Description
Check exclusive video showing the LP for sale!
Check exclusive video showing the LP for sale!
Label: Mercury – 818 864-1 M-1, Mercury – 422-818 864-1 M-1
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album, HRM Pressing
Country: US
Released: 1984
Style: Hard Rock
A1 Gotta Let Go 4:39
A2 Dancin’ On The Edge 5:00
A3 Dressed To Kill 3:45
A4 Hit ‘n Run 3:54
B1 Lady Killer 3:40
B2 Still Waitin’ 4:19
B3 Fire In My Heart 3:45
B4 Don’t Let Me Down Tonight 4:42
B5 Run With The $ 4:21
Manufactured By – PolyGram Records, Inc.
Marketed By – PolyGram Records, Inc.
Phonographic Copyright ℗ – PolyGram Records, Inc.
Copyright © – PolyGram Records, Inc.
Bass – Hugh McDonald
Drums – Randy Castillo
Guitar – Lita Ford
Keyboards – Robbie Kondor [keyboard player and arranger on albums by Eric Clapton, Aretha Franklin, Barbra Streisand, Billy Joel, Whitney Houston, Bee Gees]
Synthesizer – Aldo Nova, Robbie Kondor
Synthesizer, Backing Vocals – Jeff Leib*
Vocals – Lita Ford
Producer – Lance Quinn
Hauppauge Record Manufacturing Ltd. (HRM) pressing, identified by “53” printed at the beginning of label rim text.
Allied Record Company pressing with different label, separate entry:
Lita Ford – Dancin’ On The Edge
Barcode (Text): 0 422-818864-1
Matrix / Runout (Both sides, stamped): MASTERDISK
Matrix / Runout (Runout Side A, etched): 422-818 864-1-AS-HRM A- ▻ TD
Matrix / Runout (Runout Side B, etched): 422-818 864-1-BS-HRM A- ▻ TD
Pressing Plant ID (At beginning of label rim text): 53
Dancin’ on the Edge is second solo studio album by English/American rock musician Lita Ford. It was her final release with Mercury Records, as she departed to sign with RCA Records in 1987. The album was a moderate commercial success, reaching No. 66 of the US Billboard 200 chart. The album was also nominated for a Grammy Award in category of Best Female Rock Vocal Performance.
Overview
Ford’s second solo release after leaving The Runaways in 1979, Dancin’ on the Edge features the debut of her new backing band, featuring drummer Randy Castillo, who would soon join Ozzy Osbourne’s band, and bassist Hugh McDonald, who later joined Bon Jovi (McDonald had previously played with Jon Bon Jovi in the All Star Revue; the group that recorded the hit “Runaway.”) Dancin’ on the Edge surpassed the success of Ford’s debut album Out For Blood in both sales and airplay.
Music videos for the singles “Gotta Let Go” and “Dressed to Kill” received heavy rotation on MTV during the summer of 1984. “Gotta Let Go” was a minor hit in England, reaching #94 on the UK Singles Chart. The music video for “Dressed to Kill” featured a cameo from Ford’s then-fiancée, Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath. Ford toured relentlessly in support of the album for most of 1984, culminating in a pre-Headbangers Ball concert special recorded for MTV.
Track listing
All songs were written by Lita Ford, except where noted.
Side one
“Gotta Let Go” (Ford, Geoffrey Leib) – 4:39
“Dancin’ on the Edge” – 5:00
“Dressed to Kill” – 3:44
“Hit ‘n Run” (Leib, Moon Calhoun) – 3:54
Side two
“Lady Killer” – 3:41
“Still Waitin'” – 4:20
“Fire in My Heart” – 3:46
“Don’t Let Me Down Tonight” – 4:42
“Run with the $” – 4:21
Band members
Lita Ford – guitars, vocals
Hugh McDonald – bass guitar
Randy Castillo – drums
Additional musicians
Geoff Leib – synthesizer, backing vocals
Robbie Kondor, Aldo Nova – synthesizer
Chart (1984) Peak position
Billboard 200 (USA) 66
UK Albums Chart 96
In 1984 Mercury Records released Lita Ford’s second album, “Dancin’ On The Edge”, a work that would garner some success and would mean the takeoff of Lita’s popularity, her giant step that proved that she was prepared to compete in the big leagues and become the queen of hard rock.
“Dancin’ On The Edge” is one of the forgotten gems of the genre. A fierce album without being overwhelming, fun without being ridiculous and absolutely sexy without being obscene or dirty. Lita finally found herself, discovering how convincing her voice could be and dominating and controlling her guitar in a way far superior to her previous stage.
If “Out For Blood” showed Lita Ford’s skills and virtuosity as a solo guitarist, “Dancin’ On The Edge” established her as an excellent rhythm guitarist, something fundamental in the final sound of the album. The consistency in her guitar tone was astonishing, something rarely found after Van Halen’s debut. Lita delved into the use of her instrument and her voice now sounded much more pleasant.
“Dancin’ On The Edge” was a much better album produced than the previous one, this time by Lance Quinn who gave the album a well-balanced mix in which Lita’s guitars prevailed over the rest of the instruments. Better instrumental performance and greater doses of hard rock considerably raised the result of the album, a work in which the level of the musicians who accompanied it increased considerably.
Bassist Hugh McDonald, a musician used almost as another member of Bon Jovi, and drummer Randy Castillo, who would later join Ozzy Osbourne’s band, become a solvent rhythmic combo capable of effortlessly transferring the compositional and instrumental twists and turns of Lita Ford. Keyboardists such as Robbie Kondor, Geoff Leib and Aldo Nova contributed to giving “Dancin’ On The Edge” the necessary eighties metal atmosphere and helped the boss, author of the music and lyrics of the vast majority of the songs, in certain compositional tasks. the album cuts.
“Gotta Let Go” opens “Dancin’ On The Edge” as an authentic eighties metal banger with a great chorus and exciting guitar work. A great song with an even cooler video in which Lita Ford dressed as Doris Day is attacked by a bunch of teenage punks. Then “Dancin’ On The Edge” maintains the intensity through a magnificent guitar riff built on an accelerated rhythm that is only disturbed during the powerful chorus. One more demonstration that Lita Ford was ready to join the best.
“Dressed To Kill”, with its calm and acoustic beginning that breaks into a hard rock blast with Lita giving it her all, excellent choruses in the chorus and a level solo that demonstrated her magnificent talent. Then “Hit ‘n’ Run” maintains the line although it somewhat softens the power of the vocalist. A distinctive main riff and catchy chorus lead again. The best is the breakup and the final solo.
“Lady Killer” once again emphasizes a powerful driving riff for a piece of hard rock with an aggressive Lita Ford on vocals and an absolutely catchy chorus. The solo of the song is already a regular one. Next “Still Waitin” and its eighties metal synths included. Easy to listen to and a fabulous breakdown that leads to what is probably the best solo on the album.
Lita Ford would later record an album called “The Bride Wore Black” with Tony Iommi as producer. That artefact would never see the light of day due to the differences between Lita and the president of Mercury Records, a company that she would leave to sign for RCA Records, with whom she would release “Lita” in 1988, her greatest commercial success.
No one lived larger than sexy heavy-metal guitarist and singer Lita Ford. When Ford recorded her 1984 album, “Dancin’ on the Edge,” in New York, Jon Bon Jovi and guitarist Richie Sambora were recording nearby, and would often hang out. After a night out at the club Traxx — with Ford’s best friend Toni and keyboardist Aldo Nova also in tow — Ford brought the crew back to her room at the Broadway Plaza Hotel.
Ford and Bon Jovi were making out in one bed and Sambora and Toni on another, as Nova “watched, sipping his red wine, as we tried to fit him in, too.”. All the wine got to Bon Jovi, who “began puking in the corner, right on the bedroom carpet.”
At that point, Toni felt generous. “Toni hopped off Richie,” Ford writes, “as if to say, ‘Here, Lita. Try mine.’ So I got in bed with Richie.”. The room then turned into a scene from “Caligula.”
“Holy s–t,” Ford writes in her new memoir, “Living Like a Runaway” (Dey Street). “Richie Sambora is the king of swing, I must say. Jon recovered from puking and Aldo finally made his way into the action, and it turned into girl-on-guy fun at the Broadway Plaza Hotel.”
