SILVER (US AOR) – Silver [Japan remastered AOR CITY 1000 series] HQ

As part of Sony Music Japan campaign titled AOR CITY 1000 featuring a low-priced reissue on classic AOR / AC albums from their back catalog (many of them out of print or hard to find) we have “Silver“, the self-titled and only album from short lived American act SILVER.
Originally released in 1976, “Silver” is considered a precursor album from the upcoming WestCoast AOr style, FM rock, Soft Rock, etc. The band was assembled to create a melodic, breezy sound to appeal the radio.
With all members contributing vocals the main focus was to craft multi-layered harmonies, resulting into an album with many points in common with the sound of EAGLES. Not surprisingly SILVER’s bass/vocalist Tom Leadon is the brother of Bernie Leadon, one of EAGLES’ founding members.

In the early Seventies, Tom Leadon formed the band MUDCRUTCH with a guy named Tom Petty, then played bass in Linda Ronstadt’s band, Johnny Rivers band and more … so you can tell the pedigree of musicians involved into SILVER.
SILVER was in fact, a ‘pre-fabricated’ band by the John Hartmann management. The original core of the band featuring Brent Mydland : Vocals, Keyboards, John Batdorf : Vocals, Guitar, and Greg Collier : Vocals, Guitar, already had the song “Wham Bam Shang A Lang” recorded, but no one of the three had played instruments on it, they just sang on it. Some session musicians were used.

Hartmann management saw the potential, and instead releasing the song as a single, they decided to form a band and record a full LP. There’s when Tom Leadon was hired on vocals / bass, and Harry Stinson on vocals / drums: SILVER born.
The group recorded the rest of the songs – this time performing all instruments – with “Silver’, the LP, not only being well received, but the single ”Wham Bam” made it to #16 Billboard Chart, it sold like 700,000 copies.

And I can hear why: ”Wham Bam” is a melodic, wonderful slice of sweet soft rock, it became a radio favorite at the time and opened doors for this upcoming ‘breezy style’. Ironically, none of the SILVER members perform the instruments on the song.
The rest of the tracks are very good too, like opener ‘Musician (It’s Not An Easy Life)’ – telling the tribulations of being musician at the time – a song dominated by the multi-layered voices of all SILVER members.
Really cool to have this album remastered with a pristine sound quality. If you love EAGLES this is for you.
Highly Recommended

ＳＯＮＹ ＭＵＳＩＣ ＪＡＰＡＮ ～ 【SICP-4868－ＣＤ】
Ａ Ｏ Ｒ Ｃ Ｉ Ｔ Ｙ １０００

01 – Musician (It’s Not An Easy Life)
02 – All I Wanna Do
03 – Memory
04 – No Wonder
05 – Trust In Sombody
06 – I’ts Gonna Be Alright
07 – Climbing
08 – Wham Bam
09 – Right On Time
10 – Goodbye, So Long

Tom Leadon : Vocals, Bass
Brent Mydland : Vocals, Keyboards
John Batdorf : Vocals, Guitar
Greg Collier : Vocals, Guitar
Harry Stinson : Vocals, Drums

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www.cdjapan.co.jp/product/SICP-4868