Rock Away
1981 studio album by Phoebe Snow
Rock Away is the sixth studio album by American singer-songwriter Phoebe Snow, recorded in 1980 and released in 1981.
Background/recording
Following her massively successful 1974 self-title debut album, Phoebe Snow had seen her fortunes dwindle over four subsequent albums over four subsequent years. In 1979, rather than recording the fifth and final album due to Columbia Records, Snow had asked the label for release. Snow negotiated with Polydor Records in the spring of 1980, but would sign a two-album deal with newly formed Mirage Records in October 1980, having reportedly commenced recording sessions for her sixth studio album over the summer.
Snow's aspiration for her album Rock Away was what had been the failed aspiration for Snow's 1978 Against the Grain album - and would remain Snow's purported lifelong aspiration - : to trump her "wintry pop-folk-jazz chanteuse" musical persona with that of a "red-hot blues-and-rock-belting mama". Produced by Greg Ladanyi - who had notably helmed albums by Jackson Browne and Warren Zevon- Rock Away featured Snow covering R&B-style songs - including her personal choice of the Don Covay number "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy" - and vintage Rod Stewart ("Gasoline Alley") as well as introducing three Snow originals (Snow judging that two of the five songs she wrote for the album were subpar). The Snow originals include the title cut which - despite being entitled "Rock Away" - is a "sparse acoustic song [with] a genuine pastoral feel...the only [track] featuring Snow on guitar...significantly, it's the [album's] only understated song".
The majority of recording sessions for Rock Away took place at Manhattan's Power Plant and featured members of Billy Joel's band: Joel's wife Elizabeth Joel was then managing Snow, although that association had ended by the release of Rock Away. "Games", the track released as an advance single in February 1981 was recorded at Record One (LA), featuring such stalwart LA session players as keyboardist Bill Payne, drummer Russ Kunkel, and electric guitarists Danny Kortchmar and Waddy Wachtel.
Critical reception
Rock Away was released in March 1981 to mixed reviews: Jack Lloyd of the Philadelphia Inquirer opined "Miss Snow departs sharply from her long-standing pattern with this one...And the results are generally pleasing.
“Rock Away” enters the record as 1981 studio album by Phoebe Snow. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Rock, Away and studio can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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“Rock Away” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Rock, Away and studio provides the most credible route into that argument.
Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 17, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q107710133. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1980, 1981, 1974 and 1979.
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