Out of the Blue - Cover on TCYR's Showboats & Grandstanders

Track Cover #3: Out of the Blue 

Some background information on the covers from the new Tommy Conwell and the Young Rumblers record, Showboats and Grandstanders. 

The three covers on the album are “The Rest of the Night,” “The Little Things,” and "Out of the Blue." 

“Out of the Blue” is a song written by Robert Hazard. 

It was released in 1982 as one of five tracks from the EP called Robert Hazard. 

From the blog, Eighties Rare Videos: “Robert Hazard was a mainstay of the Philadelphia music scene during the late 1970's and early 1980's. With his band, Robert Hazard and the Heroes--Michael Pilla, Jerry Weindel, Ken Bernard, John Lilley, Rob Miller--he performed David Bowie-influenced new wave material that was modern and catchy, and generated a sizable local following.” 

In 1982, Kurt Loder, a writer for Rolling Stone magazine, caught Robert Hazard and the Heroes in concert. 

“Loder was so impressed by the band's show that he wrote a full page article about them in the November 1981 issue of Rolling Stone. In the article, he predicted that the "limousine life" could not be far away for this band from Philadelphia.”
Source: www.phillyrockers.com 

Loder’s glowing article for the mag, and the national interest led to a recording contract with RCA. 

The album received positive reviews and reached #102 on the album charts. The single “Escalator of Life" peaked at #58 on the Billboard charts. 

Hear the live version of “Out of the Blue” from Robert Hazard and the Heroes:



Several years later, Cyndi Lauper recorded the Hazard-penned "Girls Just Want To Have Fun" – the track from her debut album, “She’s So Unusual” was a huge hit, peaking at number 2 on the Billboard charts in 1984. 

Robert Hazard died after surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston on August 5, 2008. He had released his last album, Troubadour, in October 2007. 

In a Billboard magazine article (10/28/1995), author Dan Delvea discusses a bit of Philly's past in "Diverse Acts, Indie Labels Discover Freedom in Philly" 

"....the Hooters, Robert Hazard and Tommy Conwell and the Young Rumblers made [Philadelphia] a mainstream rock outpost in the '80s." 

Robert Hazard and Tommy Conwell collaborated on two songs for the Young Rumblers: "Love's On Fire" and "Everything They Say Is True." 

Both songs were featured on two releases by Tommy Conwell and the Young Rumblers: the 1986 indie-album, Walkin' On the Water, and the band's 1988 national major label debut on Columbia Records, Rumble. 

At Ardmore Music Hall on May 13, 2017, Tommy Conwell gave a preview of “Out of the Blue” — one of the songs promoted as a track for the new Young Rumblers album. 

Tommy’s live acoustic performance:



Tommy Conwell and the Young Rumblers also included “Out of the Blue” live in 2018 as a band, and have been performing it in concert ever since.

Robert Hazard and the Heroes - Out of the Blue

One of the best moments to emerge from Tommy Conwell and the Young Rumblers' May 13 concert at the music hall in Ardmore came during Tommy's acoustic solo set.

Tommy thanked everyone who donated to the band's recent IndieGoGo campaign to make new music in 2017 -- the initial goal was to reach $8,000. The final tally was a little over 11K -- 146% of the campaign goal which kicked off in December 8, 2016 and ended February 7, 2017.

Tommy introduced one of the songs that will appear on the new album - a cover of Robert Hazard and the Hereos' track, "Out of the Blue." The song first appeared on the five-track EP called Robert Hazard, released in 1982.

 

Elton John's Philadelphia Freedom - Various Philadelphia Artists

Elton John's "Philadelphia Freedom" - Various Philadelphia Artists (1989) [Long Version]

Artists included on this recording: The Hooters, Patti Labelle, Tommy Conwell and the Young Rumblers, Grover Washington, Jr., Pretty Poison, Phyllis Hyman, Teddy Pendergrass, Robert Hazard, Jeff Lorber, Jean Carn, Britny Fox, Bobby Rydell, Schoolly D, Essra Mohawk, Sister Sledge, Billy Paul, Dee Dee Sharp and Tony Santoro.

Singing Our Song Local Superstars Get It Together 

By Jonathan Takiff, Daily News Staff Writer 
June 5, 1989 

          Did Elton John's rendering of "Philadelphia Freedom" make you well up with civic pride? If so, you're gonna bust over a dynamic new Philly superstar treatment out on a just-issued album called "Philadelphia Freedom - Together." 
          Trading licks (in the style of "We Are the World") are Teddy Pendergrass, the Hooters, Schooly D, Grover Washington Jr. and Patti LaBelle. Sharp ears also will detect the presence of Sister Sledge, Britny Fox, Jeane Carne, Bobby Rydell and Billy Paul, Pretty Poison, Dee Dee Sharp, Jeff Lorber, Robert Hazard, Essra Mohawk, Tony Santoro and Tommy Conwell and the Young Rumblers. 
          Celebrating Philly's rich and varied base in contemporary music, the Nick Martinelli and Randy Cantor production of Elton John's fight song was a year in the compiling, done at the behest of the Philadelphia Music Foundation. The results are coherent and soulful - an easy addition to the playlists of WIOQ, Power 99, WUSL or WDAS, or even (because it's instant gold) WOGL and WPGR. The boosters at PMF hope radio will get behind the song tomorrow in a big way. They're trying to get every radio station in the Delaware Valley to play the tune - to help the cause, in a City Hall ceremony at 3 p.m. today, Mayor Goode is to declare tomorrow "PMF's Philadelphia Freedom Day." 
          Still, don't be surprised if rockers WMMR and WYSP instead opt to plug some of the classic tracks that flesh out the $7.98 "Philadelphia Freedom" album. Yup, it's the greatest hits by the Hooters ("And We Danced"), Patti LaBelle ("New Attitude"), Cinderella ("Nobody's Fool"), John Eddie ("Jungle Boy") and Robert Hazard ("Escalator of Life") on the rocking Side 1. The flip side gets funky with McFadden and Whitehead's "Ain't No Stoppin' Us Now," George Thorogood's "Who Do You Love," Teddy Pendergrass' "Close the Door," Sister Sledge's "We Are Family," Jean Carne's "Closer Than Close" and Michael Sembello's "Automatic Man." 
           PMF board member Alan Rubens (the savvy talent agent/manager and sometime record company proprietor) negotiated the song rights for the PMF project, and Sigma Sound's Joe Tarsia (now PMF chairman) mixed the package. "It's a clear example of people helping people through music," says Tarsia of the superstar song and album project. "The monies raised will be used to further the education and careers of young people through our scholarship fund." Over the past 2 1/2 years, PMF has contributed "in excess of $60,000" in music-field related scholarships, adds PMF director Loretta Barrett.
        Also keeping it local, Warner Bros. has pressed the album at its Olyphant, Pa., plant. And the Narberth-based Collectibles label - which specializes in classic rhythm and blues compilations and reissues - is putting the album and an upcoming tape version into national circulation. 
          While best spread in Delaware Valley music stores, naturally, ''Philadelphia Freedom - Together" has also been shipped to distributors in Boston, New York and Los Angeles and will be "filtering out from there," says Collectables' president Jerry Greene.

Tommy Conwell - Tribute to Robert Hazard

On this day in 2008, Philadelphia musician and songwriter Robert Hazard died. [August 21, 1948 – August 5, 2008]

Here's video of Tommy Conwell paying tribute to him that same year at Tacony with a song they co-wrote, "Love's on Fire.

World Cafe Live - David Uosikkinen’s “In The Pocket: The Essential Songs Of Philadelphia”

Tonight at World Cafe Live, David Uosikkinen’s “In The Pocket: The Essential Songs Of Philadelphia” project celebrates the release of the the fifth song in the series, a cover of the 1981 Robert Hazard And The Heroes song, “Change Reaction” (featuring Ben Arnold on lead vocals).
In The Pocket features members of The Hooters including David Uosikkinen on drums along with Rob Hyman (keyboards and vocals) and John Lilley (guitar), Steve Butler from Smash Palace on guitar, bassist William Wittman and Ben Arnold on lead vocals. All five of the songs recorded by In The Pocket, including “Change Reaction” can be purchased here. Portions of the proceeds go to the Settlement Music School.

David Uosikkinen’s In The Pocket performs at 7:30 p.m. at World Cafe Live; tickets to the show are $17 (a portion of the proceeds from the show will benefit Settlement Music School).

Robert Hazard [1948-2008]

Robert Hazard, Philly rocker, dies at 59

Click image to see Tommy Conwell and the Young Rumblers perform Love's On Fire. (Inset: Robert Hazard, 70's-era)

Robert Hazard, Philadelphia musician and composer of Cyndi Lauper's #1 song "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun," died Aug. 5, 2008.

In a Billboard magazine article (10/28/1995), author Dan Delvea discusses a bit of Philly's past in "Diverse Acts, Indie Labels Discover Freedom in Philly"

"....the Hooters, Robert Hazard and Tommy Conwell and the Young Rumblers made [Philadelphia] a mainstream rock outpost in the '80s."

Robert Hazard and Tommy Conwell collaborated on two songs for the Young Rumblers: Love's On Fire and Everything They Say Is True.

Both songs were featured on two releases by Tommy Conwell and the Young Rumblers: the 1986 indie-album, Walkin' On the Water, and the band's 1988 national major label debut on Columbia Records, Rumble.