Heavens Door

1993 release captures the heavy metal masters live in action. The Heaven's Gate line-up features guitar virtuoso / producer extraordinaire Sascha Paeth. Heaven's Gate were a German power metal band formed in 1987 from the ashes of an earlier group named Steeltower, where vocalist Thomas Rettke and drummer Thorsten Mueller achieved little recognition despite putting in almost five years of work and releasing an album in 1984. They would be far more fortunate with Heaven's Gate (also featuring guitarists Bonny Bilski, Sascha Paeth, and bassist Manni Jordan), which capitalized on the late-'80s and early-'90s power metal craze with solid efforts like In Control (1989), Open the Gate and Watch (EP, 1990), Livin' in Hysteria (1991), More Hysteria (EP, 1992), and Hell for Sale (1992).

Randy (born Veronica Crawford) is a brilliant American soul singer who had a UK top five hit (Street life) as un-credited vocalist with the Crusaders in 1973, then had two UK top five hits (One day I'll fly away, Almaz) in the eighties as a solo singer. Randy never achieved this level of success in her homeland. Apart from those three major hits, Randy had two other UK top twenty hits (You might need somebody, Rainy night in Georgia) and several minor hits, three of which (Imagine, Secret combination, One hello) are included here. Most of the songs here are originals but, with her outstanding voice, Randy is a great interpreter of other people's songs, as this collection shows. This collection truly is the very best of Randy Crawford, one of the finest soul singers there has ever been.