Expanded Tim Curry Albums Come To Streaming
Expanded editions of ‘Read My Lips’ (1978), ‘Fearless’ (1979), and ‘Simplicity’ (1981) have arrived after British-born actor’s recent death at 80.
Three expanded editions of albums by Tim Curry have come to streaming for the first time. Those records are Read My Lips (1978), Fearless (1979), and Simplicity (1981). The British-born actor died August 25 at the age of 80.
Read My Lips arrived three years after The Rocky Horror Picture Show soundtrack. The record, Curry’s debut solo studio album, is largely comprised of covers, including modern pop songs like Joni Mitchell’s “All I Want,” The Beatles’ “I Will,” and “Anyone Who Had a Heart” written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David for Dionne Warwick. The expanded edition includes a Curry original, “Just Fourteen,” and a version of The Supremes’ “Baby Love.”
Curry released Fearless the following year. The album was composed almost entirely of original songs, mostly written by Curry with producers Michael Kamen (Pink Floyd) and former Lou Reed collaborator Dick Wagner. It was Curry’s most commercially successful album, reaching No. 53 on the US Billboard 200. The single “I Do the Rock” reached the Billboard Hot 100, and includes references to rock icons, including the line “John and Yoko farming beef / Raising protein quota / Sometimes they make love and art / Inside the Dakota.” The expanded edition adds on single edits of “Paradise Garage” and “Charge It,” as well as a high fidelity mix of “I Do the Rock.”
His final album, Simplicity, featured half-originals, half-covers. The album includes versions of two 1964 hits, the Zombies’ “She’s Not There” and Martha and the Vandellas’ “Dancing in the Streets.” Curry also performs a version of “Take Me, I’m Yours,” originally a 1978 hit by the English new wave band Squeeze. The expanded edition adds two live performances from the Old Waldorf Nightclub in 1978, an original titled “Alan” and a cover of Bob Dylan’s “Simple Twist of Fate.”
