If the Cover Girls were a big thing in the 80's, I completely missed them the first time around. They didn't land on my radar until I started actively searching out hidden gems of the era, and came across the tune, Inside Outside. Was it a masterpiece? No, but it was "new" enough and intrigued me to put it on my want list for if I came across it cheap or could bulk buy it with other albums. That day not only came, but so too did finding their second and final 80's album.
Sadly, the trio was a manufactured product of producer and songwriter, Andy "Panda" Tripoli and music promoter and dance club owner Sal Abbatiello. They'd recruit the first of many to come members, to form the original lineup. This consisted of Angel Mercado (AKA Angel Clivillés), Caroline Jackson, and Sunshine Wright, and all three would perform on the 1986 debut, Show Me (the album).
Their first album would be relatively successful, peaking at number sixty-four on the Billboard 200, and seventy-four on the Billboard Top R&B / Hip-Hop Albums. It would further produce four hit singles, Show Me, Because Of You, Inside Outside, and Promise Me, which landed on multiple charts, including the Billboard Hot 100, Hot R&B / Hip-Hop Songs, and Dance Club Songs charts. These were followed by fifth single, Spring Love, which did not chart.
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As I played through it, I got an immediate sense of 80's Motown. How to elaborate, while being nice? It just had that vibe of Hitsville USA, harmonizing vocals, polished music, but at the same time felt hollow because the girls were essentially just mouthpieces for someone else's money-making scheme. Like I said above, manufactured.
It's a decent album, but personally, I don't hear the hits professed above. Inside Outside was really the only standout for me, and even with that said, it's generic through and through. If you like 80's dance pop, it will most definitely be for you, and candidly, it is an enjoyable tune. It's just no magnum opus by any means. Actually, that pretty much sums up the entire album. Throw it on in the background of a party, and it will do the job to get people mingling and perhaps even dancing.
In 1987, Sunshine Wright would depart from the group and be replaced by Margo Urban. This revised lineup of Mercado, Jackson, and Urban would record the single, Better Late Than Never for the film Coming to America, and its subsequent soundtrack. This would be followed by their second album, 1989's We Can't Go Wrong. That's where I'll pick up tomorrow.
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And now, 31 Days Of Halloween!
Scream ushered in the return of the slasher flick. Well, let me rephrase. It more so rekindled it. By the 90's the genre was beyond tired, with franchises milking tropes to the bitter end. Wes Craven stepped in with an all-new concept which not only intrigued but turned the whole thing on its head. Of course, this too then followed suit, and got milked into oblivion. The last one I saw was part three, and by then, it had already derailed with the previous entry.
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