Sealed LP: Michael Stanley: Ladies' Choice

$

25

Michael Stanley: Ladies' Choice
FACTORY SEALED LP Format: Album
Country: U.S.A.
Record Company & Release Number: Epic: PE 33917
Original release date: 1976
Bar Code: NONE Condition of the cover: Mint
Condition of this Album: Sealed - Assumed Mint
My inventory number: 209361C
Shipping Weight: 1 pounds, 1 ounces
Notes: - - - Please contact me if you have any difficulty viewing the photos.
Songs

• Ladies' Choice
• Calcutta Auction
• Strike up the Band
• Heavy Weight
• One Good Reason
• Let It Slide
• Blue Jean Boy
• Old Dancin' Fool
• Edge of the Sky
• Love Hasn't Been Here
• Choice and Sanborn
• 1976

• Dan Pecchio: Bass, Vocals
• Bill Szymczyk: Producer
• Michael Stanley Band: Performer
• Tommy Dobeck: Percussion, Drums, Vocals
• Jonah Koslen: Guitar (Acoustic), Slide Guitar, Guitar (Electric), Vocals
• Michael Stanley: Guitar (Acoustic), Vocals, Liner Notes, Main Performer, Guitar (Electric), Guitar

The Michael Stanley Band's skills were obviously increasing by its second album, 1976's Ladies' Choice. It also leaned more toward rockers than ballads, whereas the material on the previous year's You Break It, You Bought It! was a more even split. Once again, Bill Szymczyk handled production duties and Ladies' Choice also continued Stanley's practice of having high-profile guest musicians sit on some sessions. "Ladies' Choice" has a country-rock and MOR feel, but Stanley says in the Razor & Tie reissue liner notes that Szymczyk viewed it as a reggae number. "Calcutta Auction" is slinky funk-rock highlighted by Stanley's gritty vocals and lead guitarist Jonah Koslen's buzzing, overdriven solos. Koslen's infectious anthem "Strike up the Band" immediately became a live favorite that the band included in its set for years. "Heavy Weight" is mid-tempo hard rock, and Seth Justman of the J. Geils Band is featured on organ. "One Good Reason" is one of the most creative songs the Michael Stanley Band ever recorded. Bassist Daniel Pecchio and drummer Tom Dobeck drive the song with a slow, funky, and off-kilter beat while guest David Sanborn contributes alternately smoky and scalding alto saxophone lines and guest Albhy Galuten's pulsating synthesizer accents add the perfect touch. According to Stanley's liner-notes comments, the bright rocker "Let It Slide" was a rip-off of the Eagles' "Already Gone." Koslen's piano-driven ballad "Blue Jean Boy" is a clever rumination about road life and settling down; it's the kind of song that Elton John and Bernie Taupin would write. Stanley cheerfully admits that the short instrumental "Choice and Sanborn" was simply an excuse to have Sanborn stick around the studio and play some more. ~ Bret Adams, All Music Guide

Cleveland native Michael Stanley became a regional phenomenon, but the singer/songwriter/guitarist and his Michael Stanley Band deserved more national success than they achieved. Stanley, whose real name is Michael Stanley Gee, played bass with the folk-rock group Silk in the late '60s. He then went solo and released two solo albums in the early '70s that fit right in with the "singer/songwriter" era. His talent attracted the likes of producer Bill Szymczyk and guest musicians Joe Walsh, Todd Rundgren, and David Sanborn from the beginning. He formed the Michael Stanley Band (aka MSB) in 1975 and pursued a more straightforward rock direction. MSB recorded a string of albums through the late '70s and early '80s that were modest successes nationally but major hits in Ohio. In fact, the Michael Stanley Band was such a sensation at home that it still holds attendance records at major concert venues. 1980's Heartland was easily MSB's best album, and Stanley agrees. It included the hit single "He Can't Love You" (sung by vocalist/keyboardist Kevin Raleigh) and the minor hit "Lover" (sung by Stanley and featuring blistering saxophone by Clarence Clemons). MSB's second and last Top 40 hit was Stanley's anthem "My Town" in 1983. After recording for Epic, Arista, and EMI, MSB independently released two albums on their own before breaking up in 1987.

The Michael Stanley Band was a reliably consistent, meat-and-potatoes enterprise responsible for superb Midwestern rock & roll. Stanley went on to become a popular television and radio personality in Cleveland. He still regularly releases albums -- solo and the one-off group project the Ghost Poets -- and performs annual summer and New Year's Eve shows along with occasional acoustic dates; these concerts and albums both feature MSB alumni and other Cleveland musicians. Razor & Tie has reissued most of MSB's catalog and two excellent best-of collections on compact disc.

This record came from a record store called "Phantasmagoria" which was located in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Phantasmagoria went out of business in 1978. I purchased most of their unsold inventory some years later when I owned "Music Madness" - a new & used record store in Catasauqua.

Phantasmagoria used round colored stickers to indicate the price of the albums. They had a sign on the wall with the color sticker combinations for the customers to use so they knew the price of the albums. Most of the albums still have these stickers on them, and in some rare cases, the stickers are written on. Some of the records have prices on them. This is the price you would have paid for the record in 1978 if you would have bought it at Phantasmagoria. Please don't confuse these prices with their current value.

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