Monday 3/8/21 1am ET: Feature LP: Paul Carrack – One Good Reason (1987)

One Good Reason is the third solo studio album by the English singer-songwriter Paul Carrack, then a member of the supergroup Mike + The Mechanics. It was originally released in November 1987, on the label Chrysalis, five years after his previous album, Suburban Voodoo. In the interim between solo albums, Carrack had been a member of Nick Lowe and his Cowboy Outfit, which issued two albums in 1984 and 1985, and joined Mike + The Mechanics for their 1985 self-titled debut.

Mike + The Mechanics drummer Peter Van Hooke and songwriter and record producer Christopher Neil also appear on the album, serving in the same roles they did for the Mechanics. The album includes two of Carrack’s highest charting solo hits in the US, “Don’t Shed a Tear” (which became a Top 10 hit, peaking at No. 9) and “One Good Reason” (which peaked at No. 28).

1. “One Good Reason” 3:19
2. “When You Walk in the Room” 3:31
3. “Button Off My Shirt” 3:46
4. “Give Me a Chance” 4:51
5. “Double It Up” 3:44
6. “Don’t Shed a Tear” 4:55
7. “Fire with Fire” 3:59
8. “Here I Am” 4:00
9. “Collrane” 4:40
10. “(Do I Figure) In Your Life” 2:16

Paul Carrack – lead vocals
Paul Wickens – keyboards
Tim Renwick – guitars
Peter Van Hooke – drums
Frank Ricotti – percussion
John Earle – saxophone (7)
Jackie Rawe – backing vocals
Linda Taylor – backing vocals (2)

Wednesday 9pm ET: Feature Artist – Paul Carrack

Paul Melvyn Carrack (born April 22, 1951) is an English singer, songwriter, composer and multi-instrumentalist who has recorded as both a solo artist and as a member of several popular bands. The BBC dubbed Carrack “The Man with the Golden Voice”, while Record Collector remarked: “If vocal talent equalled financial success, Paul Carrack would be a bigger name than legends such as Phil Collins or Elton John.”

Carrack rose to prominence in the mid-1970s as the frontman and principal songwriter of Ace, and gained further recognition for his work as a solo artist and for his tenures as a member of Roxy Music, Squeeze and Roger Waters’ backing band, The Bleeding Heart Band, intermittently handling lead vocals on Squeeze and Waters recordings. From the mid-1980s to the late 1990s, he enjoyed considerable success as the co-lead singer (with Paul Young) and a songwriter for Mike + The Mechanics; following Young’s death in 2000, Carrack served as the band’s sole lead vocalist until his departure in 2004. He maintains an active solo career to the present day.

Carrack sang some of his affiliated bands’ best-known hits, including Ace’s “How Long”; Squeeze’s “Tempted”; and Mike + The Mechanics’ “Silent Running (On Dangerous Ground)”, “The Living Years” and “Over My Shoulder”. He also performed lead vocals on tracks from the Roger Waters albums Radio K.A.O.S. and The Wall – Live in Berlin, and achieved a major solo hit with “Don’t Shed a Tear”. Carrack’s songs have been recorded by artists such as Linda Ronstadt, the Eagles, Diana Ross, Tom Jones, Michael McDonald and Jools Holland, and he has served as a session and/or touring musician for Elton John, Eric Clapton, Ringo Starr, B.B. King, The Pretenders, The Smiths and Madness.