On May 11, Blixa Sounds, a new Los Angeles based label, will release Red Cab To Manhattan, the third album from Grammy nominated Singer/Songwriter Stephen Bishop.
Over the last five years Bishop's music has helped define the Yacht Rock sound - a phenomenon that has brought renewed popularity to several soft rock artists of the late 1970's and early 1980's including Christopher Cross, Robbie Dupree and Ambrosia to name just a few. Bishop's album has been digitally re-mastered from the original tapes and contains previously unreleased bonus tracks.
Bishop burst on the scene in 1976 with the release of his debut album Careless, which featured smash hits "On and On" and "Save It For A Rainy Day." Both the Careless album and his follow up effort, Bish, went gold. With the release of his third album, Red Cab To Manhattan in 1980, Bish took his craft to a whole new level creatively.
When asked about the reissue, Bish replied, "I'm especially excited because Red Cab is my favorite album. It has a lot of variety on it. It has great players including Eric Clapton, Phil Collins and Art Garfunkel. Plus, there are a lot of cool production things including great computerized keyboard work from Mike Mainieri who co-produced the album with Tommy Mottola."
Bishop grew up in San Diego and discovered his love of music at the age of 12 when he learned to play the clarinet. When his brother gave him a guitar for his 13th birthday, Bishop began writing music - prolifically. At the age of 17 he had already written 200 songs and decided to take his talent to Hollywood. "I ended up walking around Hollywood trying to get a deal and got a songwriting contract with a publisher for $50 a week," says Bishop. "I was still writing weird songs back then like "There's A Hair In Your Enchilada" and "She Took All My Kumquats" and I would go to my publisher and say, 'Hey, I've got a great song for Cher - "She Took All My Kumquats!'"
He got his first big break when friend Leah Kunkel (Cass Elliot's sister) gave his tape to Art Garfunkel. "Art ended up doing two of my songs on his Breakaway album and we also started being friends - we've been friends for 40 years now."
In addition to the 18 albums Bishop's released over the years, he has also performed and/or written numerous songs that have been featured in films including Animal House, The China Syndrome and Tootsie. His music has been recorded by a who's who of A-list artists including Barbra Streisand and Bette Midler.
The newly released album will feature the original iconic album cover artwork and will be presented in high quality gatefold CD packaging.
RED CAB TO MANHATTAN
TRACK LISTING
1. THE BIG HOUSE
2. DON'T YOU WORRY
3. THEIF IN THE NIGHT
4. SEND A LITTLE LOVE MY WAY (LIKE ALWAYS)
5. LET HER GO
6. LITTLE MOON
7. THE STORY OF A BOY IN LOVE
8. LIVING IN THE LAND OF ABE LINCOLN
9. RED CAB TO MANHATTAN
10. SEX KITTENS GO TO COLLEGE
11. CITY GIRL
12. MY CLARINET
BONUS TRACKS
13. HIT THE ROAD JACK
14. SEND A LITTLE LOVE MY WAY
15. SHINE ON YOU CRAZY MOON
16. SMILE WHEN YOU TOUCH HER
17.I'D COME HOME FOR YOU
18.TEENAGE MILLIONAIRE
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