volume, including the awesome AOR tune "Cry Of Passion" requested on the chat box.
1 hour of pretty rare Mark Free recordings.
Artwork, tracklist and song selection by Plattenpapst & me.
Vol.5 : 'For Fans..', coming soon...





MARK FREE - Hidden Treasures Vol.4


Mirror: MARK FREE - Hidden Treasures Vol.4
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