VA - Elektra AOR Collection [Japan only] (1993)

Some time ago a reader requested some early material from John David Souther, who in very late '70s changed his artistic name to J.D. Souther releasing the stupendous You're Only Lonely LP. His previous albums are not easy to find, but digging deep in my collection something appeared.
And it's this rare compilation only released in Japan (limited quantities) in 1993 by Elektra / Warner Records, including tracks from their AOR / Westcoast artist roster.

"Elektra AOR Collection" is wonderful compilation featuring some of the finest Westcoast artists from the late '70s / early '80s - the golden age of the genre. You can't go wrong with cats of the stature of John O'Banion, Bruce Roberts, Robbie Dupree (tracks from his 1st and 2nd albums) or Bill Champlin.
However, most of them are well known by AOR fans, and the real find here are the songs from J.D. Souther, plus the excellent Rupert Holmes, Andrew Gold and Terence Boylan.



All the albums from where these tracks are taken have been reissued on CD, but today are almost impossible to find. So this is a great chance to have on CD quality these hard-to-get tunes.
"Elektra AOR Collection" is a collectors piece and a stunning set of songs to enjoy.
MEGA RARE.


01 - John O'Banion - Love you like I never loved before
02 - Andrew Gold - Lonely boy
03 - Carole Bayer Sager - It's the falling in love
04 - Bruce Roberts - Cool fool
05 - Robbie Dupree - Steal away
06 - Terence Boylan - Don't hang up those dancing shoes
07 - Rupert Holmes - Full circle
08 - Andrew Gold - That's why I love you
09 - John David Souther - Black rose
10 - Robbie Dupree - Saturday night
11 - Bill Champlin - Sara
12 - Terence Boylan - Shake it
13 - John David Souther - It's the same


VA - Elektra AOR Collection 1993
.

JOHN O'BANION - Satomi Hakken-Den (1983)

John O'Banion (RIP) was one of the smoothest voices in Westcoast AOR history. His '81 self titled album and 'Danger' ('82) are true gems and still sound fresh today thanks to the production-wise and songwriting abilities by the industry monsters Joey Carbone & Richie Zito.

One of the '82 singles went to No. 24 on the Billboard magazine, then O'Banion, Zito & Carbone were invited to go to Japan for a five-city concert tour and to compete in the Tokyo Music Festival. They won the grand prize as best performance and best arranger awards.

When Carbone returned to America, feels some kind of magnet pulling him back towards Japan, so asked to his music publisher find a place into a Japanese project.
He offered to him, Zito & O'Banion as a working combo, the soundtrack for the Kadokawa movie "Satomi Hakken Den".
Known in the west as "Legend of Eight Samurai", the film was the number one Japanese film on the domestic market in 1984, earning ¥ 2.3 billion, and the theme song (a ballad translated "I Don't Want This Night To End") the first O'Banion / Carbone big hit in Japan.
The other song composed (with Richie Zito) to the movie, "White Light", is a very nice commercial poppy AOR tune full of magic.

The trio put together both songs and the rest of the material they've been working, on what become the third John O'Banion solo album: "Satomi Hakken Den: [Legend Of Eight Samurai soundtrack]", disc also known as "White Light", only released in Japan.
The track "Body Heat" sounds like a work-out gym song so popular those years, "Turn Out The Light" is filled with orchestral keyboards and electronic drums (a very action-movie-like tune), same with "She Dreams Of You". I love this kind of stuff.
"We Can't Go On" and "She Dreams Of You" are more poppy (the latter sounding as a 'Flashdance' left off), on "Techno Pheliac" they go pretty techno indeed, a very synth based track, while "I Need Love" and specially the beautiful "We Can Dream" are in the style of earlier O'Banion material.

The disc was released on vinyl ('83), and there's only a very limited 1000 copies edition on CD, Japan only.
This is a rip at maximum quality, including artwork, from that very rare CD.
A beautiful bunch of songs.
Highly Recommended


01 - Hakkenshi's Theme (White Light)
02 - Body Heat
03 - Turn Out The Light
04 - We Can't Go On
05 - She's The One
06 - Satomi Hakken-Den (I Don't Want This Night To End)
07 - She Dreams Of You
08 - I Need Love
09 - Techno Pheliac
10 - We Can Dream


John O'Banion: Vocals
Richie Zito: Guitars, Bass, Programming
Joey Carbone: Keyboards, Syths, Programming
John Pierce: Bass
Carlos Vega: Drums
... and various unlisted musicians

Produced & Arranged by
Joey Carbone and Richie Zito



JOHN O'BANION - Satomi Hakken-Den