Pablo Cruise is a pop rock/soft rock band from San Francisco. Their third album, A Place In The Sun, was released in February 1977 and went Platinum in the U.S. off the success of the first single, “Whatcha Gonna Do?” The title track was also a single, but it wasn’t a hit.
I heard “Whatcha Gonna Do?” once before and didn’t like it, though I forget why. It’s better than I remember, but if I had to guess what I disliked, it would be the vocals. Lead vocals on the album were shared between guitarist David Jenkins and bassist Bud Cockrell, who had a tendency to oversing. He was writing soft rock but he was singing like Roger Daltrey, and it just didn’t blend well. I don’t have any complaints about David, though. His voice sounds a bit like Daryl Hall from Hall & Oates, which works way better with the material on A Place In The Sun. The songs with just David on lead vocals – “Raging Fire,” “Never Had A Love,” and “Atlanta June” – were all excellent. That isn’t to suggest Bud ruins the songs he’s on; they’re still well-written songs. All I’m saying is he should’ve saved that kind of singing for special occasions.
If you can look past that, A Place In The Sun is still worth checking out. But if you’re making a playlist, stick to the songs with just David Jenkins on lead vocals. Oh, and the instrumental album closer, “El Verano.” It’s fantastic.
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