Stephen T. McCarthy I were discussing music the other evening, and the topic turned to the Babys. The first two albums were Stephen’s favorites, and I’d made comment about the first two albums having a rawer sound with no hits. Stephen countered with the comment that their breakthrough song, “Isn’t It Time,” was on the second album, Broken Hearts.
I was floored. I checked it-he’s right. The reason I was floored was that I looked for more than six years for a copy of “Broken Hearts,” finally finding it at a Zia Records store in Tucson prior to my moving to Arizona (I came out on business frequently. And I LOOKED. I looked in LA, in Dallas, in NYC…I used to travel for business and I’d hit the used CD stores in every city.
Why the heck would the record label delete a title with one of the band’s biggest hits? It was reissued in 2001 as a two-fer with the first album, but that, too has since gone out of print.
Well, I dragged my copy out of mothballs over the weekend and gave it a listen. The Babys gave the world John Waite (vocalist/bassist) in addition to drummer Tony Brock, keyboard player/guitarist Michael Corby, and guitarist Wally Stocker.
My memory was half right- the self-titled first album has a rawer feel to it, with some stronger songs than I remembered. The production was not that great, however-the sound quality could have been better. I don’t remember if I had that feeling from the vinyl, but I was too lazy to dig it out and listen.
The second album, Broken Heart, has a much more polished sound to it with string and horn arrangements on the intense ballads and smooth rockers. Standout songs for me are the radio-friendly "Isn't It Time" along with "Broken Heart." This was much more commercial than I remembered, and a rewarding listen to this day.
Sadly out of print in the US, it is available as an import, or you can start hunting the used bins.
