''Straight from the Heart'' is the seventh
studio album by American recording artist
Patrice Rushen
Patrice Louise Rushen (born September 30, 1954) is an American jazz pianist and R&B singer. She is also a composer, record producer, multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and music director.
Her 1982 single "Forget Me Nots" received a Grammy Awar ...
, released on April 14, 1982, by
Elektra Records. It features her most recognizable song, "
Forget Me Nots
"Forget Me Nots" is a 1982 song co-written and performed by American R&B musician Patrice Rushen. It appears on her seventh album, '' Straight from the Heart''. Making a radical shift in her music, Rushen would continue to harness the particular ...
", the oft-sampled "Remind Me" and the popular instrumental workout "Number One". ''Straight from the Heart'' scored Rushen her first two nominations at the
1983 Grammy Awards for
Best Female R&B Vocal Performance
The Grammy Award for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance (previously called Best Rhythm and Blues Solo Vocal Performance, Female) was an honor presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards ...
for "Forget Me Nots" and
Best R&B Instrumental Performance The Grammy Award
The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by ma ...
for "Number One".
The album is Rushen's most successful album to date, peaking inside the top 20 of the
''Billboard'' 200 chart at number 14. The success of "Forget Me Nots" is considered the major contributor to the album's popularity at the time of its release.
Critical reception
In a contemporary review for ''
The Village Voice
''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newspaper, alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf (publisher), Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, th ...
'', music critic
Robert Christgau gave ''Straight from the Heart'' a "C+" and said that he prefers side one's "dancy
" over the songwriting on side two by Rushen, whom he called a fashionable "
ingenue".
In a retrospective review,
AllMusic
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databa ...
's Andy Kellman gave it four and a half out of five stars and called it "an early-'80s jazz-pop-R&B synthesis as durable and pleasing as any other".
In 2018,
Pitchfork
A pitchfork (also a hay fork) is an agricultural tool with a long handle and two to five tines used to lift and pitch or throw loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves.
The term is also applied colloquially, but inaccurately, to ...
ranked ''Straight From the Heart'' #194 on its list of the 200 Greatest Albums of the 1980s.
Track listing
Charts
Personnel
* Patrice Rushen – lead and backing vocals, arrangements, electric piano (1, 3, 5, 7, 8), synthesizers (1, 5, 7, 8), acoustic piano (2), percussion (2, 3, 5, 8), horn arrangements (2),
clavinet (3, 6), vocal arrangements (3), synthesizer arrangements (7), guitar (9)
* Charles Mims Jr. – electric piano (2), horn arrangements (2), backing vocals (6), acoustic piano (7), synthesizers (7), synthesizer arrangements (7)
*
Paul Jackson Jr. – guitar (2, 3, 6), acoustic guitar (5)
* Wali Ali – electric guitar (5)
*
Marlo Henderson – lead guitar (6), guitar solo (6)
*
Freddie Washington – bass (1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7)
* Melvin Webb – drums (1, 2)
* Tony St. James – drums (3, 7)
*
James Gadson
James Gadson ( James Edward Gadson; born June 17, 1939) is an American drummer and session musician. Beginning his career in the late 1960s, Gadson has since become one of the most-recorded drummers in the history of R&B. He is also a singer and ...
– drums (5, 8)
*
Ollie E. Brown – drums (6)
* Ulysses Duprée – percussion (3)
*
Paulinho da Costa – percussion (9)
*
Gerald Albright
Gerald Albright is an American jazz saxophonist. He earned Grammys for 24/7 in 2012 and Slam Dunk in 2014 and has been nominated for New Beginnings in 2008 and for Sax for Stax in 2009.
Biography
Born in Los Angeles, Albright grew up in its ...
– saxophone (1, 2)
* Clay Lawry – trombone (2), bass trombone (2)
*
Ray Brown – trumpet (2)
* Roy Galloway – backing vocals (1, 2, 5, 7, 8, 9), lead vocals (3), vocal arrangement (3)
* Jeanette Hawes – backing vocals (2)
*
Lynn Davis – backing vocals (3, 5-8)
* Karen Evans – backing vocals (3)
*
Brenda Russell – backing vocals (6)
Production
* Executive Producer – Patrice Rushen
* Produced by Patrice Rushen and Charles Mims Jr.
* Recorded by Peter Chaikin
* Additional Recording by Philip Moores
* Assistant Engineer – Greg Stout
* Remixing – F. Byron Clark (Tracks 1-5, 8 & 9); Phillip Moores (Tracks 6 & 7).
* Mastered by John Golden at K-Disc Mastering (Hollywood, CA).
* Copyist – Greg Modster
* Art Direction – Ron Coro
* Design – John Barr and Ron Coro
* Photography – Bobby Holland
References
External links
*
{{Authority control
1982 albums
Patrice Rushen albums
Elektra Records albums