Even 13 years later, some of you out there are probably groaning that anybody would review a Tiffany album. But she's beginning a new comeback right now, so many of you are going to be hearing from her very soon anyway, so I thought I'd prepare you for it by reviewing her old albums. At least, all except her third album, Dreams Never Die, which Epinions hasn't seen fit to include in their album list (even the expanded one you can pull up to add items from). Maybe the fact that that one was released only in Asia has something to do with that. But there's actually still demand for Tiffany stuff... I just picked up a couple of Tiffany CDs (her second and third albums, Hold An Old Friend's Hand and New Inside) at a used CD store for $5.99 each, immediately put them up on Ebay, and they're now commanding bids of $41 and $26 respectively. And my extra copy of the even harder-to-find Dreams Never Die, which I got on a trip to the Philippines for about $10, is up to $102.50 on Ebay. So if you see any Tiffany CDs lying around, they're actually worth something. (However, the one I'm reviewing here is actually still in print, so it probably doesn't have major collector value.)
Tiffany music may soon be in demand by a larger audience than a few obsessive fans hanging out on the Internet, though; Billboard magazine did an article in this week's issue profiling her and giving an advance track-by-track review of her upcoming album, The Color of Silence, and they seem to think it's got a good shot of being a hit. When the track "Open Your Eyes" was played on radio stations without announcing who sang it, listeners weren't able to guess, but said they liked the song. So it will certainly be worth a listen, and I hope Epinions adds it to their item list in a timely manner so I can review it when it comes out.
But back to the album I'm reviewing, her 1987 self-titled debut, Tiffany. As my title alludes, some of you hate this album without having ever listened to it. There are many people out there who just heard one or two Tiffany songs on the radio back when they were popular, probably the ones where she covered the old classics "I Think We're Alone Now" and "I Saw Her Standing There", and automatically hated her for "ruining" those songs. Now, as somebody who likes Tiffany myself, I don't think she "ruined" those songs. I do, however, think that they're not the best introduction to her style, and she did much better with other songs on her albums and on the B-sides of her singles, almost all of which were not remakes of classic rock songs. I think her voice is much better suited to ballads than to the '80s-teen-pop-styled renditions of those two songs. But because some of her biggest hits were that style (people somehow seem to forget her #1-hit ballad "Could've Been" and her top-10 "All This Time"), that's how she's forever typecast. Hopefully the new album this year will finally change this image in the public mind.
Anyway, the tracks on her debut album are:
1) Should've Been Me: The studio musicians do a good job on the instrumental intro to this song, getting the album off to a powerful start. Tiffany's voice here is much in the style of Stevie Nicks, who has always been one of her idols.
2) Danny: A sentimental favorite of mine, since I'm a "Danny" myself (though I prefer "Dan"). This was actually her first single, but once her mall tour got going the crowds seemed to prefer "I Think We're Alone Now," so the record company released that as the next single and it became her first hit.
3) Spanish Eyes: This song didn't really do much for me at first, but I like it better now. There are still lots of other Tiffany songs I prefer.
4) Feelings Of Forever: My favorite song on the album, an energetic "power ballad." Funny thing about the title: Years before it, somebody else's song (Air Supply?) had a line "Got a feeling that forever... we're gonna stay together" (or something like that), and for some reason I kept mis-hearing it as "Got a feeling of forever." This didn't really seem to make much sense as a lyric, but I kept mis-rendering it that way anyway, long before Tiffany's song actually used that phrase.
5) Kid on a Corner: Another of my favorites from the album. It includes the line, "You should know by now that everything changes; even stars fall from the sky," which turned out to be somewhat prophetic with regard to Tiffany's own stardom, which had a "falling-out" after her second album. But her new comeback will take care of that...
6) I Saw Him Standing There: One of the songs you love to hate, as it "rips off" the Beatles, giving the song a sex change in the process. So, it's a cover song. Lots of artists do cover songs. Tiffany does exactly two cover songs on this album, and eight new songs, so guess which ones the anti-fans always talk about? Anyway, as far as the style "ruining" the original, she wasn't trying to do an exact rendering of the Beatles' style. She was re-casting the song into '80s teen dance pop. If you don't like this genre, you won't like the song, so just don't listen to it! (While I can tolerate it, I like her other songs much better.)
7) Johnny's Got The Inside Moves: Heeeeere's Johnny... (No, the song has nothing to do with Johnny Carson, but I couldn't resist saying that. Tiffany did make a couple of Tonight Show appearances in Carson's era, and has a Jay Leno appearance upcoming.) This is one of several fairly interchangeable teen-romantic-rivalry songs on her first two albums, which I have even less liking for than her cover songs; she can't win 'em all.
8) Promises Made: Better than the previous track. The chorus here goes "Promises made, promises broken," and I always feel like singing it in reply when I hear political ads using the slogan "Promises Made, Promises Kept," describing a politician who's running for re-election.
9) I Think We're Alone Now: The other remake song. Skip it too if you don't like '60s rock recast as '80s teen dance pop.
10) Could've Been: A #1 hit for Tiffany in the pop and adult contemporary markets, but still forgotten by most people compared to her remake songs. A very nice ballad; it's the song that got me to first notice her back when it was popular.
OK, the songs weren't all totally great, even to my favorable ears, and I'll admit that none of them were high art. (Her upcoming album should have much more of interest to people looking for artistic expression, as she co-wrote most of the songs on it and made them express her feelings, instead of using pre-packaged songs from a manager/producer like on her first two albums.) But they're still fun to listen to, and that's the main thing I look for in music.
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