Genre: pop
Rating: 1 stars *
Title: Will Webb
Company: Guinness
Catalog: GNS
36026
Year: 1977
Country/State: US
Grade (cover/record): VG+ / VG+
Comments: still in shrink wrap
Available: 1
GEMM catalog ID: 5820
Price: $100.00
This one's even obscure for the Guinness taxscam label. In fact as far as I can tell there are no other online reviews of this one online. Good luck even finding a picture of the cover elsewhere.
As you'd expect, other than songwriting credits, there was little information to be found in 1977's "Will Webb". Whoever he was, Webb had an okay voice that was almost chameleon-like. There's a Nashville-based singer/songwriter with the same name, but I have no idea if it's the same guy). Unfortunately he had a penchant for echoing some of pop's most nauseating performers, including an apparent admiration for Barry Manilow. Just speculation on my part, but I'd be willing to bet Webb did a lot of demos and commercial work. Musically the set focused heavily on lame mid-1970s pop hit covers (Morris Albert, Jim Croce, Barry Manilow, B.J. Thomas, etc.). The best of the lot were a pair of tracks credited to Tony Booth ('7th Generation Breakthrough' and 'Love Is a Merry-Go-Round').
- I'm not even going to try to figure out the link between '7th Generation Breakthrough' and the song title. The title didn't show up in the lyrics, nor did there seem to be any thematic linkage. In fact, a more appropriate title would have been something like 'I'm Leaving Today, Tonight, and Tomorrow''. Regardless, the song was actually a nice slice of top-40 pop. Great hook that was very commercial and stood as the album's standout performance. rating: **** stars
- 'Love Is a Merry-Go-Round' was another likeable pop song. Perhaps a little too MOR, but the song had a strong hook with Webb sounding like a more pop-oriented David Clayton Thomas. This one actually had commercial potential. rating: *** stars
- A pox on Bob Johnson for penning the hideous 'I Write the Songs'. A pox on Will Webb for covering it. Even worse, his version was apparently inspired by Barry Manilow's version. In fact, this one sounded awfully like Manilow's version. No, that wasn't a good thing. rating: * star
- So why not follow one of pop's worst songs with something even worse? Well Webb managed to pull it off with a simply hideous cover of ''After the Lovin''. Complete waste of vinyl. rating: * star
- And just when you didn't think it could get worse Webb's cover of the B.J. Thomas hit 'Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song' showed up. Time to vomit. rating: * star
- Whatever hope I had for side two quickly went down in flames. Who in their right mind would start a side with Morris Albert's "Feelings'? rating: * star
- Seems unlikely that anyone would have every made it this far into the album so what did it matter if there was another Barry Manilow tune? Scary, but Webb actually did a pretty good Manilow impression. No, that wasn't a good thing. rating: * star
- I always had a deep dislike for Glenn Campbell's cover of Allen Toussaint's 'Southern Nights'. Since Webb's version was essentially a clone of the Campbell version, I can readily tell you that this one sucked just as bad. rating: * star
- Funny that Webb managed to pull together a big chunk of my bottom-10 1970s pop hits. Accordingly it only made sense to see him include a cover of Jim Croce's 'Leroy Brown'. rating: * star
- And let's end it on a low note - in this a hyper-speed cover of Chuck Berry's 'Promised Land' that was apparently meant to sound like Elvis Presley on an amphetamine binge. rating: * star
As far as I can recall, this is the only album where I've given eight of the selections one star evaluations. I'd love to be able to say something nice about the set, but the fact of the matter was this one wasn't exactly a must own collection. The asking price is based entirely on rarity ...
"Will
Webb" track listing:
(side 1)
1.) 7th Generation Breakthrough (Tony Booth) - 2:37
2.) Love Is a Merry-Go-Round (Tony Booth) - 2:15
3.) I Write the Songs (Bob Johnson) - 3:39
4.) After the Lovin' (Kirshner) - 3:47
5.) Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song (Larry Butler - Buddy Killen) - 2:42
(side
2)
1.) Feelings (Morris Albert) - 3:43
2.) Looks Like We Made It (Will Jennings - R. Kent) - 3:29
3.) Southern Nights (Allen Toussaint) - 2:58
4.) Leroy Brown (Jim Croce) - 2:54
5.) Promised Land (Chuck Berry) - 2:46