Bop Till You Drop

For the Rick Springfield song, see Hard to Hold.

Bop Till You Drop
Studio album by Ry Cooder
Released	July 1979 [1]
Recorded	Warner Brothers Recording Studios, North Hollywood, California
Genre	R&B blues rock
Length	39:56
Label	Warner Bros.
Producer	Ry Cooder
Ry Cooder chronology
Jazz (1978) Bop Till You Drop (1979) Borderline (1980)

Bop Till You Drop is the eighth studio album by American musician Ry Cooder, released in July 1979 by Warner Bros. Records. It peaked at number 62 on the US Billboard 200 and also reached the top ten in New Zealand and Norway.

The album consists almost entirely of covers of earlier rhythm and blues and rock and roll classics, including Elvis Presley's "Little Sister" and the 1965 Fontella Bass-Bobby McClure hit "Don't Mess Up a Good Thing", on which Cooder duetted with soul star Chaka Khan. Khan also performed on the only original track on the album, "Down in Hollywood".

Bop Till You Drop was the first digitally recorded major-label album in popular music. The album was recorded at Amigo Studios in North Hollywood, Los Angeles on a digital 32-track machine built by 3M, which at the time carried a price tag of $115,000. ^{[2] [3]} When discussing the impact of the digital recording process, Cooder commented that "for the first time, we are hearing back exactly what we played. Instead of noise, we hear each little sound perfectly...For guitars, the textures come out. You get that real finger-chord skin sound, that brushy feel." ^[4]

Critical reception

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[5]
Christgau's Record Guide	B+ [6]
DownBeat	[7]
MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide	[8]
Music Week	[9]
Rolling Stone	(favorable) [10]

In their review of Bop Till You Drop, High Fidelity magazine said that Cooder had "taken the giant cohesive step merging his gospel-tinged vocals, Latin American guitar touches, and love of American r&b to form a new whole that's much more than the sum of its parts." ^[4] Music Week thought that "Bop Till You Drop" was "arguably his best to date" and called the sound quality from the digital recording process "excellent". They also highlighted Cooder's duet with Chaka Khan on the song "Don't You Mess Up A Good Thing", which the publication thought would be a "good single". ^[9] Writing for Sounds magazine, Peter Silverton said that he was "initially a little thrown by the texture of the sound" and had expected Cooder's album to sound "harsh, driving and fraying a little round the edges", with the end product sounding "cleaner" in sound quality than what he anticipated. ^[11]

DownBeat gave the album a five-star rating and felt that Cooder interpreted and blended the genres of rhythm and blues and gospel music with "near-scholarly dedication, though without the pretensions and/or cooption to which those lighter-skinned champions of ethnic musics sometimes fall prey." ^[7] In a retrospective review of the album, Brett Hartenbach of AllMusic expressed some criticism regarding the digital recording:

Cooder and his excellent band, which includes the rhythm section of Tim Drummond and Jim Keltner along with guitarist David Lindley, understand the material and are more than capable of laying down a decent groove, but something must have gotten lost in translation from what was played to what came across on the recording. There's a thinness to the tracks that undermines the performances, which according to Cooder is due to the digital recording. ^[5]

Track listing

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"Little Sister"	Doc Pomus Mort Shuman	3:49
2.	"Go Home, Girl"	Arthur Alexander	5:10
3.	"The Very Thing That Makes You Rich (Makes Me Poor)"	Sidney Bailey	5:32
4.	"I Think It's Going to Work Out Fine"	Rose Marie McCoy Sylvia McKinney	4:43
5.	"Down in Hollywood"	Ry Cooder Tim Drummond	4:14
6.	"Look at Granny Run Run"	Jerry Ragovoy Mort Shuman	3:09
7.	"Trouble, You Can't Fool Me"	Frederick Knight Aaron Varnell
8.	"Don't Mess Up a Good Thing"	Oliver Sain	4:08
9.	"I Can't Win"	Lester Johnson Clifton Knight Dave Richardson	4:16

Personnel

Musicians

• Jimmy Adams – backing vocals (3, 7)
• Ronnie Barron – organ (5), guitar (8)
• Ry Cooder – guitars, mandolin, lead vocals, backing vocals, producer
• Tim Drummond – bass guitar
• Cliff Givens – backing vocals (3)
• Rev. Patrick Henderson – organ (2)
• Milt Holland – percussion, drums
• Bill Johnson – backing vocals (3)
• Herman Johnson – backing vocals (1, 9)
• Jim Keltner – drums
• Chaka Khan – vocals (5, 8)
• Bobby King – vocals (5, 9), backing vocals (1, 2, 3, 7)
• David Lindley – guitar, mandolin
• Randy Lorenzo – backing vocals (2)
• George "Biggie" McFadden – backing vocals (7)
• Simon Pico Payne – backing vocals (3)
• Greg Prestopino – backing vocals (3)

Technical

• Loyd Clifft – assistant engineer
• David Alexander – photography
• Vicki Fortson – production coordination
• Lee Herschberg – engineer
• David Kraai – technical support
• Penny Ringwood – production coordination
• Mike Salisbury – design

Charts

Weekly charts Chart (1979–80) Peak position Australian Albums (Kent Music Report) [12] 7 Dutch Albums (Album Top 100) [13] 30 New Zealand Albums (RMNZ) [14] 7 Norwegian Albums (VG-lista) [15] 10 Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan) [16] 25 US Billboard 200 [17] 62

Year-end charts Chart (1980) Position New Zealand Albums (RMNZ) [18] 29

Certifications

Region	Certification	Certified units/sales
Australia (ARIA) [19]	Platinum	70,000^
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.

References

1. Black, Johnny (September 2010). "Ry Cooder: Bop Until You Drop Vinyl Icon". Hi-Fi News & Record Review . United Kingdom. Ry Cooder's eighth album, Bop Till You Drop, released at the very end of July 1979...
2. Nichols, Roger (September 2001). "Across the Board: Format Overload" (PDF). EQ. p. 128. Retrieved September 28, 2025– via World Radio History.
3. "1978 3M Digital Audio Mastering System". Mix Online . NewBay Media, LLC. September 1, 2007. Archived from the original on May 27, 2025. Retrieved September 28, 2025.
4. Cioe, Crispin (October 1979). "Ry Cooder's Digital Rock" (PDF). High Fidelity . pp. 139–140. Retrieved September 28, 2025– via World Radio History.
5. AllMusic review
6. Christgau, Robert (1981). "Consumer Guide '70s: C". Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies . Ticknor and Fields. ISBN   089919026X . Retrieved February 23, 2019– via robertchristgau.com.
7. Zipkin, Michael (February 1980). "Ry Cooder: Bop Till You Drop" (PDF). DownBeat . Vol. 47, no. 2. p. 30. Retrieved September 28, 2025– via World Radio History.
8. MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide. Visible Ink Press. 1996. p. 162.
9. "Album Reviews: Ry Cooder — Bop Till You Drop" (PDF). Music Week . Gwent: Pensord Press Ltd. August 4, 1979. p. 16. Archived (PDF) from the original on August 26, 2024. Retrieved March 29, 2025– via WorldRadioHistory.com.
10. "Ry Cooder: Bop Till You Drop : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone". Rolling Stone . December 5, 2008. Archived from the original on December 5, 2008.
11. Silverton, Peter (July 21, 1982). "Ry Cooder: Bop Till You Drop (Warner Bros.)*****" . Sounds . Retrieved September 28, 2025– via Rock's Backpages.
12. Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992 (illustrated ed.). St Ives, N.S.W.: Australian Chart Book. p. 73. ISBN   0-646-11917-6.
13. "Dutchcharts.nl – Ry Cooder – Bop till You Drop" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved 28 January 2022.
14. "Charts.nz – Ry Cooder – Bop till You Drop". Hung Medien. Retrieved 28 January 2022.
15. "Norwegiancharts.com – Ry Cooder – Bop till You Drop". Hung Medien. Retrieved 28 January 2022.
16. "Swedishcharts.com – Ry Cooder – Bop till You Drop". Hung Medien. Retrieved 28 January 2022.
17. "Ry Cooder Chart History (Billboard 200)". Billboard. Retrieved 28 January 2022.
18. "Top Selling Albums of 1980 — The Official New Zealand Music Chart". Recorded Music New Zealand . Retrieved January 28, 2022.
19. "ARIA Charts – Accreditations – 2000 Albums" (PDF). Australian Recording Industry Association . Retrieved December 27, 2021.