Why Capitol Records shelved Mink DeVille's 1980 masterpiece

Mink DeVille : This Must Be The Night

[Purchase]

At the end of 1980 when Rolling Stone critics came up with their list of the 5 best albums of the year there were the usual suspects: The Clash's London Calling, Bruce Springsteen's The River, Talking Heads Remain in Light, Captain Beefheart's Doc at the Radar Station and one more album that time has since forgotten, Mink DeVille's Le Chat Bleu. 

Recorded in Paris with Elvis Presley's former rhythm section, and with some songs co-written by the legendary Doc Pomus  ("Save the Last Dance For Me","Can't Get Used to Losing You") Le Chat Bleu combines standard rockers like "This Must Be The Night", "Savoir Faire" and "Lipstick Traces with melodramatic cabaret songs like fan favorite "Heaven Stood Still". Deville says the music of Edith Piaf was one of the reasons he chose to record to Paris.

Yeah partially, but it was for the chance to work with some incredible people as well. Charles Dumont who had written a lot of the music for Edith, and Doc Pomus. You know the first day I walked into the studio and they were working with an orchestra, and I heard the strings playing one of my songs. I had to go into the bathroom and shed a tear. Seeing these guys playing their instruments, with long white hair hanging down over their collars, looking like what classical musicians are supposed to look like, doing a song I wrote, really got to me.

The album went well over budget. Capitol Records had no idea how to market the Le Chat Bleu  so the record company delayed its American release. "It says something about the state of the American record business—something pathetic and depressing—that Willy DeVille's finest album fell on deaf ears at Capitol," wrote Kurt Loder of Rolling Stone in his review of the album that year.

DeVille told Leap in the Dark :  

On Le Chat Blue we had all these great people involved, you know, and we thought we had something great. I came back to America, and my label at that time said, “Well, we think we should put it on the shelf for a while.” This was right before Christmas for God's sake when you know people are going to be buying stuff, so I asked them what the problem was. 

They said they had never heard anything like it before and didn't know what to do with it. We had Charles Dumont, Elvis's goddamned rhythm section, and they say they've never heard anything like it.I was heartbroken and angry. Finally Maxine Schmidt from my distributor in France (EMI Paris) phones and he says, “Willy what's going on?" So I told him. He said don't worry we'll release it over here. We did, and then it became a matter of not what are we going to do with Willy Deville, but who the hell let him get away. As an import it was wracking up great sales here. Capitol finally went and released a copy of it, but never did too much work on it."

Deville's career would never take off despite his enormous talent. Drugs certainly played a role. But so did bad management. And decisions like the one Capitol Records made.