Tiger Team

Strangely enough, Tiger in the Rain would have been a smoother transition from Sleeping Gypsy, just as Burchfield Nines would have been a more natural follow-up to The Art of Tea. For the first time, Michael Franks made an album completely without the production team of Tommy LiPuma, Al Schmitt and Lee Hershberg, employing instead John Simon (the Band, Janis Joplin, Leonard Cohen). The recording boasts a large number of celebrated horn and string players, as well as jazz luminaries Ron Carter, Bucky Pizzarelli, Kenny Barron, Mike Mainieri and Flora Purim. Lush, romantic and more experimental than previous efforts, Tiger in the Rain has a seriousness of purpose that faithfully echoes that of Sleeping Gypsy, with less of a Brazilian feel and overall a more somber tone of lost love.

Seven and the Ragged Tiger is the third studio album by English new wave band Duran Duran. It was released on 21 November 1983 by EMI. It was the band's first and only number-one album on the UK Albums Chart, and would prove to be the last studio album for the band's most famous line-up until 2004's Astronaut. Vocalist Simon Le Bon said the album "is an adventure story about a little commando team. 'The Seven' is for us—the five band members and the two managers—and 'the Ragged Tiger' is success. Seven people running after success. It's ambition. That's what it's about."