Cheryl Ladd was one of my first crushes. And honestly, I don’t really remember watching a lot of Charlie’s Angels, the show she starred in from 1977 to 1981. My young eyes saw her as little and shiny and I was quite captivated. It was many years later that I learned she had been a singer and I downloaded a few of her songs during my Limewire days. When I recently scored her debut album on vinyl at a Salvation Army I was thrilled – because of the novelty of it and the great album cover. When I finally got around to listening to it, I was pleasantly surprised. Thus, this episode of Talkin’ Tunes. I love it when we shine a positive light on something that may easily be dismissed because of how it is perceived. Let’s throw down.

Cheryl Stoppelmoor was born in the summer of 1951 in South Dakota. Pretty Cheryl was actually a singer first and after high school she traveled with a band called The Music Shop. When the band petered out in California, she stayed on in Hollywood hoping to find work in the music business and she did but on television. Josie and the Pussycats was an animated series based on a comic book that featured an all-girl band. Cheryl – as Cherie Moor – provided the singing voice of Melody Valentine, the band’s ditzy drummer, on the show and on the LP released in 1970.

After her big break came scoring the role of Kris Munroe and replacing Farrah Fawcett on Charlie’s Angels, Cheryl was finally able to achieve what she had come to Los Angeles to do; be a singer. Her first album – self-titled – is sneaky good.

---

Gary Klein (born Brooklyn, 1942) wrote “Bobby’s Girl”, a Number 3 hit for little Marcie Blane in 1962. He later went into production and, in 1975, was given the job of helping to “restore the sales potential” of a country singer name of Johnny Cash. For the recording of ’75’s John R. Cash, Gary Klein was given the production reins and assembled a shining array of session musicians to back Johnny on the record. For the first time in his recording career, Cash did not record with the Tennessee Three but instead with members of Elvis Presley‘s TCB Band, James Burton, Larry Muhoberac and Ronnie Tutt. The LP was unsuccessful and Cash disliked the record and restored the usual order of recording with the follow-up, Look at Them Beans. Despite it’s bonkers title, the Beans album showed improvement, charting at #38 US Country after John’s previous three albums had failed to chart at all. Side Note: Johnny Cash released 4 albums in that year of 1975.

Klein was undaunted though by the failed Cash experiment and rebounded quite nicely. Gary produced the slick, pop crossover sound of Glen Campbell’s smash cover of Allen Toussaint’s “Southern Nights”, a January 1977 release that reached the Number One spot on the US Pop charts in the spring of 1977. The tune also topped the US Country and Adult Contemporary charts, marking the last time Campbell would achieve a Number One song on any chart. In a similar vein was Klein’s next success. Dolly Parton released her nineteenth album in October of that same year, 1977, Here You Come Again. Another hit album produced by Klein, it boasted a title track – written by Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil – that was another country pop smash that was Top Ten on multiple charts in North America, hitting #1 US Country, #3 US Pop and #2 Easy Listening. Klein would continue producing hit records for Parton and for Barbra Streisand.

So his was the hot hand when he joined Cheryl at Capitol Recording Studios in Hollywood to record her first album in 1978. There were other names involved in the recording – names worth noting even though they may not be exactly notable. Two tracks were written by the duo of Brian and Brenda Russell. NYC-born Brenda spent her teenage years in Hamilton, Ontario and found success in the Canadian music business with the band Dr. Music (“Sun Goes By”, 1972; an oldies radio staple in this country). Another member of that group was Brian Russell. The two married and hooked up with Elton John, working with him and recording for his Rocket Records as Brian & Brenda. They provided background vocals for Neil Sedaka‘s hit on Rocket, “Laughter in the Rain”. They had a daughter in 1977 but divorced soon after the release of Cheryl’s debut album.

Brian & Brenda provided the opening track on Cheryl Ladd, “Think It Over”. Fabulous piano starts the album and this great tune. Playing keys throughout the record is Jai Winding, prolific session man and son of great Danish trombonist Kai Winding, he who played with everyone and who had a Top Ten hit in 1963 with “Mondo Cane”. “Think It Over” has a wonderful mid-tempo groove, it’s got a “strut”. It has a fine arrangement and contributions from notable musicians Steve Lukather (Toto and work with others) and Jeff “Skunk” Baxter of the Doobies and – get this – also a missile defense consultant who has advised Congress in the US! The song was released as a single in the summer of ’78 and peaked at #34, giving Cheryl Ladd a Top 40 hit; her only one. Now, I mentioned that Brian and Brenda Russell divorced; they split in 1978, their relationship no doubt splintering as this record was being made. Well, soon afterwards, Cheryl and Brian Russell got together and married in 1981. They blended their families – Brian’s daughter with Brenda, Lindsay and Cheryl’s with David Ladd, Jordan. Cheryl and Brian are still together today.

I just love the Ronettes’ original hit version of “Walking in the Rain”. While not a sad song, it does contain those chord changes that suggest longing. This combined with the lyrics about things lovers do together results in a song brimming with sweetness. First of all, points for Cheryl for recording it at all and for placing it second after the hit single on her album and secondly thanks are due the arrangers of Cheryl’s version; it is at once reminiscent of the original while at the same time it sounds fresh – like streets washed by a spring rain.

Next up is the fun “Skinnydippin'”. Not surprising, perhaps, that a knockout like Cheryl Ladd would chose to place – or have it strongly suggested to her to include – a song with this subject matter on her record. In this groovy little number, Cheryl’s breathy voice coerces her lover to engage in that which “they don’t teach in school”. The next track is maybe what is most notable about Cheryl Ladd. I recognize the name of songwriter Will Jennings from the string of albums he made with my man, Steve Winwood. Jennings also provided lyrics to Clapton’s “Tears in Heaven”, the gigantic hit by Canadian Celine Dion “My Heart Will Go On” and the next song on this record, “I’ll Never Love This Way Again”. Cheryl’s record featured the first release of this tune that would be recorded by Dionne Warwick the following year. Warwick’s version, produced by Barry Manilow, was a massive success and returned Dionne to the upper echelon – it peaked at #5 US Pop and won her a Grammy. Cheryl acquits herself well on what is simply a big, sappy ballad but not without some charm. Ladd’s take is indistinguishable from Warwick’s.

“Lady Gray” closes Side One and this tune warrants multiple listens. The lyric poignantly suggests the idea that the colour blue – as in “feeling blue” – is much too bright for the mood that has hit the singer – she has become Lady Gray. Cheryl does well gently rendering the words of this sad and sparse song. “Blue is much too bright to be the way I feel these days. Blue is sky, blue is sea. Gray is nothing, just like me.” Susan Sheridan provides this song and another on Side Two. I looked her up hoping I had discovered a hidden subject to explore – an unsung writer who penned a plethora of significant songs from a female perspective (a poor man’s Carole King?) but it seems not.

Speaking of Side Two, this article sprang out of the high quality that I perceived in the songs on the first side. The second side, though, has fine tracks, as well. These include “Good Good Lovin'” written by the Russells and featuring popping piano and horns and the third and final tune from Mann and Weil, “You Turn Me Around”, which is emblematic of the gentle class and the ambition, the intention of this record. Listen to the final moments of this track; superb. “I’ll Come Runnin'” is lightweight though bouncy and sports a tasty bass line and background vocals arranged by Ladd. The second composition from Susan Sheridan is the fragile “Here is a Song”. Makes me think that Ladd and Sheridan could’ve been a good team, Cheryl giving gentle life to Susan’s emotive songs.

Let me take a minute here – I’ve heard something in this song. “Here is a Song” is a secret. It is a song about sharing, about something shared between two people, something that is unique to the two of them. Something so unique – and tenderly meaningful – that while it is at once to be jealously guarded, that protection is unnecessary as it is also something discernible only to these two – it would not be fully understood by anyone else. “Here is a song, it’s just for you and me. Nobody else would know the melody” It is a song about union and since no specifics are mentioned it is applicable to any situation, any pairing of any two people. Kindred spirits. Two together in some way; simply not being alone. “Here is a song you cannot sing alone. The song can’t live without us, it’s only here for us to share the same thing at the same time” How nice sometimes a deep connection can be. Together, alone and apart. Not even necessarily romantic; best friends, siblings… “Others won’t know the changes hard as they try to sing it. You can’t pretend the perfect blend. It’s either there or it isn’t” Perhaps a clue you could easily miss is offered at the conclusion. “I’m sharing my life with someone else, it’s true but here is a song I’ll only share with you” These lyrics are far from typical and they elicit certain thoughts and emotions as the best song lyrics do. This tune certainly makes me feel. Listen, close your eyes and forget its Kris Munroe. Cheryl Ladd can sing.

The third and final song by Brenda and Brian Russell closes the record and it is a fitting send-off. “The Rose Nobody Knows” benefits from more great piano playing from Jai Winding and a robust and celebratory arrangement. After the secret whisper of the penultimate song, this closer is brimming with optimism – no one may know me but I am content. And I am growing.

---

The album reached #129 on Billboard‘s album chart and – as we have learned – “Think It Over” was a Top 40 hit. Cheryl would release more albums however she – along with another artist we have profiled here, Bertie Higgins – became one of the original American artists to be “big in Japan”. Her follow-up was Dance Forever that featured an adorable cover and delved into disco. It was made by the same team and featured Susan Sheridan again but this time singing backgrounds and other vocal contributions came from Shelby Flint who sang “Breezy’s Song” from the Clint Eastwood film we have talked about at Vintage Leisure. 1981’s Take a Chance was released only in Japan. For this record, Cheryl wrote a couple of tunes with her husband and dig that production duties were undertaken by Daryl Dragon, the Captain of Captain & Tennille, and John Tartaglia, an early Moog synthesizer man you will run into in Capitol’s Ultra-Lounge series. Neat. Later, Cheryl Ladd would become a woman of faith and has long been active in philanthropy and with a design business. She – like Alice Cooper – wrote a book about her love of golf and returned to singing when she starred in the film A Cowgirl’s Song. In this 2022 movie, Cheryl plays a former country music legend who comes out of retirement to nurture her granddaughter, an aspiring country singer. She’s a class act, Cheryl Ladd.

Songs on Cheryl Ladd like “Lady Gray” and “You Turn Me Around” make it clear that Cheryl wasn’t going for hits or radio or club play. Seems she was earnest about her music and I give her points for that. That wouldn’t be enough though if this album was lacking in quality but Cheryl had a good team around her, fine songwriters, crack musicians and inventive arrangers. It all adds up to a delightful surprise. Cheryl Ladd is an obscured jewel, encrusted with the coarse veneer of erroneous perception. This actually makes it the perfect subject for this website – a tiny, disregarded gem that just needs dusting off and a fresh appraisal. I’m your man.

You’re welcome, Cheryl. Call me.