Having melded folk, country, rock, blues and L.A. pop into a hugely successful cross-genre career, we left Juice Newton yesterday at the end of 1985 with her pop charting days behind her,. In 1985, she released her pivotal, highly successful "Old Flame" album - highly successful p, that is, on the country charts, being the most country rooted album of her career (not that one would describe this album as "pure" country, but it was as close to it as the L.A. based Newton could be expected to gett. Yesterday featured the first two singles released from the album, 'You Make Me Want to Make You Mine' and 'Hurt', both of which topped the U.S. and Canadian charts. But more was to come from this album in 1986.
The album's title track 'Old Flame', was released in 1986 as its third single. Written by Reed Nielsen, it was originally recorded by one of the founders of the L.A. country rock sound, Poco, as 'This Old Flame' in 1984 for their "Inamorata" album. But when released as a single, it failed to chart. However, Newton, this time in full country mode, took this to # 5. Her rendition improves on tne original, wringing out the emotion of a woman scorned and asked to collect a call from the louse who deserted her. - but she has well and truly, unapologetically moved on from him -
The next single released in 1986 wasn't from the "Old Flame" album, but instead a duet with Eddie Rabbit (posts # 972 - 974). Written by Jay Gruska and Paul Gordon, it was first recorded as a duet specifically for the soap opera, Days of Our Lives by Gloria Loring and Carl Anderson. Gloria Loring is a singer and actress who from 1980, portrayed a lounge singer on the soapie, so Loring was often called upon to perform on-screen. 'Friends and Lovers' was the song she performed the most, due to audience reaction. However, despite its popularity on the TV soapie, the recording remained unreleased for months due to contractual wrangling . According to Loring, it had been frustratingly turned down by most of the major American record labels at the time, and she had taken to referring to the song informally as "Friends and Lawyers".
Sensing an opportunity with the delay, RCA cannily teamed up Newton and Eddie Rabbitt, who RCA had recently signed from Warner Bros, to record their country version and hurrying to release it just before the release of the T.V. soapie pop version made popular by Loring and Anderson. The title was altered to 'Born to Each Other (Friends and Lovers)', echoing the final line in the song’s chorus, as a means to avoid confusion and controversy among the fans, as the 2 versions were released just a couple of weeks apart. Despite Newton's and Rabbit's arrangement differing a bit from the original recording by Loring and Anderson, the lyrics were the same.
For Newton and Rabbitt, their pop-country version that was released first, went all the way to # 1 in both the U.S. and Canada while the pop version by Loring and Anderson peaked at # 2 in the U.S pop chart, topped the Canadian pop chart and did the same on the US and Canadian AC charts, both # 1.
But having said all the above about 'Born to Each Other (Friends and Lovers)', and including it in my music selection due to its commercial success, this is one I would've been happy if it had just stayed on the TV soapie - it ain't to my taste, no matter how well Newton sings it with Rabbit. Still, for the purposes of this history, I suppose it's a good (if that's the right word) example of a successful 1980's pop-country romantic ballad, its sound rooted in that era, and others here may either enjoy it or just skip it, depending on your mood, taste or time -
Now we return to Newton's "Old Flame" album. The rollicking 'Cheap Love' was written and recorded by Del Shannon for his 1983 album "Drop Down and Get Me". After the success of the third single release, the title song from "Old Flame", RCA elected to release 'Cheap Love' as the album's 4th single in August 1986. It paid off, peaking at # 9 in the U.S. and # 5 in Canada. It also became a popular country line-dancing tune -
'Cheap Love' was later covered by Marty Stuart, under the name 'Sweet Love', for his 1996 album "Honky Tonkin's What I Do Best".
Deciding to keep striking while the iron was hot, with "Old Flame" having achieved two # 1 singles and two more landing in the Top 1o, RCA chanced their arm again by releasing 'What Can I Do With My Heart' in December 1986 as the 5th single from the album. Once again, it went to the Top 10, reaching #9 and # 7 in Canada in early 1987 - an impressive result given that by now, the neo-traditional movement had swept much of this type of material from the country charts, at least in the southern country heartland. The West coast was quite a different beast. Notably, the song was written by Newton's long-time musical partner Otha Young, who had written's Newton's first charted hit 'Lobe Is A Word', back in 1976 and also penned Newton's very first # 1 country hit, "The Sweetest Thing (I've Ever Known)" in 1981 -
Yesterday, I commented, just after the 'Ride Em Cowboy' selection, that Newton had purchased a thoroughbred and stabled him at the L.A. Equestrian Centre. The Centre's general manager was the renowned U.S. polo player,, coach and author, Tom Goodspeed. Newton married Goodspeed in 1986, and the couple went on to have a daughter a few months later in January 1987, just as 'What Can I Do With My Heart' climbed into the Top 10.
However, just 5 weeks later, while doing equestrian jumps, the horse Newton was riding took fright at something while jumping, reared up and threw her off, crushing a vertebra in her back. This resulted in more than 2 months of immobility followed by extensive physical therapy - all of which she endured without pain-killers, so she could continue breastfeeding her baby daughter, not get herself addicted to painkillers like so many others had done and to heal herself faster. Her recovery was also helped by the fact she always had kept herself extremely fit and strong, having kept up a routine of extensive gym strength and endurance workouts for years.
Once she recovered sufficiently, Newton returned to the studio to complete the recording of the follow-up to the "Old
Flame" album, with the 1987 release of "Emotion", though it was delayed by several months. It's a considerably different album for her, with songs relying much more on story than melody, and production stripped of her usual layering and lush instrumentation - to basically give the listener more Juice. Its title, taken from its cover of the old Brenda Lee hit 'Emotions' is apt. It deals not just with a singers usual exploration of love themes but, rather, with wider forays into feelings about other parts of life as well. Newton said at the time - ”It's a softer record. Theres only one up-tempo tune. It's a more reflective kind of record".
The "Emotion" album failed to continue Newton's hit streak when its 1st single 'First Time Caller' fell short of the Top 20. However, released as the 2nd single from the album in late 1987, 'Tell Me True', written by Paul Kennerley and Brent Maher, returned Newton to the Top 10 with a # 8 peak in the U.S. and # 2 in Canada in early 1988. This agreeable acoustic piece serves up a toe-tapping, easy-listening Juice Newton style at her best -
.
Alas, 'Tell Me True' was Newton’s final Top 10 hit. Strangely enough, RCA Records released no additional singles from the album, despite the success of 'Tell Me True'. It would be the final Juice Newton commercial single produced by her longtime collaborator Richard Landis until the 1998 single 'When I Get Over You'. In 1989, Newton released her pop-country "Ain't Gonna Cry", which featured the single 'When Love Comes Around the Bend', which, released as a promotional single only to radio stations, not to retail stores for the general public, barely scraped into the Top 40.
Newton was then amongst the victims of the "great country clean-out" at RCA in 1989, which also saw them drop the likes of Dolly Parton, Kenny Rogers and a host of other 1980's pop-country performers, their music now out of fashion. She thus found herself, at age 37, without a recording contract for the first time in 14 years. She wouldn’t release an album again until 1998, though she continued to tour occasionally.
In 1990, Newton took the big step of moving from L.A., settling in a small property just outside San Diego with husband Tom Goodspeed and their 2 y.o. daughter. They had a second child, a son, in 1991 and she concentrated on raising her 2 children. A skilled equestrian, as already mentioned p, she continued to participate in polo and jumping competitions, while her husband, famous as a polo player and coach, was recruited to become manager the San Diego Polo Club.
Newton spent the next 9 years from 1989 to 1998 occasionally touring by bus - she has a flying phobia - equestrian riding, and focusing on family life. Her music career lacked proper direction in the 1990's. She was always considered to be an engaging live act, but most of her success was bound up in her recording. Contractual issues and failed recording projects seemed to bug her throughout the 1990's (I won't totally bore you with all the details) and the emergence of a series of bootleg albums she had no control over also took their toll.
Newton got back on track in 1998 with the "The Trouble with Angels" album, a collection of re-recorded favourites and several new tracks, followed by "American Girl" in 1999, Newton's first album of all-new material since 1989 and featured the single 'They Never Made It to Memphis'. The album featured tracks written by Otha Young, Freddie Mercury, Nanci Griffith, Tom Petty and Newton herself. She released a further 3 albums between 2002 and 2007, but the death by lung cancer of Otha Young, her long time music soul-mate and songwriter for some of her big hits in 2009 had a major impact - the 2 had worked together for 37 years.
Newton's final album was 2010’s “Duets: Friends and Memories” includes songs performed with Willie Nelson, Glen Campbell, Randy Meisner and Franki Valli, among others. The project had been started back in the mid1990's but it was one of those projects beset by legal issues and the original concept never saw the light of day. Some were finally released on the Fuel Records album. It was well received critically, with critics calling for a second volume of the recordings from the original sessions that have survived - something that still hasn’t happened 14 years later. There have been greatest hits packages and re-releases of her earlier albums but “Duets” remains her last studio recording. The duet with Willie Nelson of the 1961 Nelson penned classic, 'Funny How Time Slips Away' was also released as a single - Newton's final single.
The range of vocals Newton has been noted for never waned over the years and after her final 2010 album, as she aged into her sixties, she still performed live from time to time - and her equestrian riding. All up, Newton recorded 16 studio albums and produced 11 pop chart hits from 1978 to 1984, of which 5 made the Top 10. She placed 26 hits on the American and Canadian country charts, including 6 that reached the #1 position. She continued to tour until 2020 and then retired in 2021 during the Covid lockdown.
Newton divorced husband Tom Godspeed in 2022, but, now aged 72, still lives on her San Diego property with a menagerie of animals - dogs, goats, pigs, birds, fish, hamsters - and concentrating on her highly successful horse trading business, dealing mostly with European horses.
And so that's Juice Newton done - another whose sound is an essential part of the 1980's pop and country music sound.
I won't be back with more history until I figure out a way to adequately cover the next artist within reasonable bounds - for if Ricky Skaggs was the spark that lit the fuse of the neo-traditional movement, the next artist was the explosion that swept away the pop-country sound of the early 1980's - and once he charged to the top, he stayed there ... and stayed ... and stayed, It might take me a bit of time.
The album's title track 'Old Flame', was released in 1986 as its third single. Written by Reed Nielsen, it was originally recorded by one of the founders of the L.A. country rock sound, Poco, as 'This Old Flame' in 1984 for their "Inamorata" album. But when released as a single, it failed to chart. However, Newton, this time in full country mode, took this to # 5. Her rendition improves on tne original, wringing out the emotion of a woman scorned and asked to collect a call from the louse who deserted her. - but she has well and truly, unapologetically moved on from him -
The next single released in 1986 wasn't from the "Old Flame" album, but instead a duet with Eddie Rabbit (posts # 972 - 974). Written by Jay Gruska and Paul Gordon, it was first recorded as a duet specifically for the soap opera, Days of Our Lives by Gloria Loring and Carl Anderson. Gloria Loring is a singer and actress who from 1980, portrayed a lounge singer on the soapie, so Loring was often called upon to perform on-screen. 'Friends and Lovers' was the song she performed the most, due to audience reaction. However, despite its popularity on the TV soapie, the recording remained unreleased for months due to contractual wrangling . According to Loring, it had been frustratingly turned down by most of the major American record labels at the time, and she had taken to referring to the song informally as "Friends and Lawyers".
Sensing an opportunity with the delay, RCA cannily teamed up Newton and Eddie Rabbitt, who RCA had recently signed from Warner Bros, to record their country version and hurrying to release it just before the release of the T.V. soapie pop version made popular by Loring and Anderson. The title was altered to 'Born to Each Other (Friends and Lovers)', echoing the final line in the song’s chorus, as a means to avoid confusion and controversy among the fans, as the 2 versions were released just a couple of weeks apart. Despite Newton's and Rabbit's arrangement differing a bit from the original recording by Loring and Anderson, the lyrics were the same.
For Newton and Rabbitt, their pop-country version that was released first, went all the way to # 1 in both the U.S. and Canada while the pop version by Loring and Anderson peaked at # 2 in the U.S pop chart, topped the Canadian pop chart and did the same on the US and Canadian AC charts, both # 1.
But having said all the above about 'Born to Each Other (Friends and Lovers)', and including it in my music selection due to its commercial success, this is one I would've been happy if it had just stayed on the TV soapie - it ain't to my taste, no matter how well Newton sings it with Rabbit. Still, for the purposes of this history, I suppose it's a good (if that's the right word) example of a successful 1980's pop-country romantic ballad, its sound rooted in that era, and others here may either enjoy it or just skip it, depending on your mood, taste or time -
Now we return to Newton's "Old Flame" album. The rollicking 'Cheap Love' was written and recorded by Del Shannon for his 1983 album "Drop Down and Get Me". After the success of the third single release, the title song from "Old Flame", RCA elected to release 'Cheap Love' as the album's 4th single in August 1986. It paid off, peaking at # 9 in the U.S. and # 5 in Canada. It also became a popular country line-dancing tune -
'Cheap Love' was later covered by Marty Stuart, under the name 'Sweet Love', for his 1996 album "Honky Tonkin's What I Do Best".
Deciding to keep striking while the iron was hot, with "Old Flame" having achieved two # 1 singles and two more landing in the Top 1o, RCA chanced their arm again by releasing 'What Can I Do With My Heart' in December 1986 as the 5th single from the album. Once again, it went to the Top 10, reaching #9 and # 7 in Canada in early 1987 - an impressive result given that by now, the neo-traditional movement had swept much of this type of material from the country charts, at least in the southern country heartland. The West coast was quite a different beast. Notably, the song was written by Newton's long-time musical partner Otha Young, who had written's Newton's first charted hit 'Lobe Is A Word', back in 1976 and also penned Newton's very first # 1 country hit, "The Sweetest Thing (I've Ever Known)" in 1981 -
Yesterday, I commented, just after the 'Ride Em Cowboy' selection, that Newton had purchased a thoroughbred and stabled him at the L.A. Equestrian Centre. The Centre's general manager was the renowned U.S. polo player,, coach and author, Tom Goodspeed. Newton married Goodspeed in 1986, and the couple went on to have a daughter a few months later in January 1987, just as 'What Can I Do With My Heart' climbed into the Top 10.
However, just 5 weeks later, while doing equestrian jumps, the horse Newton was riding took fright at something while jumping, reared up and threw her off, crushing a vertebra in her back. This resulted in more than 2 months of immobility followed by extensive physical therapy - all of which she endured without pain-killers, so she could continue breastfeeding her baby daughter, not get herself addicted to painkillers like so many others had done and to heal herself faster. Her recovery was also helped by the fact she always had kept herself extremely fit and strong, having kept up a routine of extensive gym strength and endurance workouts for years.
Once she recovered sufficiently, Newton returned to the studio to complete the recording of the follow-up to the "Old
Flame" album, with the 1987 release of "Emotion", though it was delayed by several months. It's a considerably different album for her, with songs relying much more on story than melody, and production stripped of her usual layering and lush instrumentation - to basically give the listener more Juice. Its title, taken from its cover of the old Brenda Lee hit 'Emotions' is apt. It deals not just with a singers usual exploration of love themes but, rather, with wider forays into feelings about other parts of life as well. Newton said at the time - ”It's a softer record. Theres only one up-tempo tune. It's a more reflective kind of record".
The "Emotion" album failed to continue Newton's hit streak when its 1st single 'First Time Caller' fell short of the Top 20. However, released as the 2nd single from the album in late 1987, 'Tell Me True', written by Paul Kennerley and Brent Maher, returned Newton to the Top 10 with a # 8 peak in the U.S. and # 2 in Canada in early 1988. This agreeable acoustic piece serves up a toe-tapping, easy-listening Juice Newton style at her best -
.
Alas, 'Tell Me True' was Newton’s final Top 10 hit. Strangely enough, RCA Records released no additional singles from the album, despite the success of 'Tell Me True'. It would be the final Juice Newton commercial single produced by her longtime collaborator Richard Landis until the 1998 single 'When I Get Over You'. In 1989, Newton released her pop-country "Ain't Gonna Cry", which featured the single 'When Love Comes Around the Bend', which, released as a promotional single only to radio stations, not to retail stores for the general public, barely scraped into the Top 40.
Newton was then amongst the victims of the "great country clean-out" at RCA in 1989, which also saw them drop the likes of Dolly Parton, Kenny Rogers and a host of other 1980's pop-country performers, their music now out of fashion. She thus found herself, at age 37, without a recording contract for the first time in 14 years. She wouldn’t release an album again until 1998, though she continued to tour occasionally.
In 1990, Newton took the big step of moving from L.A., settling in a small property just outside San Diego with husband Tom Goodspeed and their 2 y.o. daughter. They had a second child, a son, in 1991 and she concentrated on raising her 2 children. A skilled equestrian, as already mentioned p, she continued to participate in polo and jumping competitions, while her husband, famous as a polo player and coach, was recruited to become manager the San Diego Polo Club.
Newton spent the next 9 years from 1989 to 1998 occasionally touring by bus - she has a flying phobia - equestrian riding, and focusing on family life. Her music career lacked proper direction in the 1990's. She was always considered to be an engaging live act, but most of her success was bound up in her recording. Contractual issues and failed recording projects seemed to bug her throughout the 1990's (I won't totally bore you with all the details) and the emergence of a series of bootleg albums she had no control over also took their toll.
Newton got back on track in 1998 with the "The Trouble with Angels" album, a collection of re-recorded favourites and several new tracks, followed by "American Girl" in 1999, Newton's first album of all-new material since 1989 and featured the single 'They Never Made It to Memphis'. The album featured tracks written by Otha Young, Freddie Mercury, Nanci Griffith, Tom Petty and Newton herself. She released a further 3 albums between 2002 and 2007, but the death by lung cancer of Otha Young, her long time music soul-mate and songwriter for some of her big hits in 2009 had a major impact - the 2 had worked together for 37 years.
Newton's final album was 2010’s “Duets: Friends and Memories” includes songs performed with Willie Nelson, Glen Campbell, Randy Meisner and Franki Valli, among others. The project had been started back in the mid1990's but it was one of those projects beset by legal issues and the original concept never saw the light of day. Some were finally released on the Fuel Records album. It was well received critically, with critics calling for a second volume of the recordings from the original sessions that have survived - something that still hasn’t happened 14 years later. There have been greatest hits packages and re-releases of her earlier albums but “Duets” remains her last studio recording. The duet with Willie Nelson of the 1961 Nelson penned classic, 'Funny How Time Slips Away' was also released as a single - Newton's final single.
The range of vocals Newton has been noted for never waned over the years and after her final 2010 album, as she aged into her sixties, she still performed live from time to time - and her equestrian riding. All up, Newton recorded 16 studio albums and produced 11 pop chart hits from 1978 to 1984, of which 5 made the Top 10. She placed 26 hits on the American and Canadian country charts, including 6 that reached the #1 position. She continued to tour until 2020 and then retired in 2021 during the Covid lockdown.
Newton divorced husband Tom Godspeed in 2022, but, now aged 72, still lives on her San Diego property with a menagerie of animals - dogs, goats, pigs, birds, fish, hamsters - and concentrating on her highly successful horse trading business, dealing mostly with European horses.
And so that's Juice Newton done - another whose sound is an essential part of the 1980's pop and country music sound.
I won't be back with more history until I figure out a way to adequately cover the next artist within reasonable bounds - for if Ricky Skaggs was the spark that lit the fuse of the neo-traditional movement, the next artist was the explosion that swept away the pop-country sound of the early 1980's - and once he charged to the top, he stayed there ... and stayed ... and stayed, It might take me a bit of time.
