ALBUMS: Jungle (1984); Twilley (1979) SIncerely (1976)
MVC Rating: Jungle 3.5/$$$$; Twilley 4.5/$$$$$; Sincerely 4.0/$$$$$
One of the great lost bands in the 70’s and 80’s. Their career stalled from almost the beginning. The early single ‘I’m On Fire’ charted at No. 15 with virtually no promotion and it sort of went downhill from there.
The band, it seems, went through the meat grinder in terms of record labels and contractual malfunctions. A good blow-by-blow on this by AllMusic.com. The group from Tulsa, OK, consisted mainly of Twilley and Phil Seymour. Tom Petty worked with the group for a time; and Susan Cowsill was a touring member.
Twilley was bargain bin fodder when I snagged my three albums in the 1980s. Lot’s of memories playing these albums (the first two anyway in college. The self-entitled Twilley caught my ears from the beginning with the song ‘Out of My Hands,’ a sad rockabilly tinged ballad with a slight echo. In fact that echo rockabilly sound created an ethereal, atmospheric sound that was standard on these two earlier albums I picked up.
The third album I bought was Jungle and seemed to be aiming for a wider audience, or should I say straining for a wider audience. The album spawned the single, ‘Girls,’ with a racy-for-its-day video.
The album but was overall hurt by overproduction. Twilley pulled back on his rockabilly and seemed to go straight for a commercial pop/rock album.
While Twilley’s career continued as he put out records of music he never released due to contractual disputes, outtakes in addition to new music.
His early status as a bargain bin pick-up has changed as his music is rediscovered; there are folks on Discogs selling some of it for upwards of $40 and $50.