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My home state of Oregon is not exactly a musical hotbed to put it mildly….
Quarterflash is one of the rare groups to make it out of the rain of Oregon to find success on the Billboard Charts.
The Group was formed in 1980 in Portland after the merger of the groups, Seafood Mama and Pilot. For some reason, they kept the name Seafood Mama.
Since you don’t have any old Seafood Mama casettes or albums laying around, you know that they eventually renamed themselves Quarterflash. (Good move!)
The group released their debut album, Quarterflash, in 1981. It produced the hit “Harden my Heart” which hit #3 on the Billboard Top-40 Charts. It would be the most successful single in their career.
At that time, Quarterflash was:
Rindy Ross – Vocals, Saxophone
Marv Ross – Guitar
Jack Charles – Guitar
Rick DiGiallonardo – Keyboards
Rich Gooch – Bass
Brian David Willis – Drums
Their follow-up single “Find another Fool” reached #16 on the Billboard Charts.
In 1982, they sang the theme to the Ron Howard directed film “Night Shift“.
In 1983 they released their second album, Take another Picture, which produced the hit “Take me to Heart” which peaked at #14 on the Billboard Charts.
They released their third album Back into Blue in 1985. It did not produce any Top-40 hits but did produce a minor hit with “Talk to Me“.
The group broke up and disbanded until 1990.
In 1990, Rindy and Marv Ross hired new backing musicians and recorded a new studio album but it did not find any commercial success. Again, the group disbanded.
In 2008, Rindy and Marv Ross released a new album under the Quarterflash name, “Goodbye Uncle Buzz“
We had Nu Shooz too.
Hey, fellow Oregonian!! The 1990 album you refer to without naming it is “Girl in the Wind”. Mindy & Company lived a few houses down from my wife’s aunts place in NE at that time. Really close to home, so to speak. I found out Quarterflash had rented a Chateau in France, and recorded an album there, but could not find it anywhere. I called KINK FM, and they told me it was not released in the states. Enter Music Millenium. They can get anything for you! Without hearing a song from it, I had to special order it , and wait a full week (can you imagine that in this Itunes age???), and to this day, it’s the most I’ve ever paid for any recorded music I own (I came close on a rare Beatles 1st album 1st edition mono at Als’ in gladstone), but I paid $23.95. I remember that number. CD’s were going for what, $3.99 then? But I wanted this CD in the worst way (OCD anyone??). Now to the review. Mixed. Some good, not so good, and then, a jewel. One of the best, if not the best, love songs I’ve ever heard, “Is it any Wonder”. If you’ve never heard this song (and since the album was never released in the US, you probably have not), it’s worth the $23.95 all by itself. I’m a guy, and it gives me tingles…… sounds a little weenie, but just being honest. Find this song, and give it a listen, Mindy never did better.
Your Blog is great, lovin’ it!!!! back to reading….
Amazing sax player, she was gorgeous too!