Alisha – “Alisha”
About nine or so years ago, a friend of mine and I took a ride into the city to pick up a box of random records I bought off of a guy on Discogs (Okay, so some were my want list items and some were just random picks – this was a random pick.) I saw this album, and I had recently obtained my own rotary phone and saw the one on the cover here and thought “it’s a sign, I should buy this record” – so I did and here we are.
Now, I have absolutely no idea what this is going to be or who Alisha is, other than she is a freestyle and dance-pop singer. The album opens with “All Night Passion (Original Version)” – and we get some keyboards, synthesizers and a drum machine. We do get some backing vocals, but it just has that 80’s dance-pop beat, the vocals aren’t bad, but really nothing special at this point. She does hit a nice high note near the end of the song. Next we go onto the song “Stargazing” – which seems to have more of just an 80’s pop sound to it – so far. You know what, it is definitely better than the previous track, and I’m liking the keys on this one. “Baby Talk” comes next, and closes out the A-Side, it was actually Alisha’s biggest hit, reaching Number 1 on the Billboard Hot Dance charts, and you know, so far I’m not exactly digging this album. There is a music video for it. I will say, that she does have a good voice for 16 years old.
Alright, B-Side. We open up with a song titled, “Too Turned On” – and it’s another one of those really dance-y electro club songs, and it was also Number 6 on the Billboard Dance Charts, staying there for 11 weeks. Vocally, the song isn’t bad, I am not a fan of the dance club songs, but her vocals are nice. The keyboard playing is pretty good on this album. “Boys Will Be Boys” comes next, and we go back to that 80’s pop sound, and you know if the album was more like this song, I think I’d be a bit more interested in it, but for me it’s just not my jive. We do get a guitar solo in this one, so there’s that. “One Little Lie” comes next, and it was a song that was composed by the late-great Kirsty MacColl, so there is some promise there! We do seem to have that 80’s pop sound to it, so it only depends on the delivery of the song. Yea, so far, this and the previous track are the most appealing songs on the album, but I’d rather hear Kirsty. We end this album with “All Night Passion (Special Album Remix)” – it’s 11 seconds longer than the first one, we’re definitely going back to the club dance type of music.
The sign was wrong, this album was not my jive. Alisha did release this at 16, and has a pretty good voice, so kudos to her.
Catalog Number:
VSD 79456
Credits:
Album Design – Greco & Emmi, Inc.
Arranger – Michael Rudetsky
Background vocals – Beth Rudetsky, Nikki Lauren, Penny Mealing, Bev Collins & Carol Collins
Composer & Musician – Jimmy Halperin
Composers – Kirsty MacColl, Peggy Stanziale, Greg Brown, Alexandra Forbes, Rick Tarbox, Logankoya, Andrea La Russo & Simon Climie
Engineer – Tay Hoyle
Executive Producer – Jeff Zaraya
Mixer, Additional Producer & Musician – Shep Pettibone
Musician & Background Vocals – Jimi Tunnell
Musician & Engineer – Paul Zinman
Musician & Remix Engineer – Andy Wallace
Musicians – Steve Schwartz, Mark Richardson, Richard Musk, Chuck Hammer, Robbie Kilgore & Chris Hills
Photography – Joel Broddsky
Photography Prop – The Brass Bed Factory
Producer & Musician – Mark Berry
Vocals – Alisha
Released:
1985
Find it on Discogs
