Cracks in Stevie’s career in the late 80’s

[greendaze5]

In your opinion, when did Stevie’s career start to stumble? For me, it would be when ‘Tango in the Night’ came out. She had a hit single with ‘Seven Wonders’, but let’s face it, Sandy Stewart deserves credit for that one. Changing one line or two, because you didn't know the real words while singing it, doesn’t make it ‘co-written’ by.

I think the cracks really started appear when ‘Two Kinds of Love’ (which I personally like) and ‘Whole Lotta Trouble’ failed to chart. Worse was when she had NO singles of ‘Behind the Mask’. But then again, none of her songs were radio friendly enough.

Glad she bounced back beginning with ‘The Dance’.

Roland

[Richard B]

1986, during Rock-A-Little. Her career started to falter there due to a messy tour and a messy look, then rehab that was widely written about.
Tango was a huge success. It was everywhere.

By the time 1989 rolled around, music had changed and that album didn't do as well as any release prior.
Her look also changed. She became more glamorous, more glitzy and less rock n roll.

[HejiraNYC]

Originally Posted by Richard B

1986, during Rock-A-Little. Her career started to falter there due to a messy tour and a messy look, then rehab that was widely written about.
Tango was a huge success. It was everywhere.

By the time 1989 rolled around, music had changed and that album didn't do as well as any release prior.
Her look also changed. She became more glamorous, more glitzy and less rock n roll.

I disagree. TOSTM was a top 10 platinum selling hit and "Rooms on Fire" charted very well on the Billboard Hot 100- it was a Top 20 single, I think. She was nominated for a Grammy and toured successfully. Personally I think she hit the wall with Timespace- the new songs were terrible, her new collaborators were hacks and she had succumbed fully to the fog of sedatives. She was fat, lethargic and uninspired. Although she has come a long way since then, I don't think she ever quite made a full recovery.

[Richard B]

Rock-A-Little peaked on the Billboard album chart at #12, but remained on the chart for 33 weeks.
The Other Side of The Mirror peaked at #10, but dropped very fast, only spending 21 weeks in the Top 200 Albums.

Both did go platinum, but TOSOTM never did as well commercially as Rock-A-Little did. And Rock-A-Little was considered a disappointment compared to her prior solo releases.

So again, Rock-A-Little was the beginning of the end.

[HejiraNYC]

Originally Posted by Richard B

Rock-A-Little peaked on the Billboard album chart at #12, but remained on the chart for 33 weeks.
The Other Side of The Mirror peaked at #10, but dropped very fast, only spending 21 weeks in the Top 200 Albums.

Both did go platinum, but TOSOTM never did as well commercially as Rock-A-Little did. And Rock-A-Little was considered a disappointment compared to her prior solo releases.

So again, Rock-A-Little was the beginning of the end.

Have a Top 10 platinum selling album is hardly the beginning of an end! By your logic, The Wild Heart was the end because it didn't sell as Bella Donna! Or Tusk was the end because it didn't sell as well as Rumours.

[Richard B]

Originally Posted by HejiraNYC

Have a Top 10 platinum selling album is hardly the beginning of an end! By your logic, The Wild Heart was the end because it didn't sell as Bella Donna! Or Tusk was the end because it didn't sell as well as Rumours.

Oh you take me too literally. I was just saying that Rock-A-Little did not do as well as the prior two. yes, Bella Donna is the reigning achievement of sales, but each album slipped subsequently in sales.

I'm not even sure Trouble In Shanrgi-La has gone platinum. Has it? I know it only spent 20 weeks on the Billboard album chart.

[aleuzzi]

Each one of her albums sold about half of the one previously. By the time OSOM came out, she was still a viable solo act but one whose public profile had diminished to a group of core fans. When you compare her to other artists of a similar time and place her solo career never really stumbled. Even at her lowest ebb (Street Angel) she was still producing good music and selling at least 500,000 copies each time out. That's impressive.

What changed--and quite dramatically--was her appearance. I remember being horrified by the cover of OSOM when it first came out. She looked garish--as opposed to unique and sexy. It wasn't just the weight--it was the hair, the makeup...If it sounds as if I am concentrating on her looks, one has to remember that in the 80s a good deal of Nicks' appeal was the combination of her voice and siren-like appearance. In just a few years she'd gone from sex bomb to bombed out. But, when she reemerged in 1987 for The Dance, her look was quite classy: she knew how to present herself musically and visually.

I have to say the only time I thought her vocals stunk was on Tango--and I suppose on parts of RAL. Other solo acts have fared far, far, far worse. I give Stevie a lot of credit for maintaining quality and for reshaping her voice when she has needed to.

[Travis]

Originally Posted by aleuzzi

Each one of her albums sold about half of the one previously. By the time OSOM came out, she was still a viable solo act but one whose public profile had diminished to a group of core fans. When you compare her to other artists of a similar time and place her solo career never really stumbled. Even at her lowest ebb (Street Angel) she was still producing good music and selling at least 500,000 copies each time out. That's impressive.

What changed--and quite dramatically--was her appearance. I remember being horrified by the cover of OSOM when it first came out. She looked garish--as opposed to unique and sexy. It wasn't just the weight--it was the hair, the makeup...If it sounds as if I am concentrating on her looks, one has to remember that in the 80s a good deal of Nicks' appeal was the combination of her voice and siren-like appearance. In just a few years she'd gone from sex bomb to bombed out. But, when she reemerged in 1987 for The Dance, her look was quite classy: she knew how to present herself musically and visually.

I have to say the only time I thought her vocals stunk was on Tango--and I suppose on parts of RAL. Other solo acts have fared far, far, far worse. I give Stevie a lot of credit for maintaining quality and for reshaping her voice when she has needed to.

I agree with a lot of what you say here except for her having stinky vocals (he he) on Tango. I actually think her voice is quite strong. She just came out of detox and I think she was feeling healthy, strong and sexy. And her vocals on the remixes of Big Love, Little Lies and Family Man are some of the sexiest vocals Stevie has ever laid down - IMO. "sister, lover he is what he is ....woooooooooooooo, oooo uh" LOVE IT

[petep9000]

The song No Questions Asked is the point I consider the marker between Stevie 1.0 and Stevie 2.0

She's had some really good music after that, but something in the voice itself changed. Of course, it gets lower and lower from there up to the present day, but it seems like her singing technique changed forever in 1988, with a brief lapse in 1994.

[Matthew]

I think her career get worse after Timespace. She was nowhere and did nothing very long time (since ´91 do ´94). But Street Angel tour were awesome comeback.

But I also have to say that in my opinion pre-Timespace (and also Timespace) time wasn´t bad. It was just another Stevie, who she became after Betty Ford in ´86. Klonopin began very bad for her much later, not in ´87.

In the late 80s she was very activ. Huge world tour every year (in Europe in ´88,´89,´90 - she was in Europe before in ´80 and after than in 2003!!), new album almost every year. Look at years like ´84 or ´85... nothing... just long work on RAL.

[aleuzzi]

Originally Posted by Travis

I agree with a lot of what you say here except for her having stinky vocals (he he) on Tango. I actually think her voice is quite strong. She just came out of detox and I think she was feeling healthy, strong and sexy. And her vocals on the remixes of Big Love, Little Lies and Family Man are some of the sexiest vocals Stevie has ever laid down - IMO. "sister, lover he is what he is ....woooooooooooooo, oooo uh" LOVE IT

I agree, her vocals on Lindsey's and Christine's songs are good--but when she takes the lead on her three songs, not so much...

[Jondalar]

Rock a Little really hurt her. I remember when my brother got that album. He bought it because he loved Talk to Me. He liked If I Were You, and Has Anyone Ever Written Anything for you, but he didn't even like I Can't Wait. I remember him saying that it was one of the worste albums he ever bought and that he wasn't going to buy any more from her.

I think The Other Side of the Mirror was the nail in her coffin, though. That album was an embarrasment. By the time it came out, I was a huge Fleetwood Mac fan, espeicially because of Tango in the Night. I was buying everything they did and she did. When I bought The Other Side of the Mirror I listened to it three times and then threw it away. I knew it was the end of her.

[AncientQueen]

I felt she lost it when I saw the "Red Rock" Concert on video. Her look, her voice, the pompous show... she had turned into a caricature of the once great Stevie Nicks. And personally I feel that she needed all the time up to "The dance" to recover.

[Meowi]

RAL was the end of her reign, in my opinion.

[drzubritsky]

Originally Posted by Meowi

RAL was the end of her reign, in my opinion.

I agree. While RAL was pretty successful, commercially, it didn't have the creative spark and SN signature touches that the previous albums had. It had a troubled production history which showed in the finished product. "Talk To Me" was certainly commercial, but it was paint-by-numbers top 40 rock that could have been recorded by anyone. It sounded exactly like what it was: a commercial song added at the label's insistence to ensure a hit single. You couldn't say that about the hits from BD or WH...they were very unique Nicks creations that happened to be commercial.

Nicks' vocal decline was also obvious on RAL. I remember playing the album on the day of release and wondering what in the world was going on with her voice on "I Sing For The Things".

Nevertheless, Stevie was still "in the game" during this era, despite her personal and professional troubles. Her stuff did well on the charts and her concerts sold well. But it was definitely the turning point from widespread mainstream appeal to more core followers.