PM / PM

PM must be the one of the best but most underestimated late 1980's AOR group. Peter Mayer, the lead vocalist, guitarist and main songwriter of the group grew up in India and came back to the states in 1966. In the 70's (his high school days in St. Louis), Peter started to get into bands and played songs by Chicago, Styx, Super Tramp, the pop music of the day. Gradually, Peter started to listen to the contemporary jazz music and was drawn by music released by ECM Records, Keith Jarret, Gary Burton and one in particular, Pat Matheny. In 1980, Peter was hired to teach Jazz Guitar at Webster University. Peter formed a band called "Left Lane" with Roger Guth, Jim Mayer, both of whom had formed PM with Peter later, and Ray Kennedy (key). They recorded an contemporary jazz flavored vocal album "In Common" in January 1985 co-produced and engineered by Jay Oliver, which was released only in Sweden in the same year.

Thereafter, Peter decided to return to his songwriting pop and rock'n'roll roots. And Peter, Jim and Roger started to pursue a record deal with major label as PM. It is known that some of their demo recordings was released on a hard-to-find cassette "PM". It did not take so long before several major labels offered to sign with PM and they signed with Warner Bros. They went to Los Angeles and picked Elliot Scheiner, who had worked with Steely Dan to produce their first album. In 1988, the album was finally released and the first single "Piece Of Paradise" began to climb Billboard Charts and peaked out at # 8 on the Adult Contemporary Chart. They toured with the Moody Blues and Chicago over the U.S.A and got great responses from the audiences. It is easily to prove how marvelous all the 12 tunes on this album are by showing the fact Vanessa Williams covered "Moonlight Over Paris" on her smash hit album "The Sweetest Days" (1994). You may be a little surprised to find Sheryl Crow as a back-up singer. PM played a lot of clubs in St. Louis and for a time they had two back-up singers, one of whom was Sheryl Crow!

Whilst most of the AOR masterpiece albums have been reissued, the PM self-titled debut album was never reissued as of 2021. It should have, I do believe personally.

Release: 1988
Label: Warner Bros. Records, USA (Vinyl: 9 25751-1, CD: 9 25751-2)

Tracks:
1. Pieces Of Paradise
2. Say It Again
3. Moonlight Over Paris
4. Nothing
5. Somebody's Gonna Cry
6. Grown Men *
7. The Waiting
8. On The Corner
9. When First We Were Lovers
10. Boy Meets Girl
11. Love Is A Stranger
12. I Live In A Hole

* Bonus Track only on CD

Producers: Elliot Scheiner, PM

PM:
Peter Mayer: Lead Vocals, Guitars, Keyboards
Roger Guth: Drums, Keyboards
Jim Mayer: Bass, Backing Vocals

- Musicians -
Keyboards and Programming: Jay Oliver
Backing Vocals: Sheryl Crow, Lynn Fiddmont

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#PeterMayer