Released 1989 Length 43:22 Producer Michael Lloyd | Genre Pop rock Label Curb | |
Benny Mardones
(1989) Stand By Your Man
(1996) | ||
Benny Mardones is the fourth studio album from American rock and pop singer Benny Mardones, released in 1989. It was Mardones' first release since the 1981 album Too Much to Lose after battling personal issues such as a drug addiction.
Contents
Background
The album was Mardones' first of two albums for Curb Records. The album was recorded and released after the successful re-issue of Mardones' 1980 hit song "Into the Night".
In 1989, a Where Are They Now? Arizona radio segment spurred Los Angeles DJ Scott Shannon to add the "Into the Night" song to his playlist, ultimately rocketing the song back onto the national charts, on May 6, 1989. Mardones' recording peaked this time at #20 the first week in July (the original 1980 issue peaked at #11), adding 17 weeks to its previous run of 20, to add up to a total of 37 (non consecutive) weeks, breaking the record set by Laura Branigan with her single "Gloria", which charted for 36 (consecutive) weeks from July 1982 to March 1983, for the longest-charting single of the 1980s by a solo artist.
Curb Records quickly signed Mardones to their label, where he re-recorded "Into the Night", and a full album of new material soon followed. The self-titled album, or "the blue album" as referred by Mardones' fans was released to little success, as Curb was best known for being a country label and was not able to capitalize on the success of the "Into the Night" re-issue.
The album had announced the return of Joel Diamond as Mardones' manager. Originally, Diamond was the first man to give Mardones' a job in the music industry and got him to start writing songs. Diamond was the album's executive producer.
The album was the first where Mardones' son Michael Everett Mardones is listed as a backup singer. It was produced entirely by Michael Lloyd.
For the album, Mardones mainly wrote the tracks with Mark Mangold and Duane Evans, whilst "Never Far Away" was written between Mardones, Mangold and Al Frisch. "I'll Be Good to You" was written by Mark Spiro and Steve Kipner. Evans had previously co-wrote the track "Sheila C." from Mardones' 1981 album Too Much to Lose.
"How Could You Love Me" would later be re-recorded for Mardones' 1995 album Stand By Your Man and his 2002 album A Journey Through Time.
In a 1989 interview with Mardones by Gary James, Mardones was asked if he ever wondered if Curb Records knew how to market him on such a country-orientated label. He replied "Well, I think they ran into problems. I think they've made a lot of mistakes on this last album, but I think that they're learning and they're re-structuring their company, their distribution and promotion situation, because they haven't been in the rock 'n' roll place and that's what they're attempting to do. They want me to be the cornerstone of the label. Meanwhile, I'm not going to allow too many more mistakes to be made at my expense. They haven't made mistakes, but I think the promotion fell short. I have no complaints about Curb Records. They treat me like gold. Mike Curb is a wonderful human being. The people at Curb Records are in my corner a hundred and fifty per cent. All we're doing is getting through the rough spots. We're looking forward to a wonderful 1990. We're looking forward to a wonderful relationship with one another. I think that certain errors were made as far as the promotion of the record, but I think they were innocent mistakes. No malice intended." When James also noted that he liked the new album, Mardones replied "Thank you very much. I love it."
Release
The album remains available on CD to date, whilst it was originally released on CD and now out-of-print vinyl.
Benny Mardones was only released in America as well as becoming Mardones' first album to be released in Europe.
Curb Records released the 1989 version of "Into the Night" as a single, which was backed by the album track "If You Loved Me" as the b-side. Three promotional singles were released in total, each one being an attempt at getting radio play to capitalize on the success of "Into the Night". One was "I Never Really Loved You at All", which was backed by the album track "How Could You Love Me, whilst another promotional single featured "For a Little Ride" as the main track, and two other album tracks, "We've Got To Run" and "Close to the Flame". The other promotional single was the one track release "I'll Be Good To You".
Critical reception
Mike DeGagne of Allmusic.com wrote: "Benny Mardones' self titled 1989 album contains a newly recorded version of "Into the Night," a ballad built around his soothing voice and a late-night piano sound. The newer version has a more seductive feel to it and is truly the strongest tune out of the album's ten-song assortment, which are all meek love songs backed by hollow guitar and keyboards. Songs like "I'll Be Good to You" and "How Could You Love Me" can be compared to Jack Wagner's "All I Need" or Glenn Frey's "The One You Love," but Mardones' efforts carry even less merit. Mardones' voice does come off as enchanting and smooth, carrying highs and beefing up the choruses with grace. All the ballads sound similar and could have been colored with some bulkier lyrics or even some tempo changes."