CoronaVinyl Day 431 (R): The Kenny Rankin Album by Kenny Rankin

For an explanation of CoronaVinyl, click here.

After a nearly two-month hiatus, CoronaVinyl is back.  Most of the construction we were doing is finished, to the point where I can both more easily access my records and turntable, but I am also able to listen to albums without being interrupted by constant hammering or sawing.  Picking up where we left off, today's CoronaVinyl category is "R," and I went with six studio album, 1977's The Kenny Rankin Album.

Rankin was a singer-songwriter.  He was one of the guitarists on Bob Dylan's seminal 1965 album Bringing It All Back Home, and he was also a regular guest on The Tonight Show, appearing more than 20 times.  Most interesting to me is that he was good friends with George Carlin, and he toured with Carlin as Carlin's opening act for about ten years in the '70s and '80s.

This album is kind of schmaltzy and jazzy, with string arrangements.  It definitely has a '70s lounge feel.  It's not something I would necessarily gravitate towards.  About half of the songs are originals, with the others being covers, including The Beatles' "While My Guitar Gently Weeps," Billy Preston (and Joe Cocker's) "You Are So Beautiful," Stephen Bishop's "On and On," and The Rascals' "Groovin'."

Rankin died in 2009 from lung cancer, but the year before, he sang at Carlin's memorial service.

The album is not available on Spotify, but the full album is available on YouTube, so I embedded that below.

Favorite Song on Side 1:  "On and On"
I don't particularly care for any of the songs on Side 1, but I don't particularly care for his cover of Stephen Bishop's "On and On" less than the other four songs.

Favorite Song on Side 2:  "While My Guitar Gently Weeps"
It's a Beatles cover, so that's good enough for me.