CBS 1975 / Think Like A Key 2025
Undiminished delights: English warbler’s debut album resurfaces enhanced and expanded for its five-decade anniversary reissue.
Kid In A Big World
There could be many reasons for the Beeb to refuse to play a song, but to consider an upbeat number too depressing? However, that was what happened with a cut which introduced John Howard to the public, with a follow-up single flopping in its wake. This is why, despite having the voice, the looks and the talent as both writer and performer, John failed to become as big as other singing pianists, Eric Carmen or, closer to home, Gilbert O’Sullivan, and saw his next efforts, including pieces directed by Trevor Horn, vanish into obscurity. They would get dusted off years later, after Howard, having explored the A&R aspect of show business, returned to the creative fray and, later on, celebrated a semicentennial point of his career with "For Those That Wander By" only to decide “Kid In A Big World” must emerge afresh too. And now, newly remastered and given deeper context via bonus tracks, the classic record, produced by THE SHADOWS’ Tony Meehan and featuring members of ARGENT, returns in a shimmer of glory.
The aforementioned “sad” song, the finely orchestrated “Goodbye Suzie” – as tremulously gorgeous as best quasi-serenades go and as soaring as “The Flame” will turn further down the line – opens and close the proceedings with two different mixes, the previously released one favoring the artist’s own acoustic ivories and the original variant emphasizing the brass, yet it’s jovial ditties like “Family Man” that shine the brightest light on John’s handling vocals and his delicate, if firm, grip on melodies and lyrics. While Howard may have wanted to rope in older listeners with the operetta-styled “Maybe Someday In Miami” and the cosmically nostalgic “Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner” or with the middle-of-the-road “Gone Away” and “Spellbound” which highlight the scope of his emotional range, “Missing Key” aims for ageless balladry, and “Deadly Nightshade” for eternal ebullience, so when the titular piece brings intimacy to the fore to reach for the skies the audience should embrace this lost-innocence offering with a lot of gratitude.
Still, the groovy B-side “Third Man” adds eccentricity to John’s palette, and a smattering of story-based demos – including two full-band efforts, the bubbling “Small Town, Big Adventures” and faux-elegiac “Pearl Parade (For Fred And Ginger)” – enriches an aficionado’s understanding of this artist, and resentment at the fate that misguided his greatness for so long. “Kid In A Big World” is a gem worth discovering and cherishing.
*****
