Now this is a real treat.
ROXANNE hails from Riverside, California, founded in the mid-eighties by vocalist Jamie Brown and bass player Joe Infante.
Roxanne plays partying American melodic hard rock music at it's finest with cleverly well written songs and excellent musicianship. The difference with other bands in the genre is their sense of fun, adding to their hard rockin' tunes some kind of 'go to the dancefloor' vibe that makes you tap your foot.
They played extensively the local club circuit, and in one gig a Scotti Bros executive saw their potential and quickly signed them.
The debut was finely produced by Geoff Workman (Journey, Foreigner) in 1986 but the album was not released immediately.
First it was published only in Japan at the beginning of 1988 entitled "Burning Through The Night". The first 2 tracks are from a different, early recording session and are exclusive to this Asian edition which has become very rare.
Then several months later the CD was released in the other side of the globe (pressed in Germany as Scotti Bros used to do) simply as "Roxanne", with different artwork, tracklist order and discarding the Asian opening tracks being replaced by "Not The Same" and a rockin' cover of the disco/soul song "Play That Funky Music (White Boy)".
The CD back cover presents several print errors such as first track name "Nothing To Loose" instead of "Lose" or stating the release year as 1986.
The band and specially singer Jamie Brown have a story that deserves to be told. Jamie born to be an entertainer.
Roxanne played mostly original material, with a few choice dance covers ("Play That Funky Music" amongst them). Then during one gig presenting the album, for a Halloween prank the band donned elastic stretch Afro wigs, platform shoes and polyester pants, dubbed itself the Boogie Knights, and played nothing but KC and the Sunshine Band hits.
The disco show was an instant smash, and the prank quickly turned into serious business. The phone does not stop ringing asking for Boogie Knights presentations, dozen times more than Roxanne shows.
Soon Jamie dissolved Roxanne and set up an entertainment franchise called Perfect World which started managing the Knights, and nowadays is a successful company of look-alike/sound-alike disco, classic rock and metal tribute acts.
Perhaps you have heard about Metal Shop, a kistch Glam Metal band also known as Danger Kitty. Well, Jamie Brown-Perfect World are behind them, with 8 different line-ups spread all throughout the US performing hundreds of shows annually.
One of these ended up being the act now known as Steel Panther.
Stories aside, after more than twenty years from Roxanne's recording, most of these tracks were remastered by Brown via his Sunnymead Records and available for fans in a short period of time.
This was not just 'another remaster', there's a really improvement in sound. I can tell you because I have all 3 editions.
So you have here the best "Roxanne" collection available; I have been faithful to the original Asian tracklist, so the album starts with the very good numbers - Japan only - "Burning Through The Night" and "My Way", but the rest of the tracks are taken from the remastered version. They really sound fantastic.
Added as well are the two tracks from the Western edition (remastered as well) and some bonuses specially added by Brown, all previously unreleased.
Great stuff. Very Recommended.
01 - Burning Through The Night [Japan only]
02 - My Way [Japan only]
03 - Nothin' To Lose (remastered)
04 - Over You (remastered)
05 - Stay With Me (remastered)
06 - Cherry Bay (remastered)
07 - Sweet Maria (remastered)
08 - Coming For You (remastered)
09 - Do It All (remastered)
10 - Can't Stop Thinking (remastered)
11 - Not The Same (remastered) [America only]
12 - Play That Funky Music (remastered) [America only]
13 - Can't Stop Thinking (Remix) [prev. unreleased]
14 - Looks Like Rain (Live) [prev. unreleased]
15 - Man In The Moon (demo) [prev. unreleased]
16 - Days Like Today (demo) [prev. unreleased]
Jamie Brown - Lead & Backing Vocals
Jon Butler - Guitar, Backing Vocals
Joe Infante - Bass, Backing Vocals
Dave Landry - Drums & Percussion
ROXANNE Burning Through The Night
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