Road House [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack]

by Michael Kamen

Overview

Actor Patrick Swayze isn't thought of as a vocalist, though he sang "She's Like the Wind" with Wendy Fraser on 1987's Dirty Dancing soundtrack and intentionally inflicted his dreadful rendition of "I'm Henry VIII" on Whoopi Goldberg and 1990's Ghost movie (thankfully, failing to make it onto the soundtrack to that film). So the surprise here is that, under the guiding hand of David Kershenbaum, he sounds like a clone of Bryan Adams on songwriter Willie Nile's very '80s "Raising Heaven (In Hell Tonight)." The Road House film and its subsequent companion long-player came a year after John Cafferty & the Beaver Brown Band released their album of the same name, so maybe it was an intentional Arista marketing attempt to get some of that Eddie and the Cruisers luster by way of Dirty Dancing, or maybe this was just the expected image of the 1980s. It's always nice to hear the Jeff Healey Band, which starts the festivities off with a somewhat interesting cover of the Doors' "Roadhouse Blues." Hardly as menacing as Jim Morrison (or even Blue Oeyster Cult), it appropriately slips into title-track status with Jimmy Iovine's bar band production. Bob Seger does a respectable cover of Fats Domino's "Blue Monday," but it too sounds like fade-into-the-background area musicians having some fun on a Friday night. Of the ten songs here, the only thing that really breaks on through is Otis Redding performing his own "These Arms of Mine." Little Feat is fun with "Rad Gumbo" and Jeff Healey finally flexes his muscles on Dylan's "When the Night Comes Falling from the Sky," the third of Healey's four entries. It has that something extra missing from his earlier jaunts and Seger's track. Austin singer Kris McKay is a surprise on Maria McKee's "A Good Heart," getting a chance here prior to her What Love Endures album debut on Arista, which came the year after this. Swayze closes things out with another big '80s David Kershenbaum sound on "Cliff's Edge," a tune he actually co-wrote. Surprisingly, it's not a bad song and features -- believe it or not -- the album's best hook. This didn't do for Jimmy Iovine what the Dirty Dancing soundtrack did for Jimmy Ienner, and with Seger, Healey, Little Feat, and Otis Redding on board, a lot more was expected of it. When Patrick Swayze writes the best hook on an album you're on, it's pretty obvious that Road House was just another gig. ~ Joe Viglione

Product Details

Release Date:	05/16/1989
Label:	Bmg / Sony Music
UPC:	0886978782229

Tracks

1. Roadhouse Blues [from "Road House"]
2. Blue Monday
3. I'm Tore Down
4. These Arms Of Mine
5. When The Night Comes Falling From The Sky
6. Rad Gumbo
7. Raising Heaven (In Hell Tonight)
8. A Good Heart
9. Hoochie Coochie Man
10. Cliff's Edge

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Michael Kamen   Primary Artist
Patrick Swayze   Primary Artist
The Jeff Healey Band   Primary Artist
Bob Seger   Primary Artist
Kris McKay   Primary Artist
Otis Redding   Primary Artist
Little Feat   Primary Artist

Technical Credits

Robby Krieger   Composer
Bill Payne   Composer
Martin Briley   Composer
Willie Dixon   Composer
Martin Kibbee   Composer
Ray Manzarek   Composer
Otis Redding   Composer
Stacy Widelitz   Composer
Patrick Swayze   Composer
Dave Bartholomew   Composer
Willie Nile   Composer
Sonny Thompson   Composer
Kenny Gradney   Composer
Gabriel Paul Barrere   Composer
John Densmore   Composer
Maria McKee   Composer
Freddie King   Composer
Fats Domino   Composer
Bob Dylan   Composer
Bob Marlette   Composer
Jim Morrison   Composer
Sam Clayton   Composer