Tag: Imperials

Imperials – Live – 1978

This Live album features the most recent hits (in 1978) from the Imperials. Some of the versions were spruced up for the concert and some of them tamed down. The selection of songs and styles didn’t really work well in my opinion but I wasn’t at the concert so maybe it worked better in person. There’s one thing on the album that annoyed me. They introduce the song “Your First Day In Heaven” as being how they sounded in 1964. The song however is not from 1964 and appears to have been released the same year at this album (feel free to correct me). Why do a song in the old style when you could just pick and old song and do it the way it was originally done. This moment was just sort of strange to me. All that said if you love the early Imperials this live album is for you. The production quality is excellent and the song choices were overall good choices.

Tracklist
1 – Sonshine Day – 2:34
2 – Bread Upon The Water – 3:16
3 – Bread Upon The Water (Reprise) – 0:52
4 – New Creation – 5:47
5 – Your First Day In Heaven – 1:39
6 – Lead Me Gently Home Father – 3:17
7 – I Love The Way You Love – 4:09
8 – He Touched Me – 3:53
9 – Sail On – 5:03
10 – How Great Thou Art – 2:40
11 – The Old Gospel Ship – 3:07
12 – The Old Gospel Ship (Reprise) – 1:42

Credits
Bass, Electric Guitar – Dave Hollihand, John Lutz
Drums – Mike Kinard
Engineer – Gaston Nichols, Max Moseley
Piano, Electric Piano – Bill George
Producer – Armond Morales, Buddy Huey, Chris Christian
Trumpet – John Lutz
Recorded Live: First Baptist Church, Waco, Texas The Kingsland Theatre, St. Louis, Missouri.

Imperials – Priority – 1980

This was the final album from the Imperials with Russ Taff leading the group. A lot of fans believe he was the best the Imperials had to offer and among those people this album is generally thought to be his best. This album was actually fairly uptempo for the Imperials and personally I hadn’t listened to this album in 30 years so I was pleasantly surprised how good it actually was. It’s not my style but this is a good album. Most of the songs were written by the Omartians and Taff. Strangely the track “Into My Life” was written by Beeb Birtles (Little River Band) and appeared on his album released the same year.

Tracklist
1 – The Trumpet Of Jesus – 3:46
2 – Finish What You Started – 4:05
3 – I’d Rather Believe In You – 3:37
4 – Any Good Time At All – 4:02
5 – Be Still My Soul – 3:51
6 – There’s No Time Till You Take It – 4:09
7 – Pieces – 4:06
8 – Into My Life – 4:42
9 – Seek Ye First – 5:00

Credits
Artwork By [Layout] – Bob Anderson
Backing Vocals [Additional] – Marti McCall, Myrna Matthews, Stormie Omartian
Bass – Abraham Laboriel
Congas – Alex Acuña
Drums – Paul Leim
Engineer, Remix – John Guess
Guitar – Martin K. Walsh
Keyboards – Michael Omartian
Leader [Concertmaster] – Assa Drori
Mastered By [Mastering Engineer] – Ken Perry
Other [Production Coordinator] – Yvonne Garcia
Photography – Bob Anderson
Producer, Arranged By – Michael Omartian
Saxophone – Jackie Kelso, Kim Hutchcroft
Trombone – Dick Hyde, Lew McCreary
Trumpet – Chuck Findley, Steve Madaio
Vocals – Russ Taff
Written By [Lyrics] – Stormie Omartian (tracks: A1 to A4, B1, B2, B4)
Written By [Music] – Michael Omartian (tracks: A1 to A4, B1, B2, B4)

Imperials – No Shortage – 1975

This 1975 Imperials release provided their fans with more of what they loved. This album was more socially aware of the times. The title and lead track referred to the “shortage culture” of the mid 70’s. Other tracks spoke of negative issues and how God figured into them. Some pundits actually consider “No Shortage” as their best song ever. The album won both Grammy and Dove awards. No Shortage was probably one of the most popular Christian albums of all time but keep in mind the broad target audience of the album before you rush to correct me.

Tracklist
1 – No Shortage – 2:50
2 – Give Them All To Jesus – 3:32
3 – Would You Believe In Me – 4:07
4 – Holy Spirit, Speak To Me – 3:35
5 – My Child, Welcome Home 2:57
6 – Someday (It May Be Tomorrow) – 2:22
7 – I Just Came To Praise The Lord – 3:07
8 – Let Us Love One Another – 4:50
9 – Light At The End Of The Darkness – 3:42
10 – There Must Be A Better Way – 3:46

Various – Rock of the Ages – Rock & Roll From The Third Dimension – 1983

This sampler is relatively unremarkable in that all the songs on it were very well known. The only thing that stood out about the release was that the album cover was 3D and the album came with 3D glasses so you could enjoy it.

Tracklist
1 – Leslie Phillips – Put Your Heart In Me (Beyond Saturday Night) – 4:00
2 – Randy Stonehill – The Glory And The Flame (Between The Glory And The Flame ) – 3:10
3 – Imperials – How Can You Live (Stand By The Power) – 3:46
4 – Maria Muldaur – Keep My Eyes On You (There Is A Love) – 4:01
5 – Kenny Marks – He’ll Finish What He Started (Follow Him) – 3:11
6 – Amy Grant – Too Late (Never Alone) – 3:15
7 – White Heart – You’re The One (White Heart) – 3:56
8 – David Edwards – Anything But Love (Get The Picture) – 3:34
9 – Dion – I Put Away My Idols ( I Put Away My Idols) – 3:08

Various – Adventures in the Land of Big Beats & Happy Feets – 1989

This has to be the worst sampler in the history of Christian music. It’s not the songs that are bad, they are great songs from great artists. It’s what they did with them that is the problem. Let me explain. This album is constructed as follows. The opening, ending, and all odd number songs are studio dance beats attributed to non existent bands. All of the even songs are well known songs by well known artists BUT they have been “remixed and extended”. Now first of all this album came out in 1989 and the secular music scene was done with cheesy two bit extended dance tracks. But for whatever reason Word Records chose at this late time to jump on a bandwagon that had already left the building. So here we go. Every song we have heard of before on this album is an “extended remix”. I use the term “extended remix” term loosely as these are without a doubt the worst remixes I have ever heard. So what we have here is the business idea of re releasing the same content over and over again only this time they pretended to dress it up as something new. What a disaster. OK listen to the album once and forget about it, that’s what I did.

Tracklist
1 – Rakim D. & The Garden Beats – Prologue – 2:03
2 – Imperials – Fallin’ – 4:18
3 – Bunny Whop And The Hip Hop – Baow Baow Baow – 1:06
4 – Philip Bailey – Thank You – 5:29
5 – Randy McNally & The Road Dogz – Rappin’ Detail – 1:12
6 – Amy Grant – Wise Up – 6:28
7 – Billy B. & The Beez Nees – No Bout Adoubt It – 1:11
8 – Steve Taylor – Svengali – 5:46
9 – Billy B. & The Beez Nees – Doutout – 0:57
10 – Kim Boyce – I Just Want To Celebrate – 5:16
11 – The Nerf Wilson Ensemble – Tee Vee Whiz – 0:51
12 – Ideola – Jericho – 4:28
13 – The Nerf Wilson Ensemble – Gee Tee Vee – 1:12
14 – Russ Taff – I’ve Come Too Far – 5:39
15 – Snappo Schultz – BBBBBeatitudinal – 1:16
16 – Sheila Walsh – Ship Of Love – 7:00
17 – Snappo Schultz – BBBBBeatitudinal – Part II – 1:01
18 – Randy Stonehill Cold Rock The Groove – 4:35
19 – Rakim D. & The Garden Beats – Epilogue – 0:42

Credits
Art Direction, Design – Bradley Grose
Compilation Producer – Leon Mulczk
Coordinator [Cover] – Laurie Fink (2)
Executive-Producer – Tom Willett
Music By [Link Music By] – Lee Cahuenga (tracks: 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, 17, 19)
Remix [Re-mixes], Edited By [Edits] – Lee Cahuenga
Written-By [Links Written By], Producer [Links Produced By] – Linx, Inc. (tracks: 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, 17, 19)

Companies, etc.
Record Company – Word, Inc.
Phonographic Copyright (p) – Word, Inc.
Copyright (c) – Word, Inc.
Distributed By – Word Records Limited
Distributed By – Word (UK) Ltd.
Manufactured By – Word, Inc.