I was listening to an NPR newscast recently and the host said, "An old song claims that it never rains in California, it pours...and well [awkward transition to news about catastrophic flooding]". I had a mixed reaction. Part of me was glad that "It Never Rains in Southern California" had achieved the status of a well-known, old song - common knowledge, if you will. However, part of me wanted to say, "Hey! That's not just some old song; that's by Albert Hammond, and I've just listened to every song he ever recorded - good stuff." Perhaps the newscaster's vague assessment is not unfair though. He's known most for this song - or for being the father of the guitarist from The Stokes. I found a lot worth listening to though. It turns out that he's a great songwriter.
Knowing nothing about Hammond before listening to all his music raised some interesting mysteries. Like: why so many well-known covers? And: why is this white guy singing so often in Spanish - and just as often not?
First, though born in London, he's actually from Gibraltar and got his start playing in Spain, where he remained popular. He must have done something right because he's OBE in merry ol' England. He moved to LA at 26 and that's where his career really took off.
Secondly, he wrote ALL those songs. Despite some cringeworthy lyrics and the occasional silly song, this man is a legendary song writer. He was inducted into the Songwriter's Hall of Fame in 2008. Even if you don't know him or his name, surely you have heard of some of the classic songs he has written, including:
"Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now" by Starship [Stop complaining; you love it. It's the second- best Starship song!]
"One Moment in Time" by Whitney Houston. Oh yeah, and it was the theme song of the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul. Thus it won an Emmy. NBD!
"The Air That I Breathe" a big hit for the Hollies, and one I couldn't understand why he kept covering in different versions. Radiohead owes him a little something.
"To All The Girls I've Loved Before" which became a duet between Julio Iglesias and Willie Nelson. When I saw Willie Nelson at NO Jazz Fest he did the duet with Orleans Parish Sherriff Harry Lee; it was really something. Damn if I can't find footage of it, but nola.com confirms: "The late Jefferson Parish sheriff Harry Lee was often a special guest for Nelson’s local appearances."
"When I Needed You," which I didn't recognize on paper as a hit, charted for both Leo Sayer(?) and Leap Lee(?). Ok, when I hear it I know it. Leo played it on The Muppet Show; maybe I saw it there.
Besides all that, and a bunch of other songs and artists I don't really know, he wrote songs for Celine Dione, Aretha Franklin, Diana Ross, Tina Turner, Chicago, Heart, and the Carpenters. Wow- he even wrote an Ace of Base song! (Well, they covered a song that he wrote with the ubiquitous Diane Warren.)
Hammond co-founded the British vocal group The Family Dog and they had a minor hit in 1969 with "A Way of Life," from the album of the same name. It hasn't aged too well. However, he's mostly known as a singer-songwriter on his own, and that really begins in the 1970s with a classic 70s sound on his first album, which contains several of his best-known songs and his only real hit for himself. It Never Rains in Southern California is an excellent debut in 1972, and it certainly sounds like it comes from the 70s. The title tracks hit No 2. on the charts, and there are other good songs. "From Great Britain to LA" is a jaunty rocking number that belies the "soft rock" moniker he gets saddled with later. Not to be confused with Neil Young's far more intense song, "Down by the River" is a little silly ("there will be a tear in the otter's eye..."), but it's good early environmentalism made simple and fun. While some of this rhyming couplets are a little grating, there are actually some good zingers, including this innocently sexy line: "You put your jeans on top of mine / Said, come in the water's fine." And on "Anyone Here in the Audience" the speaker pitifully begs for musician's mercy. The album ends with "The Air the I Breathe," which is a nearly perfect song that Radiohead stole the progression from and The Hollies had a big hit with. All these themes will be re-mined on subsequent albums, but are present here in this initial solid set of songs.
Here he is, in all his early glory, playing his biggest hit at the time.
His third album is sadly self-titled. It starts to settle into the "soft rock" genre, with most of these being mid-tempo numbers. "I'm a Train" is a weirdly simple song, almost a traditional, that was first recorded in French in 1967. Somehow it's the single here. I'd like to think that "Dime Queen of Nevada" is about weed, but it's not - it's about slot machines. "Mary Hot Lips Arizona" tells another compelling story about another interesting lady. Hammond meets lots of ladies in his songs. There's the working-class sentimentality again, such as on "Everything I Want to Do" (" don't want to go to work / Unless you're there when I get back home) and also on the relatively self-explanatory "I Don't Want to Die in an Air Disaster."
99 Miles from LA is not an album the sells much at all, but the title track ends up being Hammond's only number One on the Easy Listening charts and probably his most successful track overall. That's especially true considering it's a cover for Art Garfunkel and Johnny Mathis in the 70s, then Julio Iglesias, Dionne Warwick, and Nancy Sinatra later. He covers it himself on the next album, When I Need You, which was his poorest pop-chart showing so far, though it contained "To All The Girls I've Loved Before."
Then he starts singing in Spanish! Like, all in Spanish. The whole album. Having released at least an album a year since 1972, in 1976 he releases the again self-explanatory My Spanish Album. This helps him tour Latin America successfully, and leads to him producing other acts, like in Mexico. He later he also produced Duffy. (Remember Duffy? She was like an Adele/Amy Winehouse predecessor but did not stick around after her first hit, "Mercy," which is still a great song. If we are still allowed to call things "blue-eyed soul" than that was it.) In 1977, '78, and '79 he releases fully-Spanish albums - and they are great. Al Otro Lado del Sol was good enough to get the "Remasterizado" treatment, and it sounds fantastic. Very tastefully produced with acoustic and rhythmic flourishes. All his Spanish stuff is consistently, moderately great.
I'm still not sure why 1981's English-language Your World and My World, which didn't chart anywhere except Japan (#18), contains his top streaming song "When I'm Gone." It inexplicably bests "It Never Rains" and "Ansiedad," which somehow tops his big hit by appearing on some Spanish-language compilations. The single itself only charts in Germany, Switzerland, and South Africa- which I suppose is nothing to scoff at, but it wasn't a big hit there or anywhere else. It might be why Wikipedia calls him an "English soft-rocker." Fair. It does sound like Air Supply - as does "When I Need You." Actually, yea- he wrote an Air Supply song too: "Lonely is the Night" again with Diane Warren. This album in particular leans pretty heavily into the soft-rock. Here he is in the moment:
I was a little disappointed in the others extremeley-1980s sounding soft-rock album, Somewhere in America, but this guy is still around today and definitely not leaning into the 80s synth-pop sound anymore. There have been a series of collections and repackagings. The most recent was 2016's In Symphony, which--as the title indicates--offered symphonic versions of some of his best songs; some worked better than others. I'm happy to report though that his voice is still in excellent condition, and Hammond seems to be enjoying his ride as a respected elder-statesman of rock. Or at least Music. While he may not enjoy the widespread and ongoing popularity that he might deserve, his undeniable prowess as a successful songwriter makes him a true legend. And a good one at that! Unlike Alanis, his songs held up very well to extended repeated listenings. It's not all great, but very little of it is bad. I dig it!
Before listening to Hammond's discography I had knowingly heard him at least once before. His hit song memorably soundtracks the bittersweet/ambiguous original ending to the Veronica Mars series. Like this,
