Love Is the Only Goal: The Best of Wendy Waldman

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Wendy Waldman

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Wendy Waldman is a master songwriter. Warner Bros. has done a good job of putting this package together along with Wendy's great liner notes. Since her 1987 "Letters Home" on Cypress records which was another strong CD, she's been largely silent as a recording artists, to the regret of her fans. Her recent production of John Cowan's album was great where she co-wrote three songs, "My Heart Will Follow," "The Last Summer Rose," and "Roll Away the Stone." This CD shows us how much we've missed her. Her acoustic guitar opens "Western Lullaby" where "singing is believing." The loosely autobiographical "Vaudeville Man" has great piano, "The trains ran east and the trains ran west, and I knew every one of them." The pixie-like melody and use of flute and triangle percussion on "Love Has Got Me" is contrasted with horns on the track's booming chorus, "Love will follow, this I know." One of my favorite melodies of all-time was re-recorded for this CD, "Mad Mad Me," "How many kinds of tribulation must a man endure? The years will leave a man unsure of where to beg when he is poor." Sax creates a slow mood on "Waiting for the Rain," "Come the hurricane when I find you wrapped up safe & warm, will I find a winter storm raging in your heart of hearts." Two tunes go by quickly, "Cold Back on Me" and the breezy "Living Is Good." Two slow wistful tunes follow, "Mr. Boatman, can you take my troubled dreams to the other shore?" and "Wild Bird," a song about freedom. The throbbing rocker "Long Hot Summer Nights" pulsates, "Wearing roses & lace, perfume & jewels, the crowded streets were boiling, but we never lost our cool." The sense of daring as Wendy sings, "You take Johnny, I'll take Joe, if we change in midstream, no one will ever know" is classic. The peppy "Gringo In Mexico," the slow contemplative "Pirate Ships," and the stately, "The Main Refrain" are all strong songs. "Back By Fall" is simply a great song with its slow wistful mood and jazz-inflected piano, "Mama, mend the hole in my coat, take my guitar off the wall, I've got to go see what I can do & I hope I'll be back by fall." "Charles River Song" was previously unreleased and "Prayer for You" is airy. "Strange Company," the title song from my favorite of her Warner LP's (Letters Home, her last, being my all-time fave), has a strong vocal mirrored by its piano line, "Across the city, is he thinking of me?" The CD ends with the mystical march, "On a hard road where love is the only goal." Wendy Waldman is master songwriter and expressive singer, one whose music plays as well decades later as when it was first written. Enjoy!

It's been told time and time again. The ever so sweet story of how Vanessa Williams' hit "Save the Best for Last" was written by Phil Galdston, Wendy Waldman & Jon Lind. While it's touching and inspiring, it's no "realer" than Pamela Anderson's double D's.

Truth be told, the 3 bought the song off of the Coleman Brothers, a duo of songwriters who stole the song from Vernon Bullock (Motown songwriter/producer) for an estimated $160,000. Originally written in 1988 for his wife and to be sung by Whitney Houston, the Coleman brothers and Vernon were scheduled to complete the composition; however the Colman's apparently had "other" plans for the work.

My personal favorite part of the interview with Wendy is when she says " `This is so dark; I thought you guys meant it to be a positive song. So we agreed to change the lyric concept, making it positive. We came up with some unique lines: `Sometimes the snow comes down in June, sometimes the sun comes round the moon.'" Said to Galdston about the supposed lyrics originally written for the song, when in all actuality, Bullock, living in Colorado at the time, came up with those particular lyrics no thanks to an actual snow fall in June. Bullock had no idea about what was going on until the song came on the radio in 1995. You can even check out the copyright here: http://www.loc.gov/cgi-bin/formprocessor/copyright/locis.pl

While I could go on and on with the FACTS of this hit, I'll simply leave it to time for the whole story to hit light. I will Save the Best For Last...