The Album ´Deep River`
The album ´Deep River` contains twelve original recordings of songs, written by Peter Vale, which went on to be big hits for top international artists. The majority of these were co-written with his long-term writing partner, Mick Leeson. This was an impressive series of song pearls, which helped various artists to career-breaking and often worldwide success.
Besides the original recordings of ´Would I Lie To You` for Charles & Eddie, ´Love Will Keep Us Alive` for the legendary Eagles, ´I’ll Be There` for the father of soul Ray Charles and many other artists‘ cuts, the album also contains a stand-out 2021 pop/soul version of the worldwide 80‘s rock hit ´Take Me Home Tonight` by Eddie Money. There are also four other brand new tracks, which show that Vale is continuing to write songs of quality, especially in the pop/soul genre.
The Cover Artwork
The musician & artist Klaus Voormann, who was born in Berlin but grew up and studied Grafik & Design in Hamburg, is one of the outstanding personalities in pop history, into which he has been drawn as a close friend and companion of the Beatles, bassist with Manfred Mann, John Lennon, Ringo Starr, George Harrison, Carly Simon, Harry Nilsson, Randy Newman, Lou Reed and B.B. King etc, but also as album cover artist for the Bee Gees, Paul McCartney and especially for the Beatles: for his sensational artwork of the Beatles album ´Revolver` Klaus Voormann received the Grammy Award ´Best Album Cover / Graphic` in 1967, a Grammy Award ´Album of the Year` in 1973 for the live album ´The Concert For Bangla Desh`, 2011 a Grammy nomination ´Best Box Of Special Edition Package` for his solo album ´A Sideman’s Journey`. In Germany, Klaus Voormann has also been a highly successful producer of Trio (Da Da Da), Marius Müller-Westernhagen, Heinz-Rudolf Kunze and Nena. In 2018 Voormann received the German ´ECHO Award` for his life’s work.
Klaus Voormann has drawn the covers for the ´Deep River` album and the two single-releases ´Take Me Home Tonight` and ´In A Heartbeat`.
The 1st Single "Take Me Home Tonight"
In the mid-1980’s one particular song made a difference to Vale’s studio career. This song was actually started in 1984 with Pat Benatar in mind. She had just landed a worldwide mega-hit with ´Love Is A Battlefield`. However by chance, the New York producer Richie Zito heard the song and wanted it for his artist Eddie Money, who had just started working on his latest album. Zito even called Ronnie Spector, the famous wife of producer legend Phil Spector, and asked her if she would sing the song’s feature line ´…be my little baby` – a line from the legendary Ronettes record which she sang on originally. She said yes and gave the song that ultimate kick! Eddie Money’s success with the song was not only a number one hit in America, but also stormed the international charts and is still one of the most played songs in America. In 2020, the writers received the BMI 8 Million Plays Award for it, in the hallowed company of Tina Turner’s ´What’s Love Got To Do With It`, Elton John’s ´Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me` and Steve Winwood’s ´Higher Love`!
For the new 2021 version, writer/artist/arranger/producer Peter Vale has succeeded in producing a contemporary pop/soul version of the 1985 recording. Of course it has the famous feature line of the legendary Ronettes ´be my little baby`.
The song ´Take Me Home Tonight` is available on the album- and with a brilliant dance-pop remix version from JEO leading the way as the first single. Listen here …
