Customer Reviews

Hey Ricky

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Finally managed to get this out of print CD! Great songs, especially the duet with David Gates, titled "Wish We Were Heroes". A truly 80s classic!

Once called by one publication "Pop's Classiest Voice," that may be a tall title to give to one person, but Melissa Manchester is certainly a person of worthy consideration for the title. An amazingly versatile singer, she threw a bit of everything into this album, and no matter what she's doing, she does it all in good taste. This album spawned the Grammy-winning smash hit "You Should Hear How She Talks About You," a bouncy piece of pop perfection. Her versatility is well showcased on the cheerful, upbeat "Looking For The Perfect Ahh," the beautiful pop ballad "Come In From The Rain," the soul-tinged ballad "Your Place Or Mine," and the jazz chanteuse styled "Someone To Watch Over Me."

Of course, this CD contains "You Should Hear how He Talks About you", a song that got me through some rough spots in the 1980s. I love the overdubbed vocals. Such a great pop song. My other favorite on this one is "Hey your place or Mine" such a great R&B spot. "Come in From the Rain" is classic Melissa, a kind of singing I wish she had stuck with on her latest (2005) CD where she sings through a frog. I love her belted vocals - they push past clouds and move my personal mountains.

Melissa Manchester is a wonderful singer. Her progression from earth mother to Europop princess to Broadway style chanteuse is wonderful. Because the breadth of her work spans so large, you'll naturally prefer some styles of her albums over and above others.

Hey Ricky was a very good, very modern for 1982, album. Featuring production by Arif Mardin, photography by Helmut Newton, and songs by Melissa, the Gershwins, and others... it came together as a terrific package.

The 2006 re-release by Wounded Bird Records is, as always, most welcome. They offer fine reproductions for a good price... sleek looking and good sounding. You can never go wrong.

But for some reason (money) they lost the rights to that re-release, and now you can find this fine release withering away on "Arista Contemporary". The sound is good. But the package would be embarrassing, at best, by anyone's standards. The fine cover picture is now "framed" (read, smaller) in blue. There is no mention of producer, songwriters, recording location, date of recording, or even the date of the re-release. Most egregious of all, the entire song selection listed on the back is 100% erroneous.

Some fool re-released this good album, and didn't even listen to it!

It's the only production of this album we now have available to us, so purchase it if you must. But the good people at Arista Contemporary should be ashamed of themselves.

I was very glad that Arista put Melissa Manchester's albums on cd finally! Though I knew they had been on Wounded Bird records earlier. I have always enjoyed 'Looking for the perfect Ahhhhh..' (Aren't we all!) as well as 'I Wish We Were Heroes. The only issue I have with the re-issues are that there are no liner notes and the track listing on all re-issues are not in correct order! Come on Arista, you could have done better than that! For instance, have you heard of bonus tracks and writers who have appreciated Ms. Manchester's writing and singing talents, who could have written them for you? I hope that future re-issues will be more professional.

I've been looking for this to surface for a while. It's nice to have back in circulation again. While it may not be to everyone's taste, I think this is a great recording.

It amazes me how long it takes some music to hit CD. This is one of my girl's favorites, and we've enjoyed the LP for years. It will be nice to have a digital copy now, and hopefully the mix and mastering will be satisfactory! A sharp remaster would be great, although I know the LP will always be the copy we reach for...