Fans aware of
Rita Coolidge's past credentials might have been expecting, or at least hoping, for something more soulful than
Anytime...Anywhere, given her achievements as backing singer for
Joe Cocker,
Eric Clapton,
Stephen Stills, and
Kris Kristofferson. Still, the record had something going for it commercially that her past records lacked, which was being totally in tune with what the soft rock audience wanted in the late '70s. Her ability to round off the edges of soul classics put her remake of
Jackie Wilson's "(Your Love Has Lifted Me) Higher and Higher" at number two in the pop charts, and helped lift this album -- which included another, smaller hit soul remake with "The Way You Do the Things You Do" -- into the Top Ten. Those two songs, as well as a Top Ten single cover of
Boz Scaggs' "We're All Alone," were all on this LP, which presents something like a milder variation of
Linda Ronstadt's ability to interpret songs by a variety of pop and soul songwriters. Also on board were
the Bee Gees' "Words,"
Sam Cooke's "Good Times,"
Kristofferson's "Who's to Bless and Who's to Blame," and
Crazy Horse guitarist
Danny Whitten's "I Don't Want to Talk About It," while
Booker T. Jones' presence helped give the record some genuine R&B feeling. While there was also the feeling that
Coolidge wasn't belting it out to the earthiest extent of her capabilities, the slickness of the production combined with her easy-on-the-ear vocals to yield an album that got an enormous amount of radio airplay, and was by far the highest-selling effort of her career. ~ Richie Unterberger