06. The Babys - Head First (1978)
Head First would be the most complete offering from
The Babys a band that were destined to never achieve huge commercial success (even though they had their moments) The band were always there or there abouts and had they been around in the early to mid 1970s, they surely would’ve been one of those melodic hard rock bands on the UK music scene. They were also too early to be part of the 1980s peak years of AOR as well and therefore just ended being an inspiration to the scene. They were also fondly remembered as being the root band of
John Waite, who would become one of the most popular figures in commercial rock throughout the 1980s, before featuring on the classic late era AOR
Bad English debut album in 1987. Future
Journey and
Styx men
Jonathan Cain and
Ricky Phillips would also feature in the band for the upcoming tour and next studio album.
By the time of
Head First the band had trimmed down to a trio after the departure of founder guitarist and keyboardist
Michael Corby due to internal conflicts in the band, even though he is credited as additional personnel on the album. In fact the additional personnel on the album had some interesting additions that can be heard on the album such as the use of Strings and horns and the use of female backing vocalists, something that is not normally associated with an AOR album. Which not only makes
Head First the most all-encompassing album in the band’s discography but probably the most diverse sounding on this year’s list.
Head First in some ways follows on from the AOR direction of the previous
Broken Heart album but the diversity of
Head First gives the album that ‘collection of songs’ feel which is further enhanced by the amount of different songwriters on the album from both within and outside of the band. Of the album's pure AOR material this comes in the shape of the strong album opener “Love Don’t Prove I’m Right” and tracks like "I Was One" and "Please Don't Leave Me Here". The album's lead single comes in the shape of "Every Time I Think of You" a power ballad infused with female backing vocalists and a single that would reach a lofty position of the US Billboard singles chart in 1979 and this song is far superior to the drab sounding other ballad "You (Got it)" that comes much later on the album.
The rest of the album's diversity comes in the superior sounding
Beatles inspired effort despite some silly lyrics "White Lightening" with its reference to 'Lucy in the sky with diamonds' and "Run to Mexico" which feels like a nod to one of those classic American driving rock efforts of the 1970s. The contrasting feel of the album probably hits its heights with the title track "Head First" which feels like an upbeat AOR track that is punctuated by an almost new wave driving riff throughout the song. Album closer "California" is a real oddity to close the album with and feels more like a Christmas party effort than something that should be on this album.
Finally despite the album being recorded throughout 1978 and being scheduled for a 1978 release, the record label then decided to turn down the first draft of the album and this saw the album being shifted back to Jan 1979, but we decided to include it in the 1978 listing ss this was when it should’ve been released anyway. Overall this album is something of an oddity much like the
Trillion release I covered this year making it something of an acquired taste for anybody looking to give it a twirl.