Although
Jackrabbit Slim
was
Steve Forbert
's best-selling album, containing his only Top 40 hit,
"Romeo's Tune,"
and his only other chart single,
"Say Goodbye to Little Jo,"
it took
Nemperor
(formerly part of
CBS
, now part of
Sony
) 17 years to put it out on CD (on September 3, 1996). It sounds as good as it did before, thanks both to
Forbert
's excellent songwriting (also included:
"January 23-30, 1978,"
one of his best diary songs) and to
John Simon
's production. In a newly added note,
says
Simon
was a late addition, after his producer was stolen by
Barbra Streisand
. If he means
Gary Klein
, who handled
Streisand
's 1979
Wet
album, one can only concluded that he traded up.
, whose previous credits included
the Band
, understood
's folk/rock/pop style perfectly, making this the best marriage of artist and producer on what is also the artist's best material. ~ William Ruhlmann