Karla DeVito - Is This a Cool World or What?
#178
By Steve Caisse
May 1, 1981
Karla DeVito
Is This A Cool World Or What?
Allen’s Rating: 3 out of 5
Steve’s Rating: 3 out of 5
Genre: New Wavish Pop Musical
https://open.spotify.com/album/13IR5zu5JFoXzbOD1Wicpw?si=9TdQFw7vSZSzz4YhryZx3g
Highlights:
Heaven Can Wait
One odd thing I’ve always been fascinated with is the 1972 Toronto production of the musical “Godspell”. One
reason is because my mother was in a community theater production the musical in the late 70s and it’s a bit of
soundtrack to my childhood. Another is because I’ve played in the pit band for couple productions of it myself.
But the third has to do with how many in the 1972 Toronto production would become big stars: Gilder Radner,
Martin Short, Eugene Levy, Victor Garber, Andrea Martin, Dave Thomas and even the musical director - Paul
Shaffer. This group would then move on to Second City and many of the best comedy movies of the next (going
on) 50 years. Another person who has a “Godspell” to Second City story is Karla DeVito. She was with the 1972
Chicago touring group and would then do a short stint in the Chicago Second City group that included Bill Murray.
But I guess improv wasn’t her thing and she’d find herself in the Broadway touring group for “Hair” before landing
in Meat Loaf’s back-up band for his “Bat Out Of Hell” tour in 1977. She is famously in the “Paradise By The
Dashboard Light” video lip-synching to Ellen Foley’s vocals. There is a great live version of that song with DeVito
from the Old Grey Whistle Test that I’ll link to at the bottom. She is the best thing about the performance and her
theater days serve her well.
Anyway – I wrote all of that because it is WAY more interesting than this album. I mean the songs are OK enough,
the production is actually fantastic, and DeVito can belt out a tune with the best of them. It has a couple of
straight-up pop numbers that were meticulously constructed in a laboratory so they would get radio play, but it’s
also got this weird musical theater vibe that makes it sound like a soundtrack of a stage production and these
songs are in the show. I’m guessing that Broadway singing approach is just who she is, so each song has a bit of
added drama to it.
She toured the album and got opening slots with Hall & Oates and Rick Springfield – who were
as big as they ever were in 1981. The band on the album includes G.E. Smith, Anton Fig, Paul Schaffer and a long
list of regular studio cats. It still went straight to the cut-out bin. It took five more years before she released the
overproduced “Wake 'Em Up in Tokyo” album – with songs written by her husband Robbie Benson.
The song “WeAre Not Alone” is known for the dance scene in the “The Breakfast Club”- but it’s still pretty forgettable anyway.
Not much to say about any individual songs on this album other than she sings the hell out of Meat Loaf’s sappy
“Heaven Can Wait” from Bat Out Of Hell.
The song “Bloddy Bess” goes full rock musical.
There are more cover songs including “Midnight Confession”, “Almost Saturday Night”, and Randy Newman’s “Just One Smile.
If you like the bombastic, over-produced, theater side of pop rock – like Mr. Loaf, maybe this is something you
might want to check out. Or, since you’ve probably never heard of it before, just skip it and keep it that way.
“Paradise by the Dashboard Light” (Old Grey Whistle Test – 1978)
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