At 49,
Jack Jones continued to try to make records that balanced the classic pop he had begun singing in the early 1960s with the contemporary pop/rock that had swamped him soon thereafter. This independent-label release managed a good mix of standards like "You've Changed" and "Here's That Rainy Day," and recent, complementary material such as
Steve Perry's "Foolish Heart" and
Billy Joel's "Leave a Tender Moment Alone." Most promisingly,
Jones had a clutch of custom-written songs, including the title track and two others co-composed by
Gerard Kenny (best known for
Barry Manilow's hit "I Made It Through the Rain"). "I Am a Singer" worked as a straightforward self-description and gave the album something of a theme, followed up on "Wind Beneath My Wings." That song, previously a country and R&B hit, was given a tempered treatment by
Jones that softened the self-serving, disingenuous sentiment of its lyrics. (Two years later,
Bette Midler topped the pop charts with a far less restrained version.)
Kenny's "All Because of Love" was a dramatic ballad that could have had a chance on adult contemporary radio if it had been released by a major label with some promotional muscle. And
Jones even contributed to his own cause, co-writing the Brazilian-flavored "Another Rio." He may have continued to be a man out of time in pop music terms -- too young for the
Frank Sinatra-led classic-pop era of the '50s, too old for the
Barry Manilow-led power ballad era of the '70s -- but
I Am a Singer was a reasonable effort by a still-viable singer trying to bridge a musical gap.