Perfect Angel is the second studio album by Minnie Riperton, released in 1974 by Epic Records.[2] It was re-released on CD on October 25, 1990.[2] The album contains the biggest hit of Riperton's career, "Lovin' You", which topped the U.S. Pop Singles chart for one week in early April 1975.
In 1973, a college intern for Epic Records found Riperton in semi-retirement. She had become a homemaker and a mother of two in Gainesville, Florida. After he heard a demo of the song "Seeing You This Way", the rep took the tape to Don Ellis, VP of A&R for Epic. Riperton signed with Epic Records, and the family moved to Los Angeles, California.
With associate producers Malcolm Cecil and Robert Margouleff on hand engineering and programming the synthesizers, Riperton and company recorded Perfect Angel at the Record Plant in LA – Stevie Wonder’s choice of studio in the West Coast. Perfect Angel was a musical romp through rock (“Reasons”), easy-going pop (“Seeing You This Way”) with a wonderful message song that closed out side one (“On The Edge Of A Dream” – written in honor of Martin Luther King Jr). Wonder wrote the title tune as well as “Take A Little Trip”.
“Perfect Angel” would have had eight songs, but Wonder felt that one more was needed to meet the industry standard of a 40-minute album. He asked Riperton and Rudolph to come up with a tune that they considered to be their “most embarrassing song”. With hesitation, Riperton did mention a lullaby she sang to Maya to put her to sleep at night so that she and Rudolph could spend “grown-up time”. With Rudolph’s help, Riperton came up with "Lovin’ You" – which was quickly recorded with Wonder on electric piano and synthesizers (Rudolph supplied the chirping birds from a sound effects reel).
Epic released Perfect Angel in August 1974 one month after Wonder’s Fulfillingness hit the record stores. While the album represented Riperton’s eclectic musical directions, it posed a marketing dilemma with the label – is she a rock singer or soul or pop? Where should the label place her records at retail – the rock bins or the R&B department? As for radio, "Reasons" – the first single - was embraced by the rock stations but R&B radio weren’t too keen on the hard-rocking guitar work heard on the disc. “Every Time He Comes Around” and “Seeing You This Way” hit a similar brick wall.
Sales of the album started out slow and Epic was ready to move on to the next record. The solution to this issue was found when a few MOR (Middle Of the Road) radio stations were playing “Lovin’ You” from the album. When Riperton and Rudolph learned about this, they asked Epic to give the song a shot as a single release. The label agreed and “Lovin’ You” was on 45 in January 1975. The single made a slow three-month climb to #1 on the pop charts in April (#3 R&B), thanks to an intense promotional schedule (her TV appearances on American Bandstand and Soul Train aired the same Saturday afternoon) and several in-person concert appearances.
The album went gold on the strength of "Lovin' You" and remains the only gold album in Riperton's career. Minnie Riperton was finally revered as the "lady with the high voice, and flowers in her hair." The album also featured the song "Every Time He Comes Around", with Deniece Williams singing the background vocals. According to the liner notes from Riperton's Petals compilation CD, the melody to "Lovin' You" was created as a distraction for Maya when she was a baby, so that Riperton and Rudolph could hang out.
After Riperton died, Stevie Wonder performed the title track on Soul Train, as a special tribute to Riperton.
Track listing
All songs written by Minnie Riperton and Richard Rudolph except where indicated.
- "Reasons" – 3:25
- "It's So Nice (To See Old Friends)" – 4:47
- "Take a Little Trip" (Stevie Wonder) – 4:11
- "Seeing You This Way" – 2:51
- "The Edge of a Dream" – 4:20
- "Perfect Angel" (Wonder) – 3:41
- "Every Time He Comes Around" – 3:55
- "Lovin' You" – 3:54
- "Our Lives" – 5:42
Personnel
Musicians
Production
Charts
References
