Single mother of two, Martha Davis made the decision one day that she had to live for herself, less she end up resenting her children for dreams she never pursued. The decision was based on finding her mother's journal shortly after her unfortunate suicide. Inside, Martha read about the woman who raised her and her sister to the age of fifteen, when both siblings got pregnant, and left home, as well as a husband who she put her life on hold for only to end up divorced when he didn't want to be with her anymore. Davis decided at that point that she had to follow her desires, and set off for California with her two children. She knew they would struggle. She thought it probably wouldn't happen, but she was determined to try.
Martha formed her first group with Lisa Brenneis (bass) persuaded Dean Chamberlain (lead guitar), and Chuck Wada (rhythm guitar), at the time as, The Warfield Foxes. The band would relocate from Berkley to Los Angeles in 1975, looking for a surroundings that would provide better exposure. Brenneis would depart shortly after the move, and the group would change their name to the Angels of Mercy, and then to The Motels.
The quintet of The Motels was completed when bass guitarist Richard D'Andrea and drummer Robert Newman joined. While performing locally, they recorded a demo for Warner Bros., but the album was rejected. It was followed by an offer from Capitol Records, which was turned down. Citing musical differences, the band then broke up.
In 1978, Davis and Jeff Jourard reformed The Motels, and began extensive auditions to hire new members. Jeff's brother, Marty, joined as saxophonist and keyboardist, with Michael Goodroe on bass, and Brian Glascock on drums. Sharing rehearsal space with The Go-Go's, the group would begin to perform locally, and noticing their crowd growing rapidly from venue to venue. This didn't go unnoticed by Capitol, who would again approach them with a recording contract, which this time, was accepted.
Motels, their 1979 debut album, produced the Australian hit, Total Control, but failed to garner much attention elsewhere. Davis was dating guitarist Tim McGovern at the time, and this would result in founding member, Jeff Jourard being fired from the band. This caused turmoil between he and his brother Marty, the latter who opted to stay with the group.
With this new lineup, The Motels released their second album, Careful (1980). This faired better then their debut, reaching number forty-five of the Billboard top 200, and going gold in Australia. They would then begin work on the album, Apocalypso, which was slatted for release in 1981. However, upon completion, their label rejected it, stating it wasn't commercial enough, and too weird.
Back to work, The Motels tried to re-record the rejected album, but McGovern and Davis's relationship fizzled in the process. McGovern would quit the band, replaced by guitarist Guy Perry, who was working as a studio musician with the group during this period. The end result was 1982's All Four One.
Their first single, Only The Lonely blasted up the charts, peaking at number nine. Additional singles, Take The L, He Hit Me (And It Feels Like A Kiss), and Forever Mine followed, but didn't make that big of an impact. Unlike the others, He Hit Me, didn't even charting. Despite this, the lead single was enough to catapult the band to success, which would ultimately also serve as a double edged sword. More on that in a moment.
As I listened to All Four One, I couldn't help but be blown away by one great song after the next. Mission Of Mercy, So LA, Art Fails, and all the tracks already noted above, kept delivering on the goods. While there were other tracks on the album that didn't necessarily wow me, they certainly weren't "bad". What I really dug was how that band known for Only The Lonely, were actually smashing out the hard rock.
I really liked the album as a whole, and it kind of made me want to just right into their follow up. I definitely want to hear more. Which brings me to an oddity. When it was initially released, All Four One did not receive a CD pressing. When this finally occurred in 1996, One Way Records included their biggest hits, Suddenly Last Summer from Little Robbers, and Shame from Shock, as bonus tracks. It doesn't make sense to me that they would do this, because it feels like the label is trying to tell you, "These are the only good songs from their other albums." This is all the more odd, because the label would then go on to release Little Robbers in 1997.
Let's now go back to that double edged sword comment I made. When The Motels released 1983's Little Robbers, and, Suddenly Last Summer, became their next big hit. The group found themselves being popular among soft rock fans, and this in turn changed their concert scene. Whereas the crowd were once teens, they were now shifting to middle aged moms. This only served to segregate their original fans for newer, older ones, which came out expecting to hear a bunch of soft rock, only to be blasted with heavy hitting riffs. As a result, not only did the old fans thin out, but this new crowd didn't stick around.
Also unfortunate, was the record label's desire to divide and conquer the band. Davis was constantly under pressure to ditch her bandmates, and go solo. Though they released 1985's Shock, it failed to be a success. This resulted in their label not providing the funds needed for the group to continue. As the band individually arrived to the studio to begin their next album, Davis was tasked with giving each the bad news that it was over, and she would be moving on solo.
The classic lineup members were brought back together in 2004 by VH1 for their Bands Reunited series, and all five returned to the stage for the first time in decades for a one off show. However, since then, Davis has returned to her solo career, while also releasing The Motels albums with her touring band. Sadly, for the members who brought you All Four One, there's no sign of another reunion.
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| THIS WEEK ON THE CHARTS March 21, 1981 |
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| THIS WEEK ON THE CHARTS March 21, 1987 |
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