The instrumental
"Love Theme From St. Elmo's Fire" by mega producer
David Foster from his self-titled album hit the Top 15 in 1985, following the number one success of
Foster's production of
John Parr, also from the film
St. Elmo's Fire.
Foster's work overshadowed larger-than-life producers who came before him --
Jimmy Miller, who was signed to a
CBS label as a vocalist before his stellar career with
Blind Faith and
the Rolling Stones, as well as
Bob Crewe, who was produced by
Jerry Wexler when he released the
Motivation disc. One would think
Foster could have launched himself further into the mainstream given his tremendous success -- or the fact that, unlike
Crewe and
Miller, he actually had a hit with
Skylark in 1973, the Top Ten
"Wildflower." An instrumental of that classic would have lent itself well to this
Atlantic recording featuring a bevy of name session players from
Carlos Vega to the horn section from the group
Chicago, as well as
Olivia Newton-John appearing on the tune
"The Best of Me." The handsome producer stares out of the cover of this album, and he certainly has the look, the drawback here being that it's difficult for the mass audience to get a handle on an album of mostly instrumentals.
"Elizabeth" is beautiful, while
"Playing With Fire" has
techno elegance, but without balance it becomes too much of a good thing, all high-tech frosting when some of the producer's famous vocalist friends/clients would have lifted the project to a different level. Imagine
Ray Kurzweil's computers, which write their own
poetry, coming up with instrumental music, and that's pretty much what you'll find here. Cool as ice and at times soulless, there's no disputing it is well-crafted and listenable. But outside of
Newton-John on
"The Best of Me" and
Richard Page helping out with backing vocals on the
Asia-sounding
"Who's Gonna Love You Tonight," the
David Foster album plays like a movie soundtrack rather than an album that contains movie music:
"Theme From the Color Purple" and
"Love Theme From St. Elmo's Fire." "Saje" is a very nice conclusion to the disc, and it is all first class. Maybe with a future re-release,
Foster can put voices and lyrics to some of the instrumental tracks and realize the potential in these grooves. ~ Joe Viglione
