Ronnie Milsap

An incredible singer that we've never really talked about here before. He's had 40 country #1s! Along with Rosanne Cash, Milsap was the master of emotionally taut singles in the early to mid 1980s. His voice is high, giving even the sappy songs unexpected tension (check out "Why Don't You Spend The Night", 1980). This is crossover music, synth rather than guitar based, and it's a challenge to account for this as country music...more like New Romantic music. I don't know of any of you are fans, but if you are, here's a place to talk about him.

Good call -- my dad's the active country listener in our family and he's always gone with the general radio flow over the years, makes for a good baseline whenever I'm home to see what's going on there, and so I heard plenty of Ronnie in the early eighties. I'd have to say he was never not country in the way I heard/understood him but you do raise a good question of how categorizing is detrimental (see also Charlie Rich).

Definitely some talk about him on the "Vintage Country Disco" thread, for instance here (but the entire thread is worth searching for his name):

(vintage) country-disco

And he's still pretty good. "Somewhere Dry," off his not-bad-at-all album My Life, was one of my favorite tracks (country or otherwise) of 2006.

Linked to this incredibly funky track from 1979 on that thread, but I'm linking to it here too; it really has to be heard to be believed, and I don't want people to miss it:

http://www.youtube.com/v/5VGVc8KLV8o&hl=en

He sings with some twang, and so on that basis it's classifiable as country music. The country market certainly agreed! Only George Strait and Conway Twitty seem to have had more country #1 singles (Alabama must be close).

One of my best friends adores him, and has always picked on me for not seeking out Milsap's stuff. I know only a few of the hits. What's the best comp – is the Essential worth it?

xp Honestly not sure why anybody wouldn't think of him as country, though. Country fans loved him, country radio loved him, and there are certainly more country signifiers in his music than r&b (or technopop) signifiers. (Which isn't to say he's only country.)

Though as I said on that first link, the "Get It Up" song I linked to charted pop but not country. That was definitely an exception, though. (Not sure if it was his only exception of that kind, or not.)

No doubt, xhuxk. Maybe a way of putting my point is that country covered a remarkable amount of stylistic ground in the late 70s and 80s. My impression is that crossover today in country means rock-ier material---though the teenpop angle (Miley Cyrus e.g.) is important too today.

man "Get It Up" seriously thumps; it sounds like the Pointer Sisters! It was written by Brasfield and Byrne, who seem to have also written for Alabama; Brasfield also co-write Milsap's "(There's) No Gettin' Over Me", which isn't a thumper (but is still great).

Alfred, I think the Essential (the 2 disk set) is top-notch. The one disk Essential that I had for a while was missing "Smoky Mountain Rain".

I do adore "I Wouldn't Have Missed It For the World." Early and mid eighties Nick Lowe copped a lot of Milsap's mannerisms, no?

Yes! on Nick Lowe. "I Wouldn't Have Missed It For The World" is a more trad-country sounding song, with a chorus that is pure hook (the bubbling synths in the background are the song's secret weapon).

xp There's still plenty of r&b, soul, and blues in country now, Euler; always has been, and it's far from a dead tradition. Wrote about it here, a little bit:

http://blog.rhapsody.com/2008/08/the-soul-of-young-country-carters-chord-and-rebecca-lynn-howard.html

Not too many synths now, I admit that. (I miss them!)

I definitely don't own a definitive Milsap comp myself. I do have a good nine-song 1988 RCA CD called Greatest Hits, but I'm sure it barely scratches the surface (no "Any Day Now," for instance), even though I get the idea he's spent his entire career with the label, or at least all the charting albums listed in the Whitburn book I have.

no "Any Day Now," for instance

*boggles* They left THAT off? Good grief.

Actually, that best-of I have looks slapdash. Looking at the notes, I'm thinking it maybe came out on LP in 1980, before "Any Day Now" hit. The guy's had a long career; it'd clearly take more than nine songs to do him justice. Honeslty, though, he's got tons of LPs in the dollar bins, so maybe a best-of wouldn't be the best buy, anyway.

More on soul influences in current country, if anybody's curious:

http://blog.rhapsody.com/2008/12/billy-currington-james-otto-keep-countrys-yacht-rocking.html

This one looks promising: http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:hxfqxqwdldte

Alright, if no one recommends another, that's the comp I put in my Amazon cart.

"There's No Gettin' Over Me" is totally classic.

Alfred, that's the comp I have. It is terrific.

This thread is all about this song!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKNCjvZE_Lo

Maybe my favorite 80's country song. I'd never heard it before, until I was working in Louisiana, and I went to this country bar. This song came on, and every girl filled the dance floor and started doing this line dance.

OK, "Get It Up" is...unexpected – and it works. The Roy Orbison number to which xhuck linked on the country-disco thread is seriously weird.

Reading about his early career via Wikipedia makes for classic 'beats the odds'/journeyman stuff:

Milsap was born in Robbinsville, North Carolina with a congenital defect, leaving him almost completely blind. Soon after his first birthday, he was cast off and given to his grandmother to raise (it is said that his mother considered his blindness a punishment from God due to his wickedness). At age six, he was sent to the Governor Morehead School for the Blind in Raleigh, North Carolina, where he received a quality education and skills that would be beneficial to him for the rest of his life. He was offered scholarship for law school, but wanted to pursue music. Throughout his childhood, he lost his remaining vision. His "good eye" (along with the other) were removed due to a developing blood clot. Throughout it all, he took refuge in music—particularly the late-night broadcasts of country music, gospel, and rhythm and blues. He has often said that he was inspired by Ray Charles, Little Richard, and Patsy Cline.

When he was seven, his instructors began to notice his musical talents; shortly afterward, he began studying classical music formally. Within the next few years, he also developed an affection for rock and roll and formed a rock band called The Apparitions. Milsap was awarded a full college scholarship and attended college briefly in Atlanta, Georgia, until he decided to become a full-time musician. In the early 1960s, he got his first professional gig as a member of J. J. Cale’s band.

He released his first single, "Total Disaster," in 1963. This was followed up by several Ashford & Simpson compositions, including "Let’s Go Get Stoned," which unfortunately for Milsap, was relegated to a B-side. A few months later, however, it became a million-selling single for Ray Charles. Milsap had a R&B hit with another Ashford & Simpsion song, "Never Had It So Good." Around this same time, Milsap met and fell in love with Joyce, and the two were married in 1965.

A few years later, after moving to Memphis, Tennessee, he frequently worked for Chips Moman. During this time, he worked on numerous projects including two songs with Elvis Presley: "Don't Cry Daddy" in 1969 and "Kentucky Rain" in 1970. That same year, he enjoyed brief pop success with "Loving You Is a Natural Thing." He released his debut album, Ronnie Milsap, in 1971.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSQyb0IYcG0

And this from his official site:

“I went to a Ray Charles show while I was in college and somehow they let us backstage,” he recalls. “I was introduced to Ray Charles and I said, “Mr. Ray Charles, you’re my hero. You’re the man I look up to. I emulate your music, but I’m faced with a dilemma. I’d love to be in the music business, but all my advisors tell me I have to have an academic life. So I’m going on to study law and become a lawyer.” And there was a piano in the dressing room, and Ray said, “Well, play me something.” So I played him three songs, and Charles said, “Well, son, you can be a lawyer if you want to, but there’s a lot of music in your heart. If I were you, I’d follow what my heart tells me to do.”

Awwww.

Okay, what the hell -- Herve Villechaize, Britt Ekland, Morgan Fairchild AND Mariska Hargitay:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EY8MrSUf5VQ

Wow, "The Freeze" is great! It reminds me of "Somebody's Baby" by Jackson Browne, though it's from 1987 (the b-side to "Where Do The Nights Go" and evidently hard to buy these days so thanks, youtube).

That video for "She Loves My Car" is pretty strange, but it works. On the country-disco thread I linked to the video for "Any Day Now" which, I think I noted there, looks like a video from Avalon.

Good work, Ned! I don't know a soul among my music-loving pals who remembers that song. Keep mentioning it and only get strange looks. I think back in the day when MTV needed video--any video--to program they ran that one. It's a great song.

Holy crap! John Doe and Exene! They love Ronnie's car too!

Hahaha you're right! Wow.

Cached review of the video

Did Milsap handle most of the keyboards? Is it his electric piano on "Stranger in My House"?

Also: Christgau mentions him not once in his eighties Consumer Guide (if you don't count a half-assed jibe directed as much to John Hiatt).

I like Milsap as well, especially his crossover hits, like his 1983 #23 Pop charting "Stranger In My House". The Milsap of the late 70's/hit filled 80's was never a fave with Country music critics who favored traditional sounds. John Morthland in his 1984 Best of Country Music book dismisses this era, and David Cantwell and Bill Frisckies-Warren's 500 Greatest Singles Country book has no Milsap single in its countdown.

His Scepter recordings from the 60s are really good and have been repackaged by budget labels over and over (there's a comp called Kentucky Woman currently available on Itunes). Apparently, Elvis was a regular patron at his legendary late 60s house gig at TJs in Memphis - there are definite similarities between Elvis's American Studio recordings and what Milsap was doing at Scepter. He also cut an album with Dan Penn for Warners in 71 that is worth searching out.

Milsap isn't in the Country Music Hall of Fame, either. Strait, Twitty, and Alabama are, though.

I would think that it's Milsap on piano on "Stranger In My House" but the net is proving useless to answering this. I did learn that it's Milsap on piano on Elvis' "Kentucky Rain", a monster of a record.

Spotify has a few Milsap albums, including this one from 1986:

http://images.uulyrics.com/cover/r/ronnie-milsap/album-christmas-with-ronnie-milsap.jpg

That cover picture is...odd. The album is quite minor: ten songs including one three minute spoken narrative track in which Milsap reminds us that he's "just analyzed what makes Christmas great". It rhymes at least, but seems constitutive of filler.

Inspired by this thread, today I pulled out the copy of Ronnie's 1984 One More Try For Love that I'd payed a buck or two for a couple years ago. Mostly pleasant adult-contemporary fare, I'd say, with occasional audible synths and saxes and one vaguely blues-rock side-closer and one man-woman ballad duet side closer. "She Loves My Car," though, as noted above, is a total CHR for MTV pop-rock move, but even weirder, maybe, is the bleak, spare, cynical minor-key "Suburbia," which makes me think of nothing else as much as the Pet Shop Boys song of the same name from two years later, except Ronnie sounds even more despressed about the subject. Strange - and pretty awesome.

..depressed...(I meant)

some of this stuff is pretty great, but he's sort of a catchword for 1980s amiable pap and a lot of his music really earns that designation.

i watched clint eastwood's thoroughly not-so-good "bronco billy" (i know, i know, it has its defenders; i'm not one) and the theme track, "cowboys & clowns", is by milsap. it sort of sucks. merle haggard shows up in a cameo, and represents a big improvement.

i totally remember "she loves my car" in a heard-it-in-the-supermarket-years-ago sort of way.

I think "pleasant adult-contemporary fare" is a fair description, as is "amiable", if not "pap". It's not particularly demanding music, I guess, though I don't see what's necessarily good about demanding (a matter of taste, I know). Although good songs about heartbreak shouldn't go down that easily (keeping with the "pap" idea), at least if you attend to the heartbreak.

Well, I definitely didn't mean "pleasant adult-contemporary fare" as an insult. Though I also wouldn't say most of the songs on that album leave much of an impression when the album's over; he seems to be very distinctive sometimes, but usually not especially distinctive at all (though I say that as somebody who's still not much of an expert on late '70s/early '80s crossover country, a subgenre I ignored for years).

Something else I wrote about the Greatest Hits CD I have a couple years ago:

Rolling country 2007 thread

My inclination now, fwiw, is to think I overrated that best-of CD at least a little in that post. (Though by "not being an expert," I mean I'm not entirely confident with my own ability to determine what AC C&W of that era is "distinctive," and what isn't. There may well be subtle nuances in some songs or arrangements that I'm just not picking up on.)

you know, i was wrong about the "bronco billy" song. the song that comes at the beginning of the film, "cowboys and clowns," isn't bad. i found myself listening to it a few times, and enjoying it quite a bit. his whole aesthetic is so low-key and straight-ahead that when he does twist the phrasing around a bit, it makes an impression. that said, the concluding song, simply called "bronco billy," is mediocre.

that soundtrack also has the merle haggard/clint eastwood duet "barroom buddies." which proves, without a doubt, that clint eastwood cannot sing. but oddly enough merle haggard does his full-on emmett miller impression on that song, complete with yodel. maybe he was bored and amusing himself?

anyway.

Ha (warning: non-Milsap tangent) I paid $1 for a copy of Hag's live 1973 I Love Dixie Blues a few weeks back, and it is like 50 percent Emmett Miller impressions. They're pretty cool, too! But I still kinda understand why it wasn't one of his more acclaimed albums.

(Okay, maybe not 50 percent...maybe 33 1/3. But he actually mentions Miller once, and I'm pretty sure I've never heard anybody else do that.)

well it's basically a miller tribute album right? at least, that was my impression.

i think leon russell has namechecked miller once or twice.

I've bought the 16 Biggest Hits since I last posted. A third of it IS pap (Christgau actually banished Milsap to his "Meltdown" list in the eighties Consumer Guide), but the other two-thirds is expert mainstream pop. "I Wouldn't Have Missed It For the World" and "Stranger in My House" do lust and cuckolded rage, respectively, very well. No "She Drives My Car," unfortunately; and the "Suburbia" tune sounds interesting.

*She Loves My Car

xp Well, Miller's definitely not mentioned anywhere on the LP cover. And Hag does "I Ain't Got Nobody," "Big Bad Bill (Is Sweet William Now)," and "Lovesick Blues" (the latter of which everybody thinks of as Hank anyway), but that's only three songs out of 13. So I wouldn't call it quite a tribute. But maybe people (even Hag maybe?) have described it as one; I wouldn't argue if somebody did.

the full title of that LP is so unwieldy: "I Love Dixie Blues...So I Recorded Live in New Orleans." ok, thanks merle.

anyway, ronnie milsap. you folks know about this song, right? with the lines:

Hey, this ain't country-western!
It's just soft-rock feminist crap!
And I thought they'd struck bottom back back in the days of Ronnie Milsap

honestly i'd rather listen to ronnie milsap than robbie fulks, though.

Christgau actually banished Milsap to his "Meltdown" list

He also refers to "the anodyne likes of Alabama and Ronnie Milsap" in his new Brad Paisley essay, just published this week:

http://bnreview.barnesandnoble.com/t5/Rock-Roll/Paisley-s-Progress/ba-p/1695

yeah, I doubt Milsap will return as a hot critical touchstone. It's a pity that he's something of a critical punching bag, though.

Reviving this to note this pretty cool story about Mike Reid, who wrote a LOT of Milsap's eighties hits -- as you can see here.

"Stranger in My House" is a great song; had no idea he wrote "I Can't Make You Love Me."

just found out the other day that my friend zach is related to ronnie on his mom's side of the family! carry on with the milsap love...

I heard "Smokey Mountain Rain" in the bookstore this morning, forcing me to sing like a fool.

these precious hours, we know can't survive

do we have a thread for most awkwardly falsely casual "oh hi, didn't see ya there, I just happened to be standing here like this" poses album covers?

https://i.imgur.com/ONGfNcO.jpg

he literally didn't see ya there

hahahaha

there's a stranger in my house, somebody here that i can't see

gotta love ronnie

been having so many night dreams about day things in the middle of the early part of the morning lately

help me get the scope amendment cost modification memo off my mind, Ronnie