Saturday, March 17, 2018

Video of the Day: Orleans’ ‘Love Takes Time,’ Live, 2013


Others may prefer “Dance With Me” or “Still the One,” but my favorite among the pop band Orleans’ trio of mid-Seventies hits was "Love Takes Time." A fine concert 1991 version in Japan, with keyboardist Larry Hoppen on lead vocal, exists on YouTube. 

But I’ve come around to thinking that this 2013 performance by the group at the Perkins School for the Blind’s “Possibilities Gala” is particularly special. The suicide of Hoppen the year before had, by the time of this appearance, deprived the group of its soaring tenor voice. 

But John Castillo, a powerful sight-impaired alum from the Perkins School, who comes in toward the end of the first verse, fills in admirably; the Perkins Secondary Chorus blends their harmonies smoothly with the group; and the violinist supplies textures that even the original single did not possess. 

I do not know how long it took for Orleans and the Perkins School musicians to rehearse, but the final performance is one of wonder and exhilaration.

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