Thursday, March 22, 2007

Peaceful

Found this on YouTube:



That's Kenny Rankin, circa ... 1968? '69? Not sure.

Anyway, won't you join me in demanding that his '74 album Silver Morning be released on CD? C'mon, Rhino--enough with the one-hit-wonder collections! There are more than enough of those. And I could live without yet another disco collection. Let's get some long out-of-print albums back in circulation.

As far as I know, Silver Morning has never been on CD in the U.S. (there's a "used" copy or two on Amazon, but they're bootlegs or perhaps overseas editions). Neither has the album that preceded it, Like a Seed (the song above, "Peaceful," comes from that LP--and yes, Helen Reddy had a hit cover version). There's a decent best-of (also called Peaceful). His later material is well represented on CD, but I'm not much of a fan of that era--it's rather syrupy and overorchestrated for my taste.

Quite a voice, eh?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

lately I find myself marveling at singers who can leap with great accuracy from one note to another over an unusual interval--not so much an extreme interval, just unusual--like a 4th or a 6th instead of the predictable 3rd or 5th.

I don't know Kenny Rankin's music much, though of course I remember this--and he's got some intervals in this version that are not in the one that got all the airplay. it shows his vocal strength and control. Those intervals give it greater depth and complexity.

Susan (ZenKnit) said...

Silver Morning is on the album "Kenny Rankin Album" here at
http://www.amazon.com/Kenny-Rankin-Album/dp/B000002I48/ref=m_art_li_2/102-8849642-8647345

Susan (ZenKnit) said...

Sorry, I was wrong - I thought it was a song list but it was an album list. There is an album called Silver Morning on Amazon.com as well.

Jim Donahue said...

Yeah, it's the album that I'd love to have on CD. He may well have rerecorded the song later (during his overly string-laden period)--he did of a few songs, I think.

There are a few copies called "used" of a CD for that album on Amazon, but I'm concerned it's a bootleg. It's only available through third parties, and I'm about 99.9% sure that Warner, which owns the title, never put it out.

So, at last I find out who my reader in Saint Paul is! Welcome, Susan.