The Rembrandts, new masters: their first CD hits the streets, and my ears! (Three strikes? Yer out!)
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(Eighth in a series) - Note: If you click on MORE, you only get a truncated version. Click on my name - only on my page can the full post be seen. God knows why.....So, finally..after 14 years of history I didn't discover until after the bug had bitten me, The Rembrandts released their first CD in 1990.
You will discover that this fabulous duo seemed to have a difficult time coming up with great names for albums. This first one is just called *??The Rembrandts??*. Ok, kind of a first-album eponymous tradition of sorts. But when the second one is called *??Untitled??* and the third is called *??L.P.??*? Well, let's just say their talents lie elsewhere.And this first fabulous L.P. was showed off a plethora of talent. The biggest hit of the album was "Just The Way It Is, Baby", which I spoke about ad infinitum (or ad nauseam) in the first post of this series. I have never, ever gotten tired of this great song. And, since I found a better-quality video version of it than the grainy YouTube vid attached to that post, I'm going to post THAT at the bottom of this segment. On to other songs. The album peaked at #88 on the Billboard Top 100, but I have to disagree with the record company's choices for the second and third videos made from the songs on this CD. They chose two ballads (and the videos will follow in a bit) but I really think the next two strongest songs on the album were ??Burning Timbers??, which is the red-button song at the top of this post, and ??New King??, SO appropriate to play in this and every election year, which I will include in Comments. For all of you musicians out there, I want you to listen carefully to the chord changes of ??Burning Timber?? – unconventional to say the least but they still work, and work beautifully. I suspect they are more the work of lead guitarist Phil Solem than Danny Wilde, who displayed no such proclivity on the solo albums he released before or after The Rembrandts. But that's just a guess. It is a bit easier to know what Danny brings to the duo, due to his solo material. 
(Danny is on the right, Phil on the left above). Danny sings lead on more than half of their songs for sure, although with their voices being fairly similar it is a bit hard to tell. Phil usually takes the high harmonies (just like his namesake in the Everly Brothers), has a slightly wilder vocal delivery, and is a bit goofier on stage, making comments between songs that, in my experience, are not easy to decipher. I just can't understand what he's saying, and thus have NO idea what he means. Phil has self-released one CD with his group Thrush and, according to his MySpace page, is recording a solo album (oh boy!) and I will be covering both of those – later. Just today I noticed that he looks like a bit like comedian David Spade's brother. But for now let's get to some videos showing off more songs from this first album. First up is a short one, acoustic and live, of them closing The Late Show in 1991 doing their song ??Goodnight??. Listen to those harmonies and you'll see my earlier reference to the Everlys was no accident.Next up, one of the ballads, ??Save Me??And, penultimately, the second ballad ??Someone??, with Phil singing lead this timeWhile I like this song, I think there are much stronger songs on the album that rock out more. Check out ??New King?? in Comments for an example.Finally, as promised, the better quality video of "Just The Way It Is, Baby":Next time: It's no sophomore slump for the second album ??Untitled??.
You will discover that this fabulous duo seemed to have a difficult time coming up with great names for albums. This first one is just called *??The Rembrandts??*. Ok, kind of a first-album eponymous tradition of sorts. But when the second one is called *??Untitled??* and the third is called *??L.P.??*? Well, let's just say their talents lie elsewhere.And this first fabulous L.P. was showed off a plethora of talent. The biggest hit of the album was "Just The Way It Is, Baby", which I spoke about ad infinitum (or ad nauseam) in the first post of this series. I have never, ever gotten tired of this great song. And, since I found a better-quality video version of it than the grainy YouTube vid attached to that post, I'm going to post THAT at the bottom of this segment. On to other songs. The album peaked at #88 on the Billboard Top 100, but I have to disagree with the record company's choices for the second and third videos made from the songs on this CD. They chose two ballads (and the videos will follow in a bit) but I really think the next two strongest songs on the album were ??Burning Timbers??, which is the red-button song at the top of this post, and ??New King??, SO appropriate to play in this and every election year, which I will include in Comments. For all of you musicians out there, I want you to listen carefully to the chord changes of ??Burning Timber?? – unconventional to say the least but they still work, and work beautifully. I suspect they are more the work of lead guitarist Phil Solem than Danny Wilde, who displayed no such proclivity on the solo albums he released before or after The Rembrandts. But that's just a guess. It is a bit easier to know what Danny brings to the duo, due to his solo material. (Danny is on the right, Phil on the left above). Danny sings lead on more than half of their songs for sure, although with their voices being fairly similar it is a bit hard to tell. Phil usually takes the high harmonies (just like his namesake in the Everly Brothers), has a slightly wilder vocal delivery, and is a bit goofier on stage, making comments between songs that, in my experience, are not easy to decipher. I just can't understand what he's saying, and thus have NO idea what he means. Phil has self-released one CD with his group Thrush and, according to his MySpace page, is recording a solo album (oh boy!) and I will be covering both of those – later. Just today I noticed that he looks like a bit like comedian David Spade's brother. But for now let's get to some videos showing off more songs from this first album. First up is a short one, acoustic and live, of them closing The Late Show in 1991 doing their song ??Goodnight??. Listen to those harmonies and you'll see my earlier reference to the Everlys was no accident.Next up, one of the ballads, ??Save Me??Music Video: SAVE ME -Rembrandts
Music Video: SOMEONE -Rembrandts
Music Video: JUST THE WAY IT IS, BABY -Rembrandts
Comments (10)
I just stumbled upon this site and I am so heartened to find some folks that appreciate this music. The worst thing that ever happened to the Rembrandts was the Friends theme. Sure, it exposed a lot of people to the band but I think it actually prevented more people from getting to know them as witnessed by some of the posts in this thread.
I'm kind of an insider with this band as I co-wrote a couple songs on the "Untitled" record and I've been writing with Phil Solem for about 25 years. All I can say is please check out Phil's MySpace page (http://www.myspace.com/philsolemsolo) and check out tracks from his new solo project. I highly recommend the song "Questions Without Answers" which should be a radio hit and then another song which I co-wrote called "Nobody You Know." All of his new songs are really good though you may need to listen to them a couple times to get it.
Also, please check out the Thrush MySpace page ( http://www.myspace.com/wearethrush) for more great music from Phil of a slightly different flavor.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for helping to expose this music because it truly was/is very special and has always deserved a much wider audience than it has received!
Peace.