My personal favorite among
Wendy Waldman’s albums is
Strange Company, a
1978 release that has
Waldman performing more as a rock bandleader than a singer/songwriter; “
Long Hot Summer Nights” was a regional hit that still echoes in my interior playlist from time to time more than 30 years later. Several of the other musicians on this album – who formed a band having the unfortunate name
the Cretones – also backed
Linda Ronstadt on her
1980 New Wave album,
Mad Love. Sadly, none of
Wendy Waldman’s albums has sold over 25,000 copies, but she has continued to tour and record ever since, both as a solo artist and as part of a band – most recently,
the Refugees.
Along with
Kenny Edwards,
Andrew Gold and
Karla Bonoff,
Wendy Waldman was part of a band called
Bryndle that formed in the
late 1960’s and was active on the
L.A. scene for several years without making any records. The four members of
Bryndle have all had successful careers, and each had a close association with
Linda Ronstadt later in the decade.
Kenny Edwards had been a founding member with
Linda Ronstadt in the band
Stone Poneys (“
Different Drum”) prior to the formation of
Bryndle, and he later recorded and toured with
Linda for about 10 years beginning in the
mid-1970’s.
Andrew Gold was also a key member of
Linda Ronstadt’s backup band in the same time period.
Gold had a
mid-1970’s hit as a solo artist, “
Lonely Boy”; and one of his songs, “
Thank You for Being a Friend” was selected to be the theme song for the TV series
Golden Girls.
Karla Bonoff was one of many songwriters that
Linda Ronstadt introduced via the covers on her albums, notably “
Someone to Lay Down Beside Me”.
Bryndle eventually reformed in the
early 1990’s and ultimately released their debut album in
1995, Bryndle. More recently, in
2007,
Wendy Waldman formed a band called
the Refugees with two other music veterans,
Cindy Bullens and
Deborah Holland. When it became clear that
Sting would not be returning to the fold, the two remaining members of
the Police,
Stewart Copeland and, briefly,
Andy Summers formed a band in
1987 with
Deborah Holland and virtuoso bassist
Stanley Clarke that was initially called
Rush Hour; after
Summers exited the group, the name was changed to
Animal Logic.
Holland, however, supplied nearly all of the songwriting for the band.
Until I created a short article a couple of months ago,
Cindy Bullens would have been a natural choice as an
Under-Appreciated Rock Artist of the Month, since she had also languished without any
Wikipedia recognition. Her
1978 debut album,
Desire Wire is one of the great lost rock albums of the
1970’s – and that is
Allmusic’s opinion as well as mine.
Cindy Bullens also contributed vocals on three songs to the soundtrack for the movie
Grease, notably “
It’s Raining on Prom Night”; and she received a
Grammy nomination for her efforts.
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