Midnight Ride by Barbara Pennington
The lovely Barbara Pennington with a voice resembling that of Chaka Khan with the way it soars and soars. She was discovered together with Evelyn Thomas and L.J. Johnson by Ian Levine in the summer of 1975 in Chicago. After an overlooked debut single at Island Records in 1976, her second single 24 Hours A Day (at United Artists) peaked at #4 at the Billboard Disco Charts and has just recently been recorded in a fab new version by Jessica Williams and Rick Gianatos. Barbara's debut album was released early 1978 and is excellent from start to finish. You Are The Music Within Me followed in April 1977, and three more singles were extracted from her debut album in 1978, Spend A Little Time With Me, Midnight Ride, and All Time Loser, before Barbara faded from view.
She re-emerged on Record Shack Records in 1984 where more hits followed with All American Boy, Fan The Flame, and On A Crowded Street from the album Out Of The Darkest Night. After three singles on Nightmare Records in the late 80s, Barbara disappeared from view for many years until releasing an excellent album Latenight in 2010, proving her voice is as good as ever.
Tracklist
| 1. | Midnight Ride | 4:49 |
| 2. | All Time Loser | 6:30 |
| 3. | Trusted Friend | 6:32 |
| 4. | You Are The Music Within Me | 9:45 |
| 5. | Spend A Little Time With Me | 6:14 |
| 6. | I Can't Help Being Guilty | 5:24 |
| 7. | 24 Hours a Day | 9:22 |
| 8. | Running in Another Direction | 5:16 |
| 9. | It's So Hard Getting Over | 4:02 |
Credits
Arranged By – Fiachra Trench (tracks: A1 to A3, B1, B2, B4), Paul David Wilson (tracks: A4, B3)
Arranged By [Backing Vocals] – Barbara Pennington, Ian Levine
Backing Vocals – Barbara Pennington, Beverly McLin, Billy Durham, Evelyn Thomas, George Chandler, James Wells, Jimmy Chambers, Jimmy Thomas, Katie Kissoon, Smokey Bates*, Paul David Wilson, Peaches Faison, Ruby James, Wesley Stovall
Bass – Larry Ball, Les Hurdle, Tiaz Palmer
Design, Art Direction – Paul Henry (6)
Drums – Brian Grice, Clem Cattini
Engineer – Gary Langan, Hank Neuberger, Tom Szaniszlo
Guitar – Chris Rae, Danny Raye Leake*, Pip Williams
Keyboards – Dean Gant, Fiachra Trench, Vince Willis
Percussion, Vibraphone, Xylophone, Bells [Orchestral] – Frank Ricotti, Marvin Sparks
Photography – Trevor Rogers
Producer – Danny Raye Leake* (tracks: A4, B3), Ian Levine
Saxophone – Dave Willis, Jim Cuomo, Ron Aspery, Ronnie Ross
Strings – Ben Kennard, Brendon O'Reilly*, Celia Mitchell, Cyril Ruben*, David Filmes, David Katz, David Nolan, Des Bradley*, Eric Sagen, Jack Lickman*, Jeff Wakefield, Jim Moore, Ken Fillito, Laurie Clay, Mike Cookson*, Michael De Salles*, Neil Watson, Peter Oxer, Ray Adams, Roger Welch, The Ed Lebauer Strings
Synthesizer – Fiachra Trench
Trombone – Cliff Hardie, Geoff Perkins
Trumpet – John Hockridge, Kenny Wheeler, Tony Fisher
Woodwind – Alan Beever, Dave Willis, David Sandeman, Keith Bird*
Notes
Produced for Voltafine Productions
Recorded and mixed at Sarm Studios, London and The Chicago Recording Company, Chicago
Mastered at Artisan Sound Recorders, California (logo in deadwax)
Barcode and Other Identifiers
Matrix / Runout (Side A run-out area): UA-LA-867-1
Matrix / Runout (Side B run-out area): UA-LA-867-2
License
All rights reserved.Tags
Along with Fiachra Trench, his songwriting partner, Ian Levine helped develop the Hi-NRG dance sound courtesy of hits such as "High Energy" by Evelyn Thomas, "So Many Men, So Little Time" by Miquel Brown, and "(I Can't Believe It) It's a Miracle" by Moonstone. By the 1970s, he began recruiting American soul singers like Evelyn Thomas and Hazell Dean to storm Britain's charts (and America's).