The World Famous Ultimate Twang: Classic Album Review-Deborah Allen "Cheat The Night"

Classic Album Review-Deborah Allen “Cheat The Night”

Back in the 1980’s, someone at RCA Records came up with the idea of the mini-LP. An album of only 6 songs, that could be sold at a lower price than a full album, and used mainly to promote the label’s new artists, hoping to increase their sales and recognition, as the first half of the 1980’s proved to be a rather difficult time for labels to break new country artists on the radio. This was a way, it was thought, to work around that.

One of their first mini-LP releases was Deborah Allen’s “Cheat The Night”, from 1983. Deborah was a

singer-songwriter who in my opinion, had one of the best voices to ever come out of Nashville’s recording studios. Unfortunately, her hit making career was relatively short, as she only scored six top ten hits, including three electronically dubbed duets with the late Jim Reeves. By the end of 1984, her career as a relevant vocalist was over, as she would score only one more country top forty hit, afterwards, 1993’s “Rock Me (In The Cradle Of Love)”.

As for the “Cheat The Night” album, it contained all three of Deborah’s solo top ten hits, and would also be her highest charting album, reaching the top ten.

“Baby I Lied” begins the collection, and is the song that most people will best remember of Deborah’s. A top five country hit, as well as climbing as high as the mid-twenties on the pop charts, it’s a solid power ballad, that even today, really isn’t that country, arrangement-wise, but an outstanding performance.

“Cheat The Night”, the title cut, is next. Worthy of being a title cut, it’s as good as any of the three singles on the disc. Great ballad, with a top notch melody and good lyrics. Easily could have been a single, had they so chosen.

“Fool’s Paradise” is a nice song, not anything that necessarily will be memorable, but something that one may tend to at least partially pay attention to.

Side 2 begins with “I Hurt For You”. During the summer of 1984, it would become Deborah’s sixth and final (including the three Jim Reeves duets) top ten hit. Probably the weakest of the three singles, but not a bad track. The vocal work, as it is on the rest of the package, is outstanding and makes the track better than what the song, itself, really is.

“What’s The Matter With Me” is actually one of the better album cuts I’ve heard, since doing these reviews, it’s an outstanding track that holds up exceptionally well after twenty-seven years. Tempo-wise, it falls somewhere between mid and up, and as usual, Deborah’s vocals are top notch.

The disc wraps with “I’ve Been Wrong Before”, which was actually her highest charting single, peaking at number two in spring, 1984. The most up tempo song on the disc, I’ve thought this was a great song since it’s release. In fact, somewhere, I have the original 45 rpm that I purchased when it was a hit. An outstanding pairing of lyrics and melody, it’s definitely a track to either A: reacquaint yourself with… or B: experience for the first time.

This album has not been issued on CD or MP3 download, but there seems to be numerous used vinyl copies available, online, including several “still sealed”. Pricing seems to be anywhere from $3 to about $15.

While I understand the purpose behind the idea of the mini-LP, I still have to say, though, that when this album ends, I’m actually a bit disappointed, because had this been a full album, with four more songs of comparable quality to the six on here, this could easily be a 5 out of 5 album. As it is, I can only go 3.5 out of 5, because of the small amount of music. But that is only my opinion. Yours may be different, and if it is, I’d love to know.