The Allnighter
Studio album by
Glenn Frey
ReleasedJuly 1984 (1984-07)[1]
RecordedAugust 1983 – March 1984
Studio
GenreRock, blue-eyed soul
Length43:09
LabelMCA
Producer
Glenn Frey chronology
No Fun Aloud
(1982)		 The Allnighter
(1984)		 Soul Searchin'
(1988)
UK cover

The Allnighter is the second solo studio album by Glenn Frey, the guitarist and co-lead vocalist for the Eagles. The album was released in mid-1984 on MCA in the United States and the United Kingdom, two years after Frey's modestly successful debut album No Fun Aloud and four years after the demise of the Eagles. It was and still is Frey's most successful solo album throughout his whole solo career, having reached No. 22 on the Billboard charts, and releasing two top 20 singles with "Smuggler's Blues" and "Sexy Girl". The album achieved gold status by the RIAA in the US. It is generally regarded as the culmination of the smoother, more adult-oriented sound of Frey's solo work.

The single "Smuggler's Blues" helped to inspire the Miami Vice episode of the same name, and Frey was invited to star in that episode, which was Frey's acting debut. The music video for the single also won Frey an MTV Video Music Award in 1985.

Composition

When Frey was asked about his song writing partnership with Jack Tempchin, he said at the time that "It’s funny, there are only those certain people where things click — at least for me. He’s very free. I’ll just run some soul licks by him, or I’ll ring him something like The Allnighter, which originally was just about staying up all night. But then we started talking about it and Jack says, ‘Staying up all night can’t play over three or four verses. What if the Allnighter was a guy?’ So, we made him into some woman’s every-guy."[2] The lyrics of "Better in the U.S.A" are opposed to the Soviet Union.[3]

Critical reception

In a contemporary review for The Village Voice, music critic Robert Christgau gave The Alnighter a "C" and panned it as a "smarmy piece of sexist pseudosoul".[3] In a retrospective review for The Rolling Stone Album Guide (1992), Mark Coleman gave the album two out of five stars and wrote that it "glistens with synthesized oomph, but the sugar coating doesn't sit well on Frey's mannered white R&B loverman act."[4] On the other hand, AllMusic's William Ruhlmann retrospectively gave it four-and-a-half stars and said that it departs from the "old Eagles sound" of Frey's last album for a "bluesy, rocking feel."[5]

Track listing

All songs by Glenn Frey and Jack Tempchin, except where noted.

No.TitleLength
1."The Allnighter"4:22
2."Sexy Girl"3:30
3."I Got Love"3:49
4."Somebody Else" (Hawk Wolinski, Frey, Tempchin)6:00
5."Lover's Moon"4:10
6."Smuggler's Blues"4:20
7."Let's Go Home"5:01
8."Better in the U.S.A."3:00
9."Living in Darkness" (Frey, Tempchin, Wolinski)4:35
10."New Love"4:25
Total length:43:09
Additional track

Personnel

  • Glenn Frey – lead vocals, electric piano (1, 10), electric guitar (1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 9), bass (2, 5), backing vocals (2, 4, 7-10), guitar (3), organ (5), acoustic guitar (5), synthesizers (6), slide guitar (6), acoustic piano (8), celesta (10)

Additional musicians

  • David "Hawk" Wolinski – synthesizers (1), organ (1, 7, 10), keyboards (4), synthesizer programming (4, 9), fuzz guitar (4)
  • Barry Beckett – synthesizers (2), acoustic piano (2, 8), keyboards (3)
  • Nick DeCaro – accordion (5), string arrangements (5)
  • Vince Melamed – electric piano (7)
  • Duncan Cameron – harmony vocals, lead guitar (2), guitar (3), electric guitar (5-8), acoustic guitar (10)
  • Josh Leo – electric guitar (6, 7, 10)
  • Bryan Garofalo – bass (1, 6, 7, 9, 10)
  • David Hood – bass (3, 8)
  • John Robinson – drums (1, 4)
  • Larrie Londin – drums (2, 3, 8)
  • Michael Huey – drums (6, 7, 10)
  • Steve Forman – percussion (1, 9), congas (6)
  • Victor Feldman – vibraphone (7)
  • Al Garth – saxophone (4, 7)
  • Lee Thornburg – flugelhorn (10)
  • The Heart Attack Horns (3, 7, 9):
    • Bill Bergman – saxophone
    • Jim Colie – saxophone
    • Greg Smith – saxophone, horn arrangements (9)
    • John Berry, Jr. – trumpet
    • Lee Thornburg – trumpet, horn arrangements (3, 7)
  • Roy Galloway – backing vocals (2, 4, 7-10)
  • Jack Tempchin – backing vocals (2, 8), acoustic guitar (5)
  • Luther Waters – backing vocals (2, 8)
  • Oren Waters – backing vocals (2, 4, 7-10)

Production

  • Producers – Allan Blazek and Glenn Frey (Tracks 1-10); Barry Beckett (Tracks 2, 3 & 8).
  • Recorded and Mixed by Allan Blazek
  • Second Engineers – Ray Blair and Steve Melton
  • Assistant Engineers – Lee Daley, Pete Greene and Rich Markowitz.
  • Art Direction – Jeff Adamoff
  • Illustration – Dave Sizer
  • Photography – Jim Shea
  • Management – The Fitzgerald Hartley Co.

Sales chart performance

Peak positions

Chart (1984) Position
Billboard 200 22
Canadian RPM chart 57
UK Albums Chart 31
Swedish Sverigetopplistan chart 40

Singles

Single Chart Position
"Sexy Girl" Billboard Hot 100 20
"Sexy Girl" UK Singles Chart 81
"Sexy Girl" Billboard Adult Contemporary 23
"The Allnighter" Billboard Hot 100 54
"Smuggler's Blues" Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks 13
"Smuggler's Blues" Billboard Hot 100 12
"Smuggler's Blues" UK Singles Chart 22

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Great Rock Disography". p. 253.
  2. ↑ "How Glenn Frey's Second Solo LP Inspired a 'Miami Vice' Episode".
  3. 1 2 Christgau, Robert (October 22, 1985). "Christgau's Consumer Guide". The Village Voice. New York. Retrieved July 25, 2013.
  4. ↑ Coleman, Mark (1992). "Glenn Frey". In DeCurtis, Anthony; Henke, James; George-Warren, Holly (eds.). The Rolling Stone Album Guide (3rd ed.). Random House. p. 265. ISBN 0679737294.
  5. ↑ Ruhlmann, William. "The Allnighter - Glenn Frey". Allmusic. Retrieved July 25, 2013.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.