Wendy Waldman - Gypsy Symphony (1974)

Marrying Waldman's sound with the inestimable Muscle Shoals musicians, Gypsy Symphony is a funky, shimmering delight, and other artists weren't slow to notice. "My Love Is All I Know," "The Good Love" and "Mad Mad Me" were recorded by Melissa Manchester, Percy Sledge and Maria Muldaur, respectively. The latter, in particular, showcases Waldman as a more accessible, more accommodating Laura Nyro, and possibly a more deft pianist, too. Most compositions on the record flaunts unexpected chord progressions, adventurous time signatures, snappy horn charts and a maverick spirit that should have shone brightly among some of the bland embarrassments emerging from the West Coast scene at the time; a shame, then, that not many people noticed. ~by Charles Donovan