As requested, here’s one of the rarest, buried ’80s treasures and undeservedly obscure records from the era: “Guess What?”, the 1987’s album from VIENNA, formerly known as Wolf & Wolf. The mastermind of this album is multi-instrumentalist Peter Wolf – not to be confused with the American musician of the same name.
This Peter Wolf born in Austria and moved to the States becoming a reputed session keyboardist – recorded on many Frank Zappa albums, Heart, Starship, Kenny Loggins, etc, and later a successful producer (Santana, Paul Young). He also formed with his wife, vocalist Ina Wolf, the duo Wolf & Wolf releasing a couple of LP’s in the early ’80s.
By the mid-80s Peter re-named the band as VIENNA, and composed, recorded and produced “Guess What?” with a shining, big label (Warner Bros) production and the great and only Dann Huff playing guitars.
This is a Hi-Tech AOR little gem with very good songwriting, smooth vocals, and refined arrangements. Call it synth-pop, mainstream rock&pop, whatever – this is pure ’80s.
“A Digital Recording” / “DDD”, everything in “Guess What?” sounds perfect – perhaps for many listeners too much ‘clinical’ – but fans of Hi-Tech AOR will luv this: the booming electronic drums, the synths all over, the clean female vocals…
And dude, this album has a fantastic guitar work – that ‘cat-scratching’ awesome rhythm guitars and the golden solos – courtesy of Mr. Huff.
As said, Eighties suckers will fall in love with VIENNA’s “Guess What?”.
Warner did nothing to promote the album, even only a few CD copies were pressed, and “Guess What?” became a much sought after rarity. The only other country seeing a CD release was Japan – ironically, now it’s easier to find a Japanese used CD (not cheap) than the American CD pressing.
Highly Recommended
01 – Talking With The Heart
02 – Vienna
03 – Guess What?
04 – I Love Changes
05 – Just A Little Girl
06 – An Eye For An Eye
07 – Somewhere In A Corner (Hides My Heart)
08 – The Best Ones Are Taken
09 – Kisses On The House
10 – July
Lead & Backing Vocals – Ina Wolf
Keyboards, Bass, Drums, Synths, Vocals, Producer – Peter Wolf
Guitar – Dann Huff
Rhythm Guitar on 9 – Ray Parker, Jr.
Fretless Bass on 1– Patrick O’Hearn
Backing Vocals – Dennis Lambert, Maxine Waters, Phil Perry, Siedah Garrett
VIENNA – Guess What? [Japanese CD version] (1987)
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