The Kids From Fame
THE KIDS FROM FAME album:
Released in July 1982 on LP (REP447) and Cassette (ZCH447) the music was licensed to BBC records from RCA music. Also released in Europe on picture disc.
Later released by RCA/BMG on CD (ND90427)
Highest U.K. chart position number 1 for 12 weeks.
Spent 46 weeks on the U.K. album, charts.
2nd Best Selling Album in the U.K. of 1982 only beaten by Barbra Streisand's "Love Songs" Album.
My Review:
This album has a great cover which appears to have been specially shot for the album release. Taken by Ron Slenzak it features the whole of the season 1 cast, with some of the dancers in the background. For me the picture says it all Lee is sat at the piano/synthesizer, Lori has her cello, Debbie her dance cane and Leroy high kicks his leg into the air. You can instantly tell what the show and the album are about from this cover.
“Starmaker” written by Bruce Roberts & Carole Bayer Sager and performed by the Kids From Fame opens the album. Although this was the casts most well known song and as much as I love the song for me it was a strange choice of first song. Personally I would have opened with something up tempo to kick start the album into gear. Anyway it’s a great song and the whole cast with the exception of Carol and Albert are all singing together which makes it pretty unique. It’s different to the version used in the episode
"A Special Place” as it features Erica on vocals and she’s not in that episode. An edit of this version with an ending rather than a fade out was however used in the episode “The Strike”. I was always disappointed that they didn’t include the beautiful piano ending, which was also used in the live concerts on this recorded version. I don’t know why I just feel the song should have a proper ending and as one does exist it seemed strange not to use it.
“I Can Do Anything Better Than You Can” written by David Wolfert & Sandy Linzer and performed by Debbie Allen & Erica Gimpel. I love this high energy feel good song and for me this would have been my choice to open the album pushing “Starmaker” to the last song on side one of the LP. Erica’s beautifully clear, expressive vocals make this a particular favourite and if it had been down to me this would have been released as the first single. Debbie’s dance instructions at the beginning make it the perfect song for any aerobic workout which was a huge craze back in 1982. I would have loved if they had extended this song to make it last longer than the original episode version.
“I Still Believe In Me” written by Gary Portnoy & Susan Sheridan and performed by
Debbie Allen & Erica Gimpel. This for me really is one of the standout songs from the whole 6 seasons and Erica and Debbie’s vocals mix perfectly together. I love Erica’s high vocals layer over Debbie’s just before the start of Erica’s verse. As this is Debbie’s last performance on this album I would have personally swapped this song on to side 2 and moved “It’s Gonna Be a Long Night” to this position rather than have 2 Debbie and Erica tracks back to back but that’s just me being picky.
“Life is a Celebration” written by Rick Springfield and performed by Erica Gimpel & Carlo Imperato. Another Fame classic which common opinion at the time said it should have been a single as the song really expresses the feeling of the show. A mix of ballad and up tempo Erica and Carlo’s voices work wonderfully together. The main picture on the inside of the sleeve comes from the performance of this song during the episode “Street Kid”.
“Step Up to the Mike” written by Alan Gordon and performed by Carlo Imperato, Valerie Landsburg, Gene Anthony Ray & Erica Gimpel. This is a good song but never a particular favourite of mine. I was always disappointed by this album version that they included writer Alan Connor doing an announcer voice over as that never really worked for me and I prefer the original “But Seriously Folks” episode version without the announcer’s part. Still side one ends on a high note.
“Hi-Fidelity” written by Enid Levine and performed by Valerie Landsburg opens side 2 and continues the high energy feel good theme. I love Valerie’s sweet clear vocals but I miss the lovely opening that they used in “The Sell Out” episode version. I’m not sure why they changed it but for me the original works better and I would have also kept Carlo and Lee’s backing vocals as the 2 of them are slightly neglected on this album.
“We Got the Power” written by Barry Fasman & Steve Sperry and performed by
Erica Gimpel & Gene Anthony Ray. Now this is another inspirational Fame classic which should have been a single as it really expresses the feel good energy of the show. Rerecorded from the episode version it loses Lee’s backing vocals. Personally if they were rerecording I would have utilised the other cast members Valerie, Carlo, Lee to make it that little bit more special.
“It's Gonna Be a Long Night” written by Gary Portnoy & Estelle Levitt and performed by Lori Singer. I really loved this song as a kid back in the early 80s and would always play it when I was feeling down and it became my favourite song off the album. As a kid I never really noticed that Lori’s vocals aren’t that strong but it is totally obvious when I listen today that they are protecting her with the strong backing vocals. Still it’s Lori’s only real chance to sing and I still love it today.
“Desdemona” written by Barry Fasman & Steve Sperry and performed by Gene Anthony Ray, Carlo Imperato & Valerie Landsburg. Gene takes the lead on another great song although I always felt Valerie and Carlo were under used on this one. For me it’s the wonderful synthesizers that really stand out on this track. I’m sure it’s Lee performing them.
“Be My Music” written by Lee Curreri & Ethan Hurt (also credit as Ethan Horowitz, Ethan Hurwitz & Ethan Horwitz) and performed by Lee Curreri, Erica Gimpel, Valerie Landsburg & Gene Anthony Ray. Lee Co wrote this beautiful song and the album version is so different to the original Lee solo in the “To Soar and Never Falter” episode. Lee is the first to admit that he’s not the strongest vocalist in the world and I think it was a great move to use Valerie, Erica and Gene to lift the vocal performance of this song. For me this version would have made another great single accompanied by a specially shot video to include all 4 singers rather than the normal recycling of the episode footage that they used as videos for the singles.
It’s a very short album and comes to an end much too soon and by today’s standards it feels like only part of an album. There are a couple of songs like “Take Me” and “Hope “that never saw the light of day and they could so easily have been fitted on to this album. The most glaring omission has to be the “Fame” theme tune as for some bizarre reason they couldn’t get permission to use Erica’s version on this album. Presumably because the original movie recordings were on a different record label and the success of the TV series gave the movie soundtrack a whole new lease of life and propelled Irene Cara’s version of the theme to number one on the singles chart and I can only assume that the movie album record label didn’t want to dilute their potential sales. To me this is a great shame and makes the album feel slightly incomplete. It’s funny because my original version of the LP has “Fame” the NBC TV series statement on the right hand side but afterwards future releases of the album moved that writing to the left side under the song titles and using the same font for the word “Fame” at first I thought the album had been re-released to include Erica’s performance. I guess the album is slightly dominated by Erica particularly side one so as mentioned I would have reordered the track listing to balance that out more. If I had my way I would have rerecorded the Fame theme using all the kids and Debbie similar to the final episode version, now that really would have been a great start or ending to the album.
Singles From this album:
"Hi Fidelity" released August 1982 B-side "I Still Believe In Me" reached number 5 on the U.K. charts.
"Starmaker" released September 1982 B-side "Step Up To The Mike" reached number 3 on the U.K. charts.
