John WAITE: Rovers Return [tape cassette 1987] with hit writers Desmond Child, Diane Warren. Check video + the deep cuts “Don’t Lose Any Sleep” [Written by – Diane Warren] + “She The One”

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Released in 1987, Rovers Return was the last of the four solo albums that Waite sandwiched between his stints fronting proto melodic rock men, The Babys and  super-group Bad English.
Waite’s second solo effort, No Brakes had yielded the massive worldwide hit single, Missing You, but the follow up album, Mask Of Smiles yielded only one minor Top Forty incursion.
As a result, acknowledged hit writers, Desmond Child, Diane Warren and Rick Nowels were called in to contribute to Rovers Return.

Child was cresting a wave of popularity, with big hits written for Bon Jovi, Kiss, Cher and Aerosmith all charting around this time. So you could understand the desire to get him on board.

His fingerprints are all over opening track and first single These Times Are Hard For Lovers, mainlining us into an adrenaline rush of a chorus, anthemic and radio friendly.

Warren and Nowells contributions, respectively, Dont Lose Any Sleep and Big Time For Love are good melodic rock songs. The former’s lyrical topsy turvy is a neat trick that suits Waites tortured soul delivery.

Paradoxically though, the real standout tracks were either written solely by Waite (Act Of Love) or with long time collaborator, Ivan Kral (Shes The One).

When Waite is at his absolute best, theres an honesty in his vocal delivery. He pulls off that difficult trick of making you care. Even when spinning the romanticism in Act Of Love, he employs remarkable restraint, ensuring the songs sentiments dont tip over into sentimentality.

And on Wild One, he is clearly reaching out for the unattainable, a restless spirit, trapped in circumstances, defined in stark relief by John McCurrys freewheeling, razor sharp axework. This is Waite, Fillipetti and McCurry doing what they do best.

Album standout however, just has to be Shes The One. It has all the musical urgency and lyrical rhythm of great eighties AOR. The track may lack the artistic ambition of so much of Waites material, but it works like a dream, with keyboards, guitars and voice all propelled by a deceptively simple melodic imperative.

Elsewhere, Womans Touch and Encircled are edgier, grittier affairs and were maybe just too much of a contrast to the other material on Rovers Return for the casual fan of the time.

The album wasnt a commercial success and Waite went on to form Bad English.

But today, 24 years on, you can see that is clearly an accomplished piece of work, filled with superb melodies and inspired moments, with a remastering job that makes the music sound dynamic, clear and pin sharp, unwrapping the albums full potential.

A worthy investment. Dont wait.

Track listing:
1. These Times Are Hard For Lovers

2. Act of love
3. Encircled
4. Woman touch
5. Wild One
6. Don’t Lose Any Sleep [Written by – Diane Warren]
7. Sometimes
8. She The One
9. Big Time For Love

 

5.0 out of 5 stars John Waite Best AOR Effort!!,
In my opinion this was John Waite best AOR effort next to Bad English. He brings on Desmond Child (Bon Jovi), Joe Lynn Turner (Rainbow, Deep Purple) & Diane Warren for his background vocalists. John McCurry (Alice Cooper, Robin Beck, Billy Squier & Kane Roberts) handles the guitar work and John Waite sings his heart out.
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5.0 out of 5 stars Solid, if Under-appreciated Effort by Consistent Performer,
John Waite will go down as the “”Missing You””, “”When I See You Smile””, guy who was also in the Babys also. That a shame as he put out PLENTY of top notch, solid material over his lengthy material. Any fan of his work knows that, but the stations he gets airplay will only know him from his largest hits. That too bad as he delivered again and again great AOR.

This album, coming out a couple of years after “”Missing You”” (from No Brakes), and “”Every Step of the Way”” (a good rewrite of Missing You that should have been a bigger hit and is mysteriously missing from any Waite greatest collection) from the spotty but decent Mask of Smiles shortly after No Brakes has many unknown pleasures.

I do recall the release, and the 1st single rocked in a Bon Jovi-ish way (Desmond Child had a hand in the album), and was much better than its #53 chart placing would indicate. Still, it also missing from all of Waite hit compilations. It a solid rocker that stays in your head. I’ve learned to like Encircled though it not my favorite on an album that also includes excellent ballads, with the obvious standout being the impassioned, heartfelt “”Act of Love.”” Other worthy ballads are “”Don’t Lose Any Sleep”” that made the bottom of the top 100, but should have been a larger hit, and is WAY BETTER than Starship version, though I like a lot of that band material. Waite delivered his usual soulful vocal on that song that made it a keeper. Also, “”Sometimes”” is another great ballad that lost in an album that never really got its due upon release in 1987. I do like some of the other rockers (Wild One, She The One) as well, but they seem to have that dated, 80 sound, whereas the ballads are more timeless. Woman Touch is a nice change of pace, bluesy number, and I was never a big fan of Big Time For Love, though that a small complaint considering most of this is excellent work. Overall, this is another very solid collection by an underrated artist, who continues to put out great work (listen to Temple Bar, When You Were Mine, and the more recent Rough and Tumble) at a time when it even harder for long standing musicians to get their product heard or bought.

a lost classic. Check it out, you won’t be disappointed!
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5.0 out of 5 stars One of England Best Exports,
This is and will continue to be one of my favourite albums from one of my all-time favourite singers. Between the Babys and Bad English and after the solo success of Missing You came this album, named curiously after the pub in Coronation Street I believe. From the unashamedly commercial hit These Times Are Hard For Lovers this album rocks through to the end and forms a perfect prelude to the first Bad English album which followed soon after. If the riff to Encircled sounds familiar throw on Alice Coopers Poison and realise where the riff first began-right here. Wild One and She the One rock along as well but my favourite song on the album is the 12-bar Woman Touch. Admittedly this is probably due to the great opening scene of the Jim Belushi movie The Principal where the song was used. One of the greatest single scenes in any movie ever-still makes me laugh-and right along underneath is John Waite bopping along. Mr.Waite is a rare talent who continues to put out fine, if now a bit more mellow, material and this is definitely one of his best efforts.
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5.0 out of 5 stars Waite Test,
Really this is a test to probe that John is more than “”Missing you”” . For me, this is great. New ballads and a few support of “”Solid gold”” TV Show in that time. For eighties fans, it is very good. “”Act of love”” is great and if you like Bad English you will like this one. Not to much rock but great ballads.
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John Waite (born John Charles Waite, 4 July 1952, Lancaster, Lancashire, England) is a rock singer. He was the lead vocalist for the bands The Babys and Bad English. As a solo artist, he scored a #1 hit in the United States with “”Missing You”” in 1984.
Waite first came to attention as the lead singer and bassist of The Babys, a British group which had moderate chart success and a solid following for their concert tours. Over the course of five years, the Babys produced five albums ending with the final album On the Edge in October 1980, after which the group broke up.

Waite subsequently launched his solo career with his 1982 debut album Ignition, which produced the hit single “”Change””, written by Holly Knight and later included on the Vision Quest soundtrack.

His next album, No Brakes, resulted in international attention due to the hit single “”Missing You”” which went to No. 1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 singles chart. Two more singles followed, including “”Tears”” which was a Top 10 hit on the Billboard Mainstream Rock charts.

The next album Mask of Smiles followed in 1985, and another single “”If Anybody Had a Heart”” was released from the soundtrack of the 1986 film About Last Night…, starring Demi Moore. In 1987, “”Rover Return”” was released with the single “”These Times Are Hard For Lovers””. Waite would have another soundtrack appearance in 1990 from Days of Thunder with “”Deal for Life””, written by Martin Page and Bernie Taupin.

In 1988, Waite joined former Babys band mates Jonathan Cain and Ricky Phillips along with Neal Schon from Journey and drummer Deen Castronovo, to form the super group Bad English.

 

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