Never Enough (Patty Smyth album)

Never Enough
Studio album by Patty Smyth
Released	1987
Recorded	1986
Genre	Rock
Length	41:04
Label	Columbia
Producer	Rick Chertoff, William Wittman
Patty Smyth chronology
Never Enough (1987) Patty Smyth (1992)

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[1]
Robert Christgau	B−[2]

Never Enough is the debut album by former Scandal singer Patty Smyth. It was released in 1987 on Columbia Records (also the group's label) three years after the band's breakup in 1984.

In an interview with Smyth on The Bloomberg Report, she said the album "was never supposed to be a solo record; it was meant to be a record by Scandal Featuring Patty Smyth. Even though the band had broken up, I was still with Keith Mack; it was Zack & I that had ended our partnership."

Though she would have success as a songwriter later on, here she only co-wrote two tracks, the first and the last. The first of these two, "Never Enough" (the album's title track) was actually a slight rewrite of a song with the same title from the self-titled debut album of then-current (in 1987) Hooters bandmembers Rob Hyman and Eric Bazilian's former band, Baby Grand. The original version featured different lyrics sung by Baby Grand frontman David Kagan.^[3] In fact, Hyman and Bazilian, as well as others associated with The Hooters, including producer Rick Chertoff had a significant hand in the making of this album.

The album includes three cover versions, one of "Downtown Train" by Tom Waits, which was covered that same year by country singer-songwriter Mary Chapin Carpenter for her album Hometown Girl and later in 1989 by Rod Stewart and included on his 1991 album "Vagabond Heart", the retitled "Call To Heaven" originally called "Les Morts Dansant" by British hard rock band Magnum featured on their 1985 album On a Storyteller's Night, and the third, "Isn't it Enough", from Danny Wilde featured on his 1986 release "The Boyfriend".

The LP reached a peak of 66 in the U.S. and spawned three singles: the title track (#61 pop, #4 U.S. Mainstream Rock Tracks), "Downtown Train" (#95 pop, #40 Mainstream) and "Isn't It Enough" (failed to chart on pop, #26 Mainstream).

The album was produced by William Wittman and Rick Chertoff. Chertoff was one of the people on the production team of Cyndi Lauper's She's So Unusual, and would go on to work with platinum-selling singer-songwriter Joan Osborne on her 1995 album, Relish.

Track listing[]

1. "Never Enough" (Rob Hyman, Eric Bazilian, Rick Chertoff, Patty Smyth, David Kagan) 4:15
2. "Downtown Train" (Tom Waits) 5:05
3. "Give It Time" (Rob Hyman, David Kagan) 4:17
4. "Call To Heaven" (Tony Clarkin) 5:06
5. "The River Cried" (Billy Steinberg, Tom Kelly) 4:16
6. "Isn't It Enough" (Danny Wilde, Nick Trevisick) 4:22
7. "Sue Lee" (Willie Nile, Rick Chertoff) 3:48
8. "Tough Love" (Nick Gilder, Duane Hitchings) 4:54
9. "Heartache Heard 'Round the World" (Rob Hyman, Eric Bazilian, Rick Chertoff, Patty Smyth) 4:54

Production[]

• Produced by Rick Chertoff and William Wittman
• Recorded, engineered and mixed by John Agnello
• Mastered by George Marino

Personnel[]

• Patty Smyth - lead vocals
• Ellison Chase, John Loeffler, Kasim Sulton, Rory Dodd, Eric Troyer, Andy King, William Wittman, John Agnello - backing vocals
• Eric Bazilian, Rick DiFonzo, Keith Mack, William Wittman - guitars
• Tommy Conwell - guest lead guitar on track 1
• Rob Hyman, Ralph Schuckett, Richard Termini, , Eric Bazilian - keyboards
• Neil Jason - bass
• Anton Fig - drums, percussion
• Ray Spiegel - tabla
• David Sanborn - saxophone on track 2
• Magic Dick - harmonica on track 3

External links[]

• "Never Enough" at allmusic
• "Never Enough" at discogs
• Patty Smyth talks briefly about "Never Enough"

References[]

• Patty Smyth: Never Enough liner notes. 1987, Columbia Records.