AOR fans recognize the name Jon Fiore as the lead vocalist for the band PREVIEW and their 1983’s only, self-titled album. Fiore worked as well as backing singer for a lot of other artists, and his name can be found into the credits on many of the AOR / Melodic Rock releases of ’80s & ’90s.
Meanwhile Jon Fiore wrote his own songs, finally assembled the band FIORE, and during the first half of the Nineties formed a partnership with HAREM SCAREM’s Harry Hess & Pete Lesperance whom helped FIORE to record & release two albums.
As requested, here’s “Today Till Tomorrow“, the first FIORE CD in its Japanese edition including an exclusive bonus track. Produced by Hess & Lesperance – both also performing and involved into the songwriting / arrangements – results not surprisingly that “Today Till Tomorrow” sounds pretty similar to early HAREM SCAREM yet with a more ‘American’ feeling.
The running order into this Japanese edition is different than the European (the album wasn’t released in America), and somehow it works better.
As example of the album’s overall sound & style, “Out Of Love” is an old Harem Scarem track and a very good one for sure. The vocals of Mr. Fiore are a bit grittier than those of Harry Hess. His voice at the time of this recording (mid-Nineties) reminds me a lot of Paul Shortino (Rough Cutt, Quiet Riot).
The quality of the songs is high throughout the whole album but one wouldn’t expect anything less when it’s a well-known fact that many of these tracks are old HS demos. It just makes me wonder why the band haven’t recorded these songs themselves.
Songs like “Anything”, “Don’t Take It Too Fast” and “Corner Of My Mind” are surely better than some of the tracks that have found their way to the second half of the ’90s HS albums.
01 – Whatever I Want
02 – Out of Love
03 – All Along
04 – How Many Times
05 – It Can Only Get Better
06 – Don’t Take It Too Fast
07 – Anything
08 – Today Till Tomorrow
09 – Strong Enough
10 – Someday Soon
11 – Corner of My Mind
12 – Did You Ever Walk Away [Japan Bonus Track]
Jon Fiore – lead vocals
Serge Tremblay – guitars
Doug Elash – bass
Paolo Erme – drums
with:
Harold Hess – keyboards, backing vocals
Pete Lesperance – additional guitars
Darren Smith – additional drums, percussion
Ray Coburn – additional keyboards
Produced by Harry Hess and Pete Lesperance