Standing Tall | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | 1981 | |||
Genre | Jazz | |||
Label | MCA [1] | |||
Producer | Wilton Felder, Stix Hooper, Joe Sample [2] | |||
The Crusaders chronology | ||||
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Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [3] |
The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide | [4] |
Standing Tall is an album by the jazz group the Crusaders, their third studio album with MCA Records. It features singer Joe Cocker as guest artist on two tracks: the 1981 Grammy-nominated song "I'm So Glad I'm Standing Here Today" and "This Old World's Too Funky for Me". [5]
Wilbur H. Jennings is an American lyricist. He is popularly known for writing the lyrics for the songs "Tears in Heaven" and "My Heart Will Go On". He has been inducted into the Songwriter's Hall of Fame and has won several awards including three Grammy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, and two Academy Awards.
Minnie Julia Riperton Rudolph was an American soul singer best known for her 1975 single "Lovin' You", her five-octave vocal range and her use of the whistle register.
The Crusaders were an American jazz group that was successful from the 1960s to the 2010s. The group was known as the Jazz Crusaders from their formation in 1960 until shortening their name in 1971. The Crusaders were comfortable playing a wide assortment of genres, from straight ahead jazz, to urban R&B, to R&B-based jazz, to even blues. The band reached a commercial apex in 1979 with their hit single "Street Life", featuring lead vocals by Randy Crawford, and their accompanying album of the same name.
David Hungate is an American bass guitarist noted as a member of the Los Angeles pop-rock band Toto from 1976 to 1982 and again from 2014 to 2015, and the son of judge William L. Hungate. Along with most of his Toto bandmates, Hungate did sessions on a number of hit albums of the 1970s, including Boz Scaggs's Silk Degrees and Alice Cooper's From the Inside.
"Up Where We Belong" is a song written by Jack Nitzsche, Buffy Sainte-Marie and Will Jennings that was recorded by Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes for the 1982 film An Officer and a Gentleman. Warnes was recommended to sing a song from the film because of her previous soundtrack successes, and she had the idea for the song to be a duet that she would perform with Cocker. Jennings selected various sections of the score by Nitzsche and Sainte-Marie in creating the structure of the song and added lyrics about the struggles of life and love and the obstacles that people attempt to dodge. It was released in July of that year to coincide with the release of the film.
Joseph Leslie Sample was an American jazz keyboardist and composer. He was one of the founding members of The Jazz Crusaders in 1960, the band which shortened its name to "The Crusaders" in 1971. He remained a part of the group until its final album in 1991 and also the 2003 reunion album Rural Renewal.
Street Life is a studio album by the American jazz band The Crusaders. It was a top 20 album on three Billboard charts and represents the peak of the band's commercial popularity. The title track, featuring singer Randy Crawford, was a Top 40 pop single and became the group's most successful entry on the soul chart. It was No. 5 on the UK Singles Chart. "Street Life" also hit the disco chart, peaking at No. 75, and was re-recorded by Doc Severinsen with Crawford reprising her vocal for the opening sequence of the noir crime drama Sharky's Machine, directed by Burt Reynolds in 1981. This faster paced version was also featured in Quentin Tarantino's Jackie Brown, released in 1997.
"Never Too Much" is the debut song written, composed, produced, and performed by Luther Vandross. The R&B song was released in 1981, as the lead single from Vandross's debut album of the same name. The title track hit number one on the US Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, reached number four on the US Billboard Dance Club Songs chart, and peaked at number 33 on the US Billboard Hot 100.
Wanted! The Outlaws is a compilation album by Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Jessi Colter, and Tompall Glaser, released by RCA Records in 1976. The album consists of previously released material with four new songs. Released to capitalize on the new outlaw country movement, Wanted! The Outlaws earned its place in music history by becoming the first country album to be platinum-certified, reaching sales of one million.
Indianola Mississippi Seeds is B. B. King's eighteenth studio album. It was released in October 1970 on ABC Records on LP and May 1989 on MCA Records on CD. On this album B. B. King mixed elements of blues and rock music. Producer Bill Szymczyk decided to follow up on the success of the hit "The Thrill Is Gone" by matching King with a musical all-star cast. The result was one of King's most critically acclaimed albums and one of the most highly regarded blues crossover albums of all time.
Funky Kingston is the name of two albums by Jamaican reggae group Toots and the Maytals. The first was issued in Jamaica and the United Kingdom in 1973 on Dragon Records, a subsidiary label of Island Records, owned by Chris Blackwell. A different album, with the same cover and title, was issued in the United States in 1975 on Mango Records. That album was compiled from three previous Maytals albums by Island Records employee Danny Holloway and peaked at #164 on the Billboard 200. It was also voted the eleventh best album of 1975 in the annual Jazz & Pop poll. In 2003, the American version was placed at number 378 on Rolling Stone's list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, 380 in a 2012 revised list and 344 in a 2020 revised list.
Nesbert "Stix" Hooper is an American drummer and founding member of The Crusaders.
Now Appearing at Ole Miss is a live album by B. B. King, recorded in 1979 and released as a double album on MCA Records in 1980. The live recordings were augmented with overdubs, most notably with percussion instruments. This has been criticized by reviewers as making the album stale, and it is widely regarded as B.B. King's weakest 'live' album. One notable feature, is that the album contains the first use of the bass style of playing known as "slap" by Russell Jackson, who would go on to play in the posthumous "B.B. King Experience Band" with another B.B. King band veteran James "Boogaloo" Bolden.
Royal Jam is a live recording by the jazz-funk band The Crusaders with B.B. King, Josie James and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. It was recorded at London's Royal Festival Hall.
This Joe Cocker discography lists the recordings plus live appearances of John Robert "Joe" Cocker, OBE, the English rock/blues musician, composer and actor who came to popularity in the 1960s, and was most known for his gritty voice, his idiosyncratic arm movements while performing, and his cover versions of popular songs, particularly those of the Beatles.
Oscar Brashear was an American jazz trumpeter and session musician from Chicago, Illinois.
Standing Here – Live in Colorado is a live album documenting Joe Cocker's performance in Denver, Colorado on May 2, 1981.
Ellington Is Forever Volume Two is an album by guitarist Kenny Burrell featuring compositions associated with Duke Ellington recorded in 1975 and released on the Fantasy Records label. Originally released as a double album set in 1977 it was rereleased on CD in 1994.
"Street Life" is a song by American jazz band The Crusaders, released in 1979 by MCA Records as a single from the album of the same name. The lead vocals were performed by Randy Crawford. The song was a hit in the US, reaching number 36 on the Billboard Hot 100, and in Europe, where it peaked at number 5 on the UK Singles Chart. The song was featured in the movie Jackie Brown, the television program Better Call Saul and in the enhanced versions of the 2013 game Grand Theft Auto V on the in-game radio station, WorldWide FM.
"That's The Joint" is a song by rap group Funky 4 + 1 released as their second single.