Too Hot To Handle.

Artist: Heatwave
Title: Too Hot To Handle
Year: 1976
Label: Epic
Format: Vinyl LP (Original)
Flwrpt Rating of this Record: 3.75/5.0

Review
This is Heatwave’s debut LP. In short, this record was very successful and earned them respect. It’s a diverse record, but very strict in its genre disciplines throughout. They touch on all sounds from soul love ballads, to disco, to funk, to jazz even. Heatwave had a very buttoned-up sound, very clean and crisp…something I’m usually not drawn into, but they were produced by Rod Temperton, so one cannot help but to fall in love with the music. The lead singer Johnnie Wilder, Jr is another major reason why this album gets major play, his voice had craaaaazy range, as expressed in the classic, “Always and Forever” where he demonstrates his ability to effectively sing in falsetto, tenor, and baritone without flaw! Enjoy the tunes…

Check out the sound!

Always and Forever

• Play

All You Do Is Dial

• Play

Lay It On Me

• Play

Design
The cover is a funky illustration of their record melting on the concrete, obviously there’s a heatwave in town (pun intended). It’s a strong cover, however, the type is not helping out…not playing its part, it makes the cover seem a tad cheesy with the wavy effect added to it. The melting scene itself did the job.

The cover that I have is the US released LP. The group had an alternate cover for the European release of the record which looked like this.

Video

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Additional info on Heatwave