The Pop up Pitch

When Sam Cooke signed with RCA Records in 1960, he had already had several hits ("You Send Me," "What A Wonderful World," and "Only Sixteen" among them) on the small independent label Keen Records. He had paid attention to the business sides of things, too, and he signed with RCA because he was allowed to keep control of his song publishing…

The U.K. quartet Breathe was the most popular of several late-'80s British acts like Waterfront and Johnny Hates Jazz, which combined lush easy listening pop with a light George Michael-style touch of R&B. Breathe was just as derivative as its counterparts, but vocalist David Glasper was gifted with a warm, pitch-perfect voice, tailor-made for adult contemporary radio. The misleadingly titled All That Jazz spawned two Top Five ballads, and both "Hands to Heaven" and "How Can I Fall" are aural equivalents of a Harlequin romance novel. Breathe is quite adept with a ballad; predictably, the remainder of All That Jazz rarely strays from the lushly produced elevator music of the two hits. Although far from perfect, All That Jazz is a pleasant enough listen for fans of harmless, romantic pop.