France Joli - Epic Albums

Epic Albums

Joli's Epic debut Attitude (1983) was produced by Pete Bellotte; Giorgio Moroder was credited as executive producer. The album personnel included Martin Page on electric guitar, Page's Q-Feel sideman Brian Fairweather on electric bass and Richie Zito on electric bass and electric guitar: Zito also performed arranging duties. The tracks included Joli's original "Dumb Blond" (co-written with Daniel Vail) and a remake of the Four Tops' "Standing in the Shadows of Love" which featured Gladys Knight's backing group the Pips; the latter was a moderate club success in tandem with the cuts "Girl in the 80s" and "Blue Eyed Technology" but despite a performance by Joli on "Solid Gold" the single "Girl in the 80s" - written by Jay Ferguson and Deborah Neal - garnered no evident mainstream interest.

Joli's next Epic release was Witch Of Love (1985) produced by George Duke: prior to the album's release Joli had performed the Duke-penned track "Party Lights" at the Yamaha Music Festival in 1984 and had won the Grand Prix. The title cut of Witch of Love was a Joli-Vail composition as was the track "What About Me". Witch of Love featured probably the two tracks Joli ever recorded that had the strongest credentials in terms of songwriters: Billy Steinberg and Tom Kelly contributed "In the Darkness" while "Love Always Finds a Way" was courtesy of Tom Snow and Cynthia Weil. However as with Attitude the choice for single was a Ferguson-Neal composition: the rather quirky "Does He Dance", which again failed at US radio - although it did become a Canadian airplay item - while becoming a moderate club hit boosted by a remix by Shep Pettibone.

The commercial failure of both of her Epic album releases led to the label dropping Joli who spent the next ten years with her career focused on performing rather than recording.

In 2011, Gold Legion.com digitally remastered both albums and released them on CD. Along with bonus tracks of the 12 inch dance version, it comes with a beautifully designed 12 page booklet with liner notes detail the story of this album as told by France Joli.