Bonnie Raitt "Nick of Time"

 

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#753 in the Series) is Bonnie Raitt, Nick of Time.

In 1988, Bonnie Raitt was one of many performers that would continuously pound out good release after good release but never really popped!  We’ve seen a ton of these acts. “Wow is she good. I’m surprised that she’s not better known.”  There was the odd “Me and the Boys” or “Angel From Montgomery,” but the lady from California still wasn’t a household name.  Heck she might not have been as well-known as her stage star father John Raitt. Don’t get me wrong. She did have a nice following, she just wasn’t a star.

Then she met Don Was.  Don was a producer that had done well with the great band Was (Not Was) and had produced a few other acts as well, but his career was quite a bit like Bonnie’s. Ok, but not spectacular.

They met when Don was putting together a compilation of Disney songs for an album. The session went well and Raitt and Was decided to continue in to another project that would become, Nick of Time. It was if the title track decribed both of their feeling about meeting the other at this point in their careers.

Nick of Time ended up selling 5 million copies and garnered Ms. Raitt three Grammy Awards.  It was ranked #229 on Rolling Stone Magazines Top 500 Albums of All Time.  It won Grammy’s for Album of the Year, Best Female Pop Vocal Performance and Best Female Rock Vocal Performance.

The biggest hit on Top 40 radio was “Have a Heart.” The biggest hit on rock radio was John Hiatt’s “Thing Called Love.”  The best song on the album in my opinion was the title cut, “Nick of Time.”

Guest artists a plenty were on the album. Take a run through the credits and you’ll read names such as  David Crosby, Graham Nash, Sweet Pea Atkinson and Sir Harry Bowens (from Was (Not Was)), Paulinho Da Costa, Ricky Fataar, Herbie Hancock and Kim Wilson.

Don Was continued to produce Bonnie on her next album, Luck of the Draw. It sold seven million copies.

Bonnie Raitt was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame in 2000.

— Larry Carta

 Track listing

1. “Nick of Time” (Raitt) – 3:52
2. “Thing Called Love” (John Hiatt) – 3:52
3. “Love Letter” (Bonnie Hayes) – 4:04
4. “Cry on My Shoulder” (Michael Ruff) – 3:44
5. “Real Man” (Jerry Lynn Williams) – 4:27
6. “Nobody’s Girl” (Larry John McNally) – 3:14
7. “Have a Heart” (Bonnie Hayes) – 4:50
8. “Too Soon to Tell” (Rory Michael Bourke, Mike Reid) – 3:45
9. “I Will Not Be Denied” (Jerry Lynn Williams) – 4:55
10. “I Ain’t Gonna Let You Break My Heart Again” (David Lasley, Julie Lasley) – 2:38
11. “The Road’s My Middle Name” (Raitt) – 3:31

Personnel

• Bonnie Raitt – guitar, piano, Vocals, background vocals, slide guitar
• Arthur Adams – guitar
• Sweet Pea Atkinson – background vocals
• Bill Bergman – horn
• John Berry, Jr. – horn, background vocals
• Harry Bowens – background vocals
• Tony Braunagel – percussion, drums, timbales
• Fran Christina – drums
• David Crosby – background vocals
• Paulinho Da Costa – percussion, conga
• Chuck Domanico – bass, acoustic bass
• Dennis Farias – horn
• Ricky Fataar – percussion, drums
• Marty Grebb – tenor saxophone
• Herbie Hancock – piano
• Heart Attack Horns – horns
• Preston Hubbard – bass
• James “Hutch” Hutchinson – bass
• John Jorgenson – guitar
• Michael Landau – guitar
• David Lasley – background vocals
• Jay Dee Maness – pedal steel, steel guitar
• Arnold McCuller – background vocals
• Larry John McNally – background vocals
• Graham Nash – background vocals
• Michael Ruff – keyboards
• Johnny Lee Schell – acoustic guitar, guitar, vocals
• Greg Smith – horn
• Swamp Dogg – piano
• Scott Thurston – keyboards
• Don Was – keyboards
• Kim Wilson – harmonica

Related Links

Check out this live version of “Thing Called Love” with John Hiatt