DAN HILL - Partial Surrender (1981) restored audio

Canadian singer-songwriter DAN HILL is not a stranger to this blog. Today, here's a request by a reader for one of Hill's hardest to find albums, "Partial Surrender", from 1981.
Never released on CD, it's on this LP where Hill started to flirt with AOR melodies according to the era.

Although it should be filed under 'soft Rock', "Partial Surrender" includes some 'rockier' songs, such as 'Pray That It's Love' with Hill's vocals turning more muscular and featuring a cool guitar solo.
Between my favorites there's 'Class Of '69', the power ballad 'I'm Just A Man' with some Chicago on it, and the almost melodic rock, delicious 'All I Want Is You' (ready for FM radio).
Among the 'big' ballads, the best should be 'Somewhere in the Distance' with its nice acoustic guitars and Hill's impressive vocal dexterity. According to Hill's wife, it was the song that caused her to fall in love with him.



"Partial Surrender" is one of those 'one hell of an album to be restored from a worn vinyl LP', as it has many quieter moments followed by in-crescendo uptempo passages.
My audio restoration resulted pretty fine, I guess the best you can find in the world wide web right now.


01 - I'm Just A Man
02 - All I Want Is You
03 - Don't Give Up On Love
04 - Somewhere In The Distance
05 - Just A Piece Of Your Heart
06 - Pray That It's Love
07 - Pandora's Song
08 - Something's Wrong
09 - Fumiko
10 - Class Of '69

Dan Hill - Lead & Background Vocals, Guitars
Dave Wipper - Guitars
Pail Daiter - Bass
John Sheard - Keyboards, Background Vocals
Michael Botts - Drums
Paul Grupp - Percussion, Background Vocals
Tom Kelly, Patti G. Smith - Background Vocals (8)
Gary Foster - Alto Sax on "Just A Pice Of Your Heart"
Strings Arranged & Conducted by Jimmie Haskell




DAN HILL - Partial Surrender (1981)
.

DAN HILL - Love In The Shadows [Japan CD version] (1984)

Re-posted as requested. Hard to find album and even more in its CD version. Get it while it's hot, it won't be featured again.

Renowned singer-songwriter Daniel Hill born in Ontario, Canada, of US parents. He studied guitar in his teens, leaving high school at 17 to work as a songwriter for RCA.
Through his career has won a Grammy, five Canadian Junos, five SOCAN Awards for outstanding radio airplay, six ASCAP Awards and one BMI Award for airplay in the USA.

As solo artist is mostly known by smooth L.A WestCoast hits, but around 1983 he couldn't resist the sound that was ruling the airwaves.
"Love In The Shadows" is his more AOR, 'hip' album to date. The title track is a nifty, radiable poppish AOR tune with clean guitars and compressed drums. "Helpless" is another AORish tune adorned with quirky keyboards, a truly '84 'soundtrack - type' song.
You can't deny the quality of the syruped ballad "In Your Eyes". Cheesy, yes, but awesome. Next, "Just In Time" is an infectious pop in the Alan Gorrie or Adrian Gurvits mood. The WestCoast / AOR ballad "You Pulled Me Through" contains the greatest Hill's vocal performance on this album. Deep and emotional.

The AC (Adult Contemporary) AOR "Where You Gonna Run To" is pure class, followed by "Something Ain't Right" were Dan sounds like AOR masters Maxus. "Don't Know Where It Comes From" is a wonderful and inspired ballad focused on electric piano and filled with ethereal synth orchestrations.
"Thru To You" ups the tempo again, a great keyboard driven AOR track, simple but effective, in the Little River Band style. Last track, the slow "Old Lady Song" features another inspired performance by Hill, with real strings in the background.
As bonus, I've added the 1994 version of "In Your Eyes" (duet with Rique Franks). This song became an international smash hit for George Benson, also to Jeffrey Osborne whom recorded his own version in 1986.


"Love In The Shadows" obviously, it's on the lightweight side of the AOR genre. Production as usual on Dan Hill albums is top notch, and the musicians involved done their job with class.
"Love In The Shadows" is real hard to find, as never has been released in the USA. Even more rare is this Japanese-only CD version.
A collector's item.

01 - Love In The Shadows
02 - Helpless
03 - In Your Eyes
04 - Just In Time
05 - You Pulled Me Through
06 - Where You Gonna Run To
07 - Something Ain't Right
08 - Don't Know Where It Comes From
09 - Thru To You
10 - Old Lady Song
11 - In Your Eyes (duet with Rique Franks) [bonus]

Lead and Backing Vocals, Keyboards – Dan Hill
Guitar – Neil Chapman, Mike Francis
Guitar, Keyboards – John Lewis Parker
Keyboards – John Sheard
Bass – Tom Sczcesniak
Drums – Jørn Anderson
Drums [Steel] – Dick Smith (4)
Percussion – Dick Smith
Strings – Dick Armin
Backing Vocals, Piano – John Sheard


DAN HILL Love In The Shadows CDrip
.

DAN HILL - Love In The Shadows (1984)

Renowned singer-songwriter Daniel Hill born in Ontario, Canada, of US parents.
He studied guitar in his teens, leaving high school at 17 to work as a songwriter for RCA.
Through his career has won five Canadian Junos, one Grammy, five SOCAN Awards for outstanding radio airplay in Canada, and six ASCAP Awards and one BMI Award for airplay in the USA.

As solo artist is mostly known by pop / westcoast hits, but around 1983 he couldn't resist the sound that was ruling the airwaves.
"Love In The Shadows" is his more AOR, 'hip' album to date. The title track is a nifty, radiable poppish AOR tune with clean guitars and compressed drums. "Helpless" is another aorish tune adorned with quirky keyboards, a 'soundtrack - type' song.
You can't deny the quality of the syruped ballad "In Your Eyes". Cheesy, yes, but awesome. Next, "Just In Time" is an infectious pop in the Alan Gorrie or Adrian Gurvits mood.
The westcoast ballad "You Pulled Me Through" contains the greatest Hill's vocal performance on this album. Deep and emotional.

The AC (Adult Contemporary) AOR "Where You Gonna Run To" is pure class, followed by "Something Ain't Right" were Dan sounds like AOR masters Maxus. "Don’t Know Where It Comes From" is wonderful and inspired.
"Thru To You" ups the tempo again, a great AOR keyboard sustained track, simple but effective. Last track, the slow "Old Lady Song" features another inspired performance by Hill.
As bonus, I've added the 1994 version of "In Your Eyes" (duet with Rique Franks). This song became an international smash hit for George Benson, also to Jeffrey Osborne whom recorded his own version in 1986.

"Love In The Shadows" obviously, it's on the lightweight side of the AOR genre.
Production as usual on Dan Hill albums is top notch, and the musicians involved done their job perfectly.
This album it's real hard to find, as never has been released in the USA. Also the CD version is megarare.


01 - Love In The Shadows
02 - Helpless
03 - In Your Eyes
04 - Just In Time
05 - You Pulled Me Through
06 - Where You Gonna Run To
07 - Something Ain't Right
08 - Don't Know Where It Comes From
09 - Thru To You
10 - Old Lady Song
11 - In Your Eyes (duet with Rique Franks) [bonus]


DAN HILL Love In The Shadows CDrip
.