City of Angels (album)

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City of Angels
Studio album by The Miracles
Released September 1975
Recorded 1975
Genre Soul
Label Tamla
Producer Freddie Perren
Professional reviews
The Miracles chronology
Don't Cha Love It
(1975)
City of Angels
(1975)
The Power of Music
(1976)

City of Angels is an album by the Motown soul group The Miracles, released on Motown Records's Tamla label in September of 1975. The group's fourth album recorded after replacing lead singer Smokey Robinson with Billy Griffin in 1972, City of Angels is a concept album, depicting of a man from "Anytown, U.S.A." who follows his estranged girlfriend Charlotte to Los Angeles, where she has gone in hopes of becoming a star. All of the tracks on the album were written by Billy Griffin and Miracles bass singer Pete Moore. Freddie Perren served as the album's producer.

The album's first single, "Love Machine", peaked at number-one on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming the most successful single of The Miracles' career. Its success conicided with the rise of the disco craze of the late 1970s. Another song on City of Angels, "Ain't Nobody Straight in L.A.", caused controversy due to addressing the subject of homosexuality: "Ain't nobody straight in L.A./It seems that everybody there is gay" [1]

City of Angles reached 33 on the Billboard 200 albums chart i nthe United States, and peaked at number 29 on the Billboard Black Albums chart. [2] While never available on CD, the "City of Angels" album is available in its entirety on the import release , "The Miracles - The Essential Collection".

Contents

[edit] Tracklist

All songs written by William Griffin and Warren Moore.

[edit] Side one

  1. "Overture" - 3:10
  2. "City Of Angels" - 4:50
  3. "Free Press" - 3:15
  4. "Ain't Nobody Straight In L.A." - 3:48
  5. "Night Life" - 4:27

[edit] Side two

  1. "Love Machine" - 6:52
  2. "My Name is Michael" - 3:00
  3. "Poor Charlotte" - 6:05
  4. "Waldo Roderick DeHammersmith" - 3:06
  5. "Smog" - 5:16

[edit] Notes