All Four One

After the minor success of Careful, the Motels went back into the studio in early 1981 to record their third album with producer Val Garay. The band at this time consisted of Martha Davis on vocals and guitar, Tim McGovern on lead guitar, Marty Jourard on keyboards, Michael Goodroe on bass and Brian Glascock on drums.

Wanting to stretch the limits as to what they could do artistically and musically, the band recorded some of its darkest and heaviest music to date. McGovern, Davis' boyfriend at the time, clashed with Garay in the studio, and ended up de facto producer and arranger for the album, which was titled Apocalypso. Martha Davis considers this period "the last time the Motels were uninhibited, wild, and not worried about our place on the charts."[2][3]

Neither the band nor Garay ever submitted any of the recordings to Capitol Records while the recording process was underway. When the record company heard the finished product, they rejected it for being "not commercial enough" and "too weird", and Apocalypso was scrapped. The band attempted to go back and re-record the entire album but in the process, Davis and McGovern's relationship dissolved and by December 1981 McGovern was no longer in the band.[4][5]

With McGovern gone, Garay took a different approach with the re-recording process, utilizing studio musicians throughout the album, and molding the final product to a more commercially appealing sound. Several band members were used sparingly or not at all on the final recordings; in particular, studio drummer Craig Krampf replaced Brian Glascock on all tracks, Waddy Wachtel was featured on guitar in place of the departed McGovern, and the bass slot on several tracks was filled by one of two session players in place of Michael Goodroe. Adrian Peritore (who went by the name Guy Perry because his former producer had misspelled his name on an album cover) was hired in late January as an official band member, and played lead guitar on some of the tracks. Six Apocalypso tracks were completely re-recorded for the new album, while four new tracks were added (including the hit "Take the L", and a cover of the Goffin/King song "He Hit Me (It Felt Like a Kiss)"). The album was renamed All Four One because the band had recorded four albums but one would not be released, and because the four remaining members had stayed together to complete the album. It was released on April 5, 1982, by Capitol Records.[4]

Despite its rough beginnings, All Four One was the first U.S. hit album for The Motels, and was the band's best selling album. The first single from All Four One was "Only the Lonely", which reached No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 27 on the Adult Contemporary chart,[6] as well as No. 6 on the Billboard Top Tracks chart. The song "Mission of Mercy" also received enough airplay to reach No. 23 on the Top Tracks chart.[7][8] In addition, two other singles, "Take the L" and "Forever Mine", also managed to reach the Billboard Hot 100.[5] The album's release coincided with the emergence of MTV, and music videos were produced for both "Only the Lonely" and "Take the L". Davis won an award in the Best Performance in a Music Video category at the American Music Awards in 1982 for her performance in the "Only the Lonely" video.[9]

Apocalypso was eventually released in August 2011.[2]

All songs written by Martha Davis, except where noted.