Won't Change Places

Won't Change Places
Studio album by
ReleasedJanuary 1981
Recorded1980
GenrePop, MOR
LabelPolydor
ProducerAndrew Lloyd Webber
Marti Webb chronology
Tell Me on a Sunday
(1980)
Won't Change Places
(1981)
I'm Not That Kind of Girl
(1983)

Won't Change Places is an album by Marti Webb released in 1981 as a follow-up to Tell Me on a Sunday.

As with her previous album, the recording was produced by Andrew Lloyd Webber for the Polydor label. It included a recording of "Don't Cry for Me Argentina" from the musical Evita in which Webb was appearing as Eva Perón at the time.

The album featured the singles "Your Ears Should Be Burning Now" and "I've Been in Love Too Long", and was released in early 1981. Of these, only "Your Ears Should Be Burning Now" was a chart hit.[1] Additional singles "Don't Cry For Me Argentina" and "All I Am" (a version of which was also released around the same time by Heatwave on their "Candles" album"[2]) were released in South Africa.[3][4] A few months later, "Unexpected Song", a duet with Justin Hayward, was also released as a single but was not featured on this album.[5] Webb had her own BBC Two special called Won't Change Places, where she performed some of the songs on this album. It featured guests Andrew Lloyd Webber, Paul Nicholas and Rod Argent and was broadcast on 16 February 1981.[6][7]

Reviews for the album were generally positive, with the Daily Mirror writing "Won't Change Places sees the star of Evita performing 10 sensational songs by some of the foremost songwriters including Lynsey De Paul, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Rod Argent, Don Black, Tony Macaulay and Tim Rice. Won't Change Places also includes Marti's hit "Your Ears Should Be Burning Now".[8]

The album was released two years later in the US (Polydor 2442-186) and the American trade magazine Stereo Review reviewed it in May 1983 under the section "Recording of Special Merit", mentioning "All I Am", "Masquerade", "I've Been in Love Too Long" and "Don't" as stand out tracks.[9]

In 2015, Lloyd Webber reused the melody of "I've Been in Love Too Long" as the opening track of School of Rock, "I'm Too Hot for You", albeit with different lyrics.

  1. ^ "MARTI WEBB | full Official Chart History | Official Charts Company". Officialcharts.com. Retrieved 14 February 2019.
  2. ^ "Heatwave - Candles". Discogs.com. 21 November 1980. Retrieved 26 October 2019.
  3. ^ "Marti Webb - Don't Cry For Me Argentina / I've Been In Love Too Long". Discogs.com. 1981. Retrieved 26 October 2019.
  4. ^ "Marti Webb - All I Am / I Won't Change Places". Discogs.com. 1981. Retrieved 26 October 2019.
  5. ^ "ultratop.be - ULTRATOP BELGIAN CHARTS". Ultratop.be. Retrieved 25 July 2018.[dead link]
  6. ^ "Won't Change Places (1981)". Bfi.org.uk. Archived from the original on 24 January 2021. Retrieved 25 July 2018.
  7. ^ "TV Pop Diaries 1981". Tvpopdiaries.co.uk. Retrieved 25 July 2018.
  8. ^ page 3, Daily Mirror, Friday 05 December 1980
  9. ^ Stereo Review, May 1983, review by Peter Reilly, p. 90