Twilley Mania4 Out Of 5 Stars
Dwight Twilley has always been one of those artists that everyone expected to rocket to stardom. He bounced across four major labels, yet only two were ever able to break a single by Twilley into the top 40 (only one better than his former bandmate, Phil Seymour). In that period of 1979 to 1995, Twilley recorded so many should have been hits that "XXI" plays out almost as a singularly recorded album. The power pop hooks, the swinging guitar and Twilley's vocal style remain timeless, hits or not.
Twilley's two big records, "I'm On Fire" (1976) and "Girls" (1984), but struggled to get heard throughout his career. His sole album for Arista in 1979 had the Tom Petty meets the Beatles single "Out Of My Hands" (and the B-Side was an incredible live version of "Money - That's What I Want" that should have been here). Since Petty and Twilley were friends from their Shelter Records days (Twilley is in the background of Petty's debut), Petty gave Twilley some payback on the album "Jungle." That great chorus vocal helped Twilley get only his second top 100 album, the other being the Twilley Band's "Twilley Don't Mind." "Little Bit of Love" should have been a contender, as it had the same kind of longing vocal and a killer hook. But from there on out, Dwight Twilley kept making albums that seemingly disappeared on release. You still can't get "Jungle" or "Wild Dogs" on CD.
So this CD XXI, also ridiculously out of print, is the only place you'll find such gems as "Shooting Stars" or "Why You Wanna Break My Heart" (eventually earning Twilley some excellent royalties when it was covered by actress Tia Carrere in the chart topping soundtrack to "Wayne's World"). There's an unreleased anywhere else single, "That Thing You Do," which was inspired by but not used in the Tom Hanks movie of the same name. Combine it with the rockabilly "TV" or teenage heartache of "Sincerely" and wind it out with "The Luck's" "Grey Buildings," and you have a power pop collection every bit as essential as The Plimsouls and The Shoes, and a rocker whose star should have risen alongside of Tom Petty's.
Many of these tracks can be found on "Best of Dwight Twilley 1975-1984," only available on CD, not yet a download.
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