Clouds Album Discography
Clouds was
a TK pop subsidiary with a miscellaneous roster of artists. Clouds released a total of twelve singles and
ten albums.
The first single and first album on the label were by rock singer/pianist Chi Coltrane. Chi had had a #17 pop hit with "Thunder and Lightning" in fall, 1972 [Columbia 45640], but nothing much since. Chi was born in Racine, Wisconsin, and took up the piano at age 7. By 1966, the 17-year-old was playing in clubs in Chicago. From there, it was to Los Angeles to study for two years at Salter School of Music. She then toured and made appearances in Las Vegas, Chicago, and the Bahamas, and when "Thunder and Lightning" hit, the 23-year-old with long blonde hair was invited on television shows, including the Tonight Show, Mike Douglas, Merv Griffin, and the Midnight Special. She was also invited down to Rio as a guest for the Brazilian Music Festival. After two albums (and some Greatest Hits compilations) and four singles on Columbia, they decided not to renew her contract. She signed with T.K.'s new Clouds subsidiary, and recorded an album backed by luminaries such as Jennifer Warnes, but to no avail. Her single, "What's Happening to Me (It's a Spell)" [Clouds 10] didn't chart, and neither did her album, Road to Tomorrow [Clouds 8801]. So she moved to Europe, where she was voted Best Female Artist for two years straight. She released several albums in Europe in the 1980s that charted there. She returned to the U.S. in the 1990s and has recently been recording and touring again.
The second single on Clouds was by blue-eyed soul singer/songwriter Bobby Caldwell, "What You Won't
Do for Love" [Clouds 11], which turned out to be the label's biggest hit, reaching #9 on the
Billboard Hot-100 and #6 on the R&B charts in early 1979. He followed that with three more chart
hits for Clouds, and five more for other labels after Clouds closed down. His later Clouds hits included
"Can't Say Goodbye" [Clouds 15, 5/79, #103 pop/#36 R&B], "My Flame" [Clouds 18, 9/79, #40 R&B],
and "Coming Down from Love" [Clouds 21, 4/80, #42 pop/#28 R&B]. Caldwell was born in Manhattan to
parents who were in show business, but grew up in Memphis and Miami. In addition to his own chart
hits, and his songs which have appeared in several movie soundtracks, he has written songs for
Chicago, Boz Scaggs, Peter Cetera & Amy Grant, Neil Diamond, and Al Jarreau. Caldwell recorded two
albums for the Clouds label, Bobby Caldwell [Clouds 8804] and Cat in the Hat [Clouds
8810]. He is currently still touring, and is very popular in Japan. (Note: This is not the same Bobby
Caldwell who was the drummer in the groups Captain Beyond and Armageddon and backed Johnny
Winter and Rick Derringer.)
Ish "Angel" Ledesma, guitarist/vocalist and leader of the Latin disco/rock/funk group Foxy, had three singles and an album on Clouds, attributed to just "Ish." Although Ish had scored chart hits with Foxy, and with other groups later, his time with Clouds yielded no such success. His first two singles included "Faster Than a Speeding Bullet"/"Don't Stop" [Clouds 13] and "Julie"/"Don't Stop" [Clouds 16], which were all included on his album Ish [Clouds 8808], released in 1979. In 1981, just as the label was closing down, Ish had the last single, "Number One" [Clouds 22]. Later in the 1980s, Ish formed and had top-30 hits with the groups Oxo ("Whirly Girl") and Company B ("Fascinated").
Clouds 14 was a single by pianist/vocalist Steve Gibb, "Don't Blame It on Love"/"Whiskey Dreams and
Nursery Rhimes", taken from his album Let My Song [Clouds 8807]. Neither charted. Nor did a
novelty single offering, "Tip Toe to the Gas Pumps"/"Hickey on Your Neck" by Tiny Tim [Clouds 17], out
in time for the 1979 gas crisis. Unfortunately, by this time Tiny Tim's shtick had worn somewhat thin.
Rock guitar legend Mike Bloomfield recorded a late 1970s curio album for Clouds called Captain Talent and the Originals [Clouds 8805, 1978]. For the record, the group included Michael Bloomfield (vocals, guitars, keyboards, percussion, background vocals), Bob Jones (vocals, guitar, drums, percussion, background vocals); Mark Naftalin (accordion, keyboards, synthesizer); Clay Cotton (clavinet, keyboards); Ted Ashford (keyboards), saxophonists Ray Loecklie, Dennis Marcellino, Ray Loeckle and Jerry Martini; trumpeters Max Haskett and Cal Lewiston; trombonists Andrew Goldstein and Chuck Bennett; and vocalists Marcia Ann Taylor, Anna Rizzo, David Shorey, Roger Troy and Nick Gravenites. It was recorded in San Francisco, and includes an unexpected instrumental version of Leo Sayer's 1977 hit "When I Need You."
The last artist with both a single and an album on Clouds was Freddy Henry, who had "Tell Her" (a duet with Betty Wright)/"Elayne" [Clouds 19] as well as the album Get It Out in the Open [Clouds 8809].
Surprisingly, Clouds put out three albums which didn't merit any singles, all by obscure artists: April Fool by Horrel McGann [Clouds 8802], the eponymous Wild Oats [Clouds 8803], and Eye of the Tiger by Tiger Tiger [Clouds 8806]. The label closed down in 1981 with the rest of the T.K. empire.
