|
Reproduced from DMA 22 June-11 July, 1990. Vol 13 - Issue 11
Hi-NRG/Eurobeat
by Dean Ferguson
When I caught up with HiNRG heroine Hazell Dean recently at PWL's New York
Offices, she was involved in a lively discussion about Stock-Aitken-Waterman
and it was refreshing, to say the least, to find someone so enthusiastic
about pop music's most prolific trio. SAW-bashing has become a popular media
pastime but Hazell was having none of it. "The great thing about SAW and PWL
is that everyone works as a team. I'm a singer and performer...that's what I
do best, that's my job. Pete, Matt, and Mike encourage the best from
(whatever each artist has to offer) and then do their job. The result is,
more often than not, a hit record!" She laughs at the suggestion that the
trio is difficult or domineering in the studio, emphasizing again the
camaraderie that's the essence of the PWL spirit. "When I was frantically
looking for a follow-up to "Searchin'" (at a time, a top 5 UK pop hit),
Pete Waterman met me in the studio at Proto Records with a song called
"Dance Your Love Away". I loved the verse but hated the chorus, so
Matt and Mike rewrote it. That's how "Whatever I Do (Wherever I Go)"
came about and also how our association started."
Though Hazell had some recording success as a teenager (her cover of "Our
Day Will Come" on Decca was a UK club hit in the late seventies), she was
concentrating on a songwriting career when producer Ian Anthony Stevens
persuaded her to record "Searchin'" in the early eighties. She hasn't
looked back since. Hazell followed "Searchin'" and
"Whatever I Do" with another SAW production, "They Say It's Gonna
Rain", but then decided to try other
producers after signing a major label deal in 1985, a period she jokingly
refers to as her "EMI Confusion Days." Among the names she worked with at
EMI besides SAW, Ian Levine is most fondly recalled as pleasant and
interesting. "Ian's got some great ideas and he's a wonderful songwriter but
he doesn't listen to anyone else's ideas." She infers that he might be
farther along commercially if his operation wasn't so self-contained. "Maybe
he should work with different people (producers, writers, arrangers, etc.) to
try and get a fresh perspective, although he's been a great front man for
HiNRG allalong." Levine contributed the wonderful "You're My Rainbow"
to Hazell's repertoire and she's grateful to him for it, though the EMI project
as a whole proved a bit unnerving for the young lady "from a little country
town called Great Baddow in Essex, England" especially after she went for
more than a year without a hit record.
Hazell subsequently returned to the PWL fold when, out of the blue, her old
friend Pete Waterman called her again during the dry spell. "He said to me
'What are you doing, kid!' and more or less ordered me down to PWL" she
recalled with a laugh. The SAW sessions that followed produced three top
twenty UK pop hits in a row, including her biggest smash on EMI, "Who's
Leaving Who", which peaked at #4. "The proof is in the pudding" is how
Hazell explains her decision last year to leave EMI and "put all my eggs in
one basket" at PWL's Lisson label susidiary. Her first single for Lisson was
the recent #1 HiNRG hit, "Love Pains".
Though Hazell couldn't be more popular with American DJs, mainstream pop
success has so far eluded her here in the US. Her album for Capitol was a
commercial disappointment, though she's quick to credit the label's dance
department head, Frank Murray, for his efforts on her behalf. "Frank did a
damn good job, a great job...he worked so very hard for me but the hierarchy
wasn't behind the album." Hazell and her friends at PWL won't start shopping
for a new American label until after the next European single is out, but
when they do, she'll sign with a company that "wants to work with Hazell
Dean" rather than one that has to because of a contract.
Hazell's particularly fond of her American fans, describing them as "noisier
and not as reserved" as their European counterparts. "I love doing club
dates in the states" she says, adding that she talks more on stage over here
because the crowds are more enthusiastic, calling out song titles and the
like, much to Hazell's delight. "Besides" she adds, "I think they like my
accent!" I think they like her period. She's got looks, talent,
personality, and most importantly, ENERGY! Watch for a new single and
possibly a US tour later this summer. I'll keep you posted!
|
