''Steady Nerves'' is a 1985

album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

Graham Parker Graham Thomas Parker (born 18 November 1950) is an English singer-songwriter, who is best known as the lead singer of the British band Graham Parker & the Rumour. Life and career Early career (1960s–1976) Parker was born in Hackney, East L ...

and the Shot. The album was produced by William Wittman, who Parker's record company, Elektra, initially opposed. Parker had originally proposed '' Squeezing Out Sparks'' producer

Jack Nitzsche Bernard Alfred "Jack" Nitzsche ( '; April 22, 1937 – August 25, 2000) was an American musician, arranger, songwriter, composer, and record producer. He first came to prominence in the early 1960s as the right-hand-man of producer Phil Spec ...

, but this had been rejected by Elektra. As a result, Elektra only forwarded the funds for four songs to be recorded before the company gave approval for Wittman; ultimately, the rest of the album was recorded and released. Parker recalled,

I mentioned that Wittman, who had somehow or other come across my transom, had just engineered C. Lauper's rather brill '' She's So Unusual'' LP. Well, truth be told, Bill W. is quite a forceful little fella and I really had no input in the production at all and just gave up and let him get on with it. He obviously knew what he was doing, and that, to me, is the problem with the record. My weakness and laziness let it happen. I was really hoping for a much more unusual sounding collection but didn't have the brains and moxie to accomplish such a feat.

The album contains his only US Top 40 hit, "

Wake Up (Next to You) "Wake Up (Next to You)" is a song written by British rock musician Graham Parker and performed by Graham Parker and the Shot. Inspired by Smokey Robinson, the song was crucial in convincing Elektra Records to allow Parker and producer William Wit ...

". Parker said of the song, "That breathy voice - I wrote the song like that. It was in my imagination, and when it came to recording, I could do it, with a bit of tuning up and stuff." Of "The Weekend's Too Short", he said, Weekend's Too Short' is definitely a song not written from my point of view. I mean, I don't care about the weekends particularly, do I? I don't work 9 to 5 all week and let loose on Friday night."

Track listing

All songs written by

. # "Break Them Down" # "Mighty Rivers" # "Lunatic Fringe" # "

" # "When You Do That to Me" # "The Weekend's Too Short" # "Take Everything" # "Black Lincoln Continental" # "Canned Laughter" # "Everyone's Hand Is On The Switch" # "Locked Into Green" # "Too Much Time to Think"

D bonus track D, or d, is the fourth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''dee'' (pronounced ), plural ''dees''. History The ...

Charts

Personnel

*Graham Parker – lead and backing

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

rhythm guitar In music performances, rhythm guitar is a technique and role that performs a combination of two functions: to provide all or part of the rhythmic pulse in conjunction with other instruments from the rhythm section (e.g., drum kit, bass guitar ...

Brinsley Schwarz Brinsley Schwarz were a 1970s English pub rock band, named after their guitarist Brinsley Schwarz. With Nick Lowe on bass and vocals, keyboardist Bob Andrews and drummer Billy Rankin, the band evolved from the 1960s pop band Kippington Lod ...

– lead guitar,

backing vocals A backing vocalist is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists. A backing vocalist may also sing alone as a lead-in to the main vocalist's entry or to sing a counter-melody. Backing vocalists are use ...

*George Small –

keyboards Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Musi ...

*Kevin Jenkins –

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in the bass range: ** Bass (instrument), including: ** Acoustic bass gui ...

* Mike Braun –

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

*Huw Gower, William Wittman – additional backing vocals *Louis Cortelezzi – saxophone on "Wake Up (Next to You)" * Jay Leonhart – acoustic bass on "Locked Into Green" *Uptown Horns – horns on "Locked Into Green"; arranged by

Ralph Schuckett Ralph Schuckett (March 2, 1948 – April 4, 2021) was an American keyboardist, composer and songwriter known as one of the founding members of Todd Rundgren's band Utopia. He composed for film and television, including Pokémon, Sonic X, and A ...

;Technical *Carol Cafiero, Dan Nash - production assistance *Hubert Kretzschmar – album cover, graphic design *Bert Stern - photography

References

{{Authority control Graham Parker albums 1985 albums Elektra Records albums