Why It Matters

Mark Radice is one of those really interesting figures in the music business whose story really deserves telling.  Unfortunately, he never responded to my interview requests, so you’re going to have to settle for my version.

Radice was a child star whose first single, 1967’s “10,000 Year Old Blues,” was released when he was ten years old.  This cut is a bit of a novelty because it features pre-Aerosmith Steven Tyler.

His big solo moment was 1976’s Ain’t Nothin’ But A Party, a disco album with enough funk to it to break it out of that narrow genre.  The title track, featuring Brass Construction, is pretty tasty:

Throughout the seventies and eighties Radice wrote for other artists and played keyboards for the likes of Donovan, Cheap Trick, and Aerosmith, appearing on the latter’s must-have Live Bootleg!

Since the eighties Mark has written songs for Sesame Street, and he continues to record his own material.  You can check him out on Youtube.

As for Intense; well, I picked it up hoping that it would be as funky as Ain’t Nothin’ But A Party, but it isn’t.  Intense tends more toward the disco end of the spectrum, which isn’t exactly my pair of Angel Flights.  I keep the album around for the cover, though, which has potential.

What do you think: Is Intense worthy of a spot in the The Bad Album Cover Hall of Fame?  I’m listening.