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16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Landmark countrypolitan LP that became a 70s template, February 13, 2001
Rich's 1973 countrypolitan masterpiece is a long way from his late 50s sides as a session pianist at Sun and his brief 1960 flirtation with chart success on "Lonely Weekend." By this point in his career, having released records on Phillips, Groove, Smash (where he had a minor hit with "Mohair Sam") and Hi, he'd released everything from rockabilly to straight country to jazz-inflected versions of standards. What he hadn't done was establish a truly identifiable sound or crack the upper reaches of the charts. Six years at Epic hadn't yet yielded a career-making breakthrough, either.All that changed with this Billy Sherrill production, and his emergence as The Silver Fox. Though they'd been working together for six years, they didn't find true commercial success until the release of the soulful, "I Take it on Home" and this follow-up LP. The title track hit #1 on the country chart early in '73, and crossed over to the pop Top 20. The follow-up single from the LP, "The Most Beautiful Girl," also hit #1 country and crossed over, as well. Rich cleaned up at the subsequent CMA's, sweeping top single, top LP and top male vocalist, and nabbed the Grammy for best country vocalist, as well as 4 ACM awards. Though Rich and Sherrill had been working on their sound for several years, the resulting albums were a hit-and-miss give-and-take between Rich's multi-genre leanings and Sherrill's pop sound. On "Behind Closed Doors," Rich more fully surrendered to the role of country-pop crooner, finding a level of comfort that allowed him to star amidst Sherrill's layered, complex productions. It was a balance that became the template for 70s country pop recordings. In addition to the seamlessness of their combined sounds, producer and artist found superb material, offering smooth country and politely bluesy tunes that showed off Rich's soulful side. No doubt the maturing audience for country was more receptive than ever to the softened countrypolitan sounds. Country music purists sometimes dismiss Rich's breakthrough as a sellout. But his ability and desire to sing a country song with tinges of jazz or pop had been with him from early on. And if one considers music to be a language, then like a language, the vocabulary - the songs, the sounds, the productions - evolves with the times. Rich made the most of the country pop vocabulary of the 70s, and added the sort of soulfulness employed by Ray Charles in his own country efforts and Elvis in his latter-day ballads. This reissue offers four bonus tracks dating from '71 and '72, fitting in both arrangement and sentiment with the LP at large. Only one, "I've Got Mine" was previously unreleased. Newly penned liner notes from Mavericks' vocalist Raul Malo and Billboard writer Chet Flippo round out the package.
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