Willy Deville
DeVille recorded two albums for Atlantic, 1981’s Coup de Grce (produced by Jack Nitzsche) and 1983’s Where Angels Fear to Tread. Both albums featured saxophonist Louis Cortelezzi and had a full-throated Jersey Shore sound that evoked Bruce Springsteen and Southside Johnny. Wrote Thom Jurek about Coup de Grce:”The band’s sound combined with Nitzsche timeless production style, which combined with that voice to create a purer rock and roll noise than even Bruce Springsteen’s in 1981.” Jurek wrote about Where Angels Fear to Tread:
DeVille and his band were burning through the pages of rock and R&B history (there are a couple of doo wop and New Orleans-flavored cuts as well) with raw swagger and astonishing musicianship. Why they didn’t catch and George Thorogood and Southside Johnny (briefly) did is a mystery that will be up to 1980s historians to figure out.
The albums DeVille recorded for Atlantic sold well in Europe but not in the United States. Explained Kenny Margolis, who played piano and accordion in DeVille’s early 1980s bands, “I don think the American public had a chance to experience him because in America at that time you had MTV telling you what to like. Europe had not had MTV at that point and they were very open to different music.” DeVille said about his years with Atlantic Records, “Ahmet Ertegn and I got along, but we never got anything done.”
Sportin’ Life
In 1985, DeVille recorded Sportin’ Life for the Polydor label. As he had done on Le Chat Bleu, DeVille wrote some songs with the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame member Doc Pomus. The album was recorded at the Muscle Shoals Sound Studio in Alabama with DeVille and Duncan Cameron producing. The song talian Shoes was a hit in Europe, but some critics thought the album was overproduced. Wrote Allmusic: “Its sound is steeped in mid-’80s studio gloss and compression that often overwhelms quality material.” However, David Wild of Rolling Stone praised Sportin’ Life, calling it “[t]he most modern, polished sound of (Willy DeVille’s) career… Pushed to center stage, DeVille delivers, singing with more passion and more personality than ever before”.
In 1986, DeVille filed for bankruptcy as part of what Billboard called “a major restructuring of his career.” He fired his personal manager Michael Barnett and announced that he would “put Mink DeVille to bed” and start a solo career.
“Storybook Love” collaboration with Mark Knopfler
Although Willy DeVille had been recording and touring for ten years under the name Mink DeVille, no members of his original band had recorded or toured with him since 1980’s Le Chat Bleu. Beginning in 1987 with the album Miracle, DeVille began recording and touring under his own name. He told an interviewer, “Ten years with the band was enough for Mink DeVille; everyone was calling me ‘Mink.’ I thought it was about time to get the name straight.”
“Storybook Love”
Sample of “Storybook Love,” which was nominated for an Academy Award for best song in 1987.
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DeVille recorded Miracle in London with Mark Knopfler, the Dire Straits guitarist, serving as his sideman and producer. He said, “It was Mark (Knopfler) wife Lourdes who came up with the idea (to record Miracle). She said to him that you don’t sing like Willy and he doesn’t play guitar like you, but you really like his stuff so why don’t you do an album together?” “Storybook Love”, a song from Miracle and the theme song of the movie The Princess Bride, was nominated for an Academy Award in 1987; DeVille performed the song at that year’s Academy Awards telecast.
Knopfler heard (“Storybook Love”) and asked if I knew about this movie he was doing. It was a Rob Reiner film about a princess and a prince. The song was about the same subject matter as the film, so we submitted it to Reiner and he loved it. About six or seven months later, I was half asleep when the phone rang. It was the Academy of Arts and Sciences with the whole spiel. I hung up on them! They called back and Lisa (his wife) answered the phone. She came in to tell me that I was nominated for “Storybook Love.” It’s pretty wild. It’s not the Grammys it’s the Academy Awards, which is different for a musician. Before I knew it, I was performing on the awards show with Little Richard. It was the year of Dirty Dancing, and they won.
In New Orleans
In 1988, DeVille relocated from New York to New Orleans, where he found a spiritual home. “I was stunned”, he said in a 1993 interview. “I had the feeling that I was going back home. It was very strange… I live in the French Quarter, two streets