Watching some earlier Hee Haw reruns when Barbi Benton was a cast member. She has a good voice but being Hefner's girlfriend had its career advantages. And those Playboy spreads!
Tsk, tsk, tsk, Dave ... caught you again. No Ritchie Blackmore or Jon Lord connection, but a Roger Glover one:
(Roger Glover, former and current bassist of English pop group Deep Purple is
on the left, on the right: Ms Benton.)Before you guys jump to your usual cheapshot and adolescent conclusions, he was her producer!
"But one of Glover’s most …interesting production projects was his work on a long-forgotten 1977 album, released only in Sweden, on a label called Playboy Records…
Male readers of a certain age will remember Ms. Benton as a Playboy model; perhaps the Playboy cover girl of the 70’s. If you weren’t old enough then to be swiping your dad’s Playboys, you may remember her as a bit player on TV’s Hee Haw. Benton also starred in an ABC TV series in 1977 called ‘Sugartime!’ about an all-female rock group ‘trying to make it big’. Well… they sure picked the right girl for that…
Barbi Benton released 5 albums during the 1970s, with some success. Her first single reached #5 on the US Billboard Country chart, but her biggest hit was a song called ‘Ain’t That Just the Way’, which was a Number One single in Sweden for five weeks in 1977. The album from which that single originated, also titled ‘Ain’t That Just the Way’, was produced by our man Roger Glover. Glover brought some of his friends to the proceedings (wouldn’t you? ‘Hey, man, you want to come down and hang out with me and Barbi Benton, maybe lay down a solo?’), so not only does Micky Moody of Whitesnake make an appearance, but David Coverdale hung around long enough to earn a songwriting credit, along with Barbi & Rog (so cute) on ‘Up In the Air’. Need more? Simon Phillips played drums. Ha! Gotcha."I remember a question to Roger on his production experience with her and he said - ever the gentleman - something along the lines of "
joy to work with, lovely person and a talented singer".
To be fair, Roger only produced a remake for the European (Scandinavian) market (where it indeed became a hit). The re-recording was possibly done because of a change in record company or because the original (recorded two years before) was deemed too "Las Vegas" (strings-drenched as it was) in arrangement for European late 70ies ears, the '77 recording is clearly more "Yuropean", even Micky Moody's slide guitar can't hide that fact.
Phew, for today, my work here is once again done ...
PS:
Here's the single. "Thames Productions" was a music company affiliated with the Deep Purple management and largely used for spin-off Purple acts such as Rainbow, David Coverdale etc.
And the production is sooo tell-tale Roger Glover ... the very audible background singer girls are clearly Liza Strike, Doris Troy & the usual suspects which Roger had regularly on albums he produced. They were also on Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon.
