| Beautiful Thing | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 1987 | |||
| Genre | Rock | |||
| Label | Restless [1] | |||
| Producer | Ben Vaughn | |||
| Ben Vaughn chronology | ||||
| ||||
Beautiful Thing is an album by the American rock and roll musician Ben Vaughn (credited to the Ben Vaughn Combo), released in 1987. [2] [3] The album's final track, "The Apology Line", is covered on Barrence Whitfield's Ow! Ow! Ow! [4]
The album was produced by Vaughn, who also wrote the songs. [5] Mostly acoustic, the songs were in part inspired by radio disc jockey patter and random conversations overheard by Vaughn. [6] [7] The band used bongos, hubcaps, maracas, and accordion on many of the tracks. [8] "Big House with a Yard" is about a man asking his girlfriend to visit him in prison. [9]
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |    [10] |
| Chicago Tribune | [11] |
| Robert Christgau | B [12] |
| The Encyclopedia of Popular Music | [1] |
| Goldmine | [9] |
| New Musical Express | 9/10 [13] |
| The Philadelphia Inquirer | [14] |
| Richmond Times-Dispatch | B [6] |
Robert Christgau thought that, "unlike many comedians, this mild-mannered male chauvinist is funniest when he lets on how clever he is." [12] Trouser Press wrote that "Beautiful Thing has a fresh, easygoing feel, but too much restraint can be dangerous: halfway through the first side, this mild record threatens to slide right off the turntable." [15] The New York Times concluded that "all the three-chord rock of the 1950's and 60's—rockabilly, surf-rock, Cajun, rhythm-and-blues, country—twangs and relaxes together in the Ben Vaughn Combo, as Mr. Vaughn talk-sings his way through droll, understated songs without a hint of rock's latter-day histrionics." [16] The Philadelphia Inquirer deemed the album "a marvelously eclectic collection of rock styles and romantic observations." [14]
The Philadelphia Daily News called the tracks "clever, evocative new songs in a time honored, timeless style," writing that the band "has a slap happy simplicity and ragged enthusiasm that's anachronistic, that seems a throwback to the 1950s rockabilly era of Eddie Cochran and Buddy Holly and the Big Bopper." [17] The Washington Post determined that "sometimes Vaughn sounds like what might have happened if Lou Reed had influenced Bob Dylan rather than the other way around, but he always manages a neat wedding of lyric and melody." [4] The Chicago Tribune stated that "Vaughn brings some uncommon touches to numbers about male-female relationships." [11] The State included Beautiful Thing on its list of the ten best albums of 1987. [8]
AllMusic wrote that "the tunes on Beautiful Thing never hit harder than they have to or take up more space than necessary, and their modesty only adds to their effectiveness." [10]
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Jerry Lewis in France" | |
| 2. | "Clothes Don't Make the Man" | |
| 3. | "Beautiful Thing" | |
| 4. | "The North Wind Blew" | |
| 5. | "Shingaling with Me" | |
| 6. | "Gimme, Gimme, Gimme" | |
| 7. | "She's a Real Scream" | |
| 8. | "Big House with a Yard" | |
| 9. | "On the Rebound" | |
| 10. | "A Good Woman Is Hard to Find" | |
| 11. | "Desert Boots" | |
| 12. | "The Apology Line" |
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