Carole Bayer Sager Albums (4)
'Stronger Than Before'
Release Date 10/11/2005
Tracks 13
Label Boardwalk
See Album Tracklist and Review
'Sometimes Late at Night'
Release Date 1/1/1981
Tracks 13
Label Casablanca
See Album Tracklist and Review
What The Critics Say
"I Won't Break" opens the third solo album from Carole Bayer Sager. It is an amazing song by Sager, her former husband Burt Bacharach, and the late Peter Allen. The lyrics are perfect and direct, while they take this pop tune through twists and clever passages making it something very special. This album yielded Carole Bayer Sager her first Top 30 hit on her own, "Stronger Than Before," and it is a nice slice from this concept album which flows from song to song with no breaks in between. "Just Friends" picks up where "I Won't Break" left off, so much so that if you're not paying attention, you don't realize it's the next song. That isn't to say this material is redundant -- unlike the Ramones, Carole Bayer Sager will take her same formula and reinvent it. Michael Jackson shows up to co-produce and sing backing vocals on this song, and he doesn't get in the way. It's all very tasteful. "Tell Her" is different enough to change the mood a bit, while on "Somebody's Been Lying" the acoustic guitars of Tim May, Fred Tackett, and Lee Ritenour bring the album to a whole other place in the days prior to AAA radio. Credit is given to Joyce Bogart and her late husband Neil for the concept, and while fans would love to have an album with more of the songs Sager wrote for other artists from the Mindbenders to Carly Simon to Melissa Manchester and Neil Diamond, at least the latter two artists show up on this epic to perform, Diamond playing guitar on the beautiful song he co-wrote with the singer, "On the Way to the Sky," and Manchester on the title track. Side one ends with the stunning "You and Me (We Wanted It All," arranged by Marvin Hamlisch with the ending by Burt Bacharach. One has to marvel at Carole Bayer Sager's ex-husband Hamlisch working with her current-at-the-time husband Bacharach. Guess they don't take the sentiment of "Just Friends" seriously, the tune which states plainly "I don't think that you and me can just be friends." This album is really the Sgt. Pepper of singer/songwriter recordings. It is exhilarating from track to track -- "Sometimes Late at Night," the title track, is simply gorgeous and majestic. "You Don't Know Me" -- not the Ray Charles classic -- a new title by Bacharach and Sager, concludes the album along with a reprise of the title song. Why Barry Manilow, Tom Jones, Engelbert Humperdinck, Helen Reddy, Peter Lemongello, or even older middle-of-the-road stars Tony Bennett and Steve Lawrence & Eydie Gorme didn't have hits from this fountain of songs is a real question mark. While Carole King and Neil Sedaka enjoyed their own hits while others covered significant songs from their current albums simultaneously, it didn't happen for Sometimes Late at Night. This is a perfect vehicle for Dionne Warwick to recover and re-discover. "Wild Again," "Easy to Love Again" -- these are vital soft rock tunes that should have captured the charts, the epitome of '70s and '80s adult contemporary. "Sometimes Late at Night" is a classic of the genre and deserves a special place on the mantelpiece. ~ Joe Viglione, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Carole Bayer Sager's second album should have made this major songwriter a big, big singing star. Though it does not feature any of her hits or semi-hits, something that made her Elektra debut from the previous year extra special, Too comes very close to being a masterpiece. "You're Interesting," co-written with the late Peter Allen, latches onto your heart as it ends side one, just the way the disc begins with "To Make You Smile Again," authored by the singer and her friend Melissa Manchester. Ex-husband Marvin Hamlisch is on piano, Nino Tempo plays exquisite tenor sax, the performance recorded live at Wally Heider Studios on March 22, 1978. Arranged and conducted by Don Costa, this elegant music is a stark contrast to Sager's vocals, which can only be described as Marianne Faithful doing light pop after the 10,000 cigarettes -- Faithful during her "Broken English" not "As Tears Go By" phase. Perhaps too quirky for '70s radio which devoured the smooth tones of Neil Diamond, Helen Reddy, and Carole King, there is a magic to Carole Bayer Sager's Too that makes it stand apart from other singer/songwriter collections. Michael McDonald duets on "It's the Falling in Love," a superb production by Brooks Arthur of this David Foster/Bayer Sager major-league effort. Melissa Manchester again co-writes, and "Peace in My Heart" is a little more subdued than what Manchester became famous for -- big ballads which were almost as ostentatious as those of her former cohort, Barry Manilow. Each tune helps weave the "tapestry" that is this album, a record which failed to reach the audience that Manilow, Carole King, and other stars developed throughout the '70s. Alice Cooper co-writes and co-sings "Shadows" along with producer Bruce Roberts -- and though even the hard rocker, Cooper, found fame with his middle-of-the-road pop tunes written with Dick Wagner at this point in time, "Shadows" never got the radio exposure it deserved. The pairing is brilliant -- not the shocker it looks like on paper. Looking at the credits, one gets the feeling this is a very calculated disc, with the star power being used for commercial rather than artistic reasons. Listening to it, the reality is the exact opposite. This is a tremendous recording by a name songwriter with powerful friends having fun. Marvin Hamlisch's sole songwriting contribution with King, "There's Something About You," is beautiful, and in stark contrast to the Philly sound of "I Don't Wanna Dance No More," another up-tempo David Foster/Bayer Sager number. The final song, "I'm Coming Home Again," written with producer Bruce Roberts, is like a sequel to "Home to Myself" from the previous album. There are great albums by singer/songwriters out there, collections by Jackie DeShannon, Randy Edelman, Tim Moore, David Pomeranz, and others, and all have striking and tremendous moments. This has the best that this talented songsmith has to offer. It is a very special record. ~ Joe Viglione, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
This is actually an extraordinary album by the veteran songwriter who hit as far back as 1966 with "A Groovy Kind of Love." The little granny voice of Carole Bayer Sager is full of soul and passion -- so pure and fragile, it is a shame it never got to dominate the charts. The title track of Melissa Manchester's Home to Myself album is a total delight here, closing out this set; it was released four years after Manchester's version. It's a home run on a ten-song Brooks Arthur production that is full of big moments. Sager co-wrote Midnight Blue, Manchester's breakthrough hit on Arista, but "Home to Myself" was on the Bell imprint, presumably when Larry Uttall ran the label prior to Clive Davis coming onboard. With that in mind, these compact gems seem all the more precious, be it a lesser-known title like "Steal Away Again," co-written by Bette Midler and Bruce Roberts, or one of the many covers of her more popular titles: "I'd Rather Leave While I'm in Love," which Rita Coolidge brought to the Top 40 in 1980, three years after this incarnation; or "Come in From the Rain" and "You're Moving Out Today," two songs that were minor adult contemporary hits. It is amazing the 5th Dimension or Peaches & Herb couldn't take "Steal Away Again" to the masses, or that Helen Reddy let something so good slip through her fingers. The stellar cast makes this collection a keeper beyond the solid songwriting. Peter Allen co-writes "Shy As a Violet," but it is the Divine Ms. Midler who provides the backing vocal and harmony. Tony Orlando does the same with the excellent "Don't Wish Too Hard," also co-written by Peter Allen, who provides his piano playing on both as well. Madeline Kahn, Marvin Hamlisch, Paul Buckmaster, and Boston's Alan Estes all contribute to this true masterpiece of songwriting. More than just a "demo" for popular artists, Sager's presentation is more commercial than her novel Extravagant Gestures. A songwriter is who she is, and her voice on this disc may not be as powerful as Carole King, Melissa Manchester, or as unique asMidler's, but she can move you. ~ Joe Viglione, All Music Guide
