Total Commitment

Last updated
Total Commitment
Total Commitment.JPG
Studio album by
ReleasedOctober 1966
RecordedJuly 19–28, 1966
Genre Rock and Roll
Length31:28
Label Liberty
Producer Dallas Smith
Del Shannon chronology
This Is My Bag
(1966)
Total Commitment
(1966)
The Further Adventures of Charles Westover
(1968)
Singles from Total Commitment
  1. "Show Me"
    Released: June 24, 1966
  2. "Under My Thumb"
    Released: August 5, 1966
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [1]
New Record Mirror Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [2]

Total Commitment is the eighth studio album by American rock and roll singer-songwriter Del Shannon, and his second for Liberty Records, Released in October 1966.

Contents

it included multiple cover songs, including "Sunny", "Red Rubber Ball", and "Time Won't Let Me". it also features the singles "Show Me" and "Under My Thumb", which reached number 128 on Billboard's Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles [3] and number 99 on the Cashbox singles chart. [4]

Background

Liberty wanted to get Shannon back into the studio to record another album, and get another single or two in the mix. "What Makes You Run" and "I Can't Be True", both originals, "What Makes You Run" followed "Under My Thumb" in the sense of arrangement and instrumentation. He truly thought he had a winner with "Thumb" to be a hit." [5]

Dan Bourgoise reflected on the second batch of cover songs: "If Del never did cover songs, that would be one thing. But he was always one who would do a few cover songs on his albums...[he] would find a song that he really liked that he thought he could add something to, to make it his own." [6]

Critical reception

Total Commitment received positive retrospective reviews. Bruce Eder of AllMusic said that "Total Commitment is almost a roots rock record compared with This Is My Bag, which preceded it, And even amid such classic compositions as 'Where Were You When I Needed You,' 'Time Won't Let Me,' and 'Summer in the City." [7]

Record Mirror called the album "Fantastically and stated Some Beat favourites are here with some of his own songs unpretentiously en-joyable Beat album" [8]

The Honolulu Advertiser stated that Total Commitment is soul supreme, "Under My Thumb" and "Sunny" are standout [9]

Track listing

Side one

No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Under My Thumb" Jagger/Richards 2:47
2."Red Rubber Ball" Paul Simon, Bruce Woodley 2:50
3."She Was Mine"Roy Nievelt2:42
4."Where Were You When I Needed You" P.F. Sloan, Steve Barri 2:54
5."The Joker Went Wild" Bobby Russell 2:27
6."The Pied Piper"Steve Duboff, Artie Kornfeld 2:07

Side two

No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Sunny" Bobby Hebb 2:52
2."Show Me" 2:27
3."Time Won't Let Me" Tom King, Chet Kelley2:35
4."What Makes You Run" 2:42
5."I Can't Be True" 2:20
6."Summer in the City" John Sebastian, Mark Sebastian, Steve Boone 2:45

Recording dates

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References

  1. ""Total Commitment" - Album Ratings". Allmusic. Retrieved 2023-11-25.
  2. Jones, Peter; Jopling, Norman (11 February 1967). "Del Shannon: Total Commitment" (PDF). New Record Mirror . No. 18. p. 8. Retrieved 11 January 2024.
  3. Whitburn, Joel (1982). Joel Whitburn's Bubbling under the hot 100, 1959-1981. Menomonee Falls, Wis: Record Research. p. 148. ISBN   978-0-8982-0047-8.
  4. "Cash Box Top 100 Singles, October 29, 1966".
  5. 1 2 3 4 Runaway - The Del Shannon Story. Xlibris Corporation. 30 June 2023. ISBN   9798369401477.
  6. Runaway - The Del Shannon Story. Xlibris Corporation. 30 June 2023. ISBN   9798369401477.
  7. Eder, Bruce. ""Total Commitment" - Album Review". AllMusic . Retrieved 2023-11-25.
  8. Del Shannon Total Connitment Review (PDF). Record Mirror. 1967-02-11. p. 8.
  9. "The Honolulu Advertiser 27 Oct 1966, page 26". Newspapers.com. Retrieved 2023-12-29.