Steve Noonan

Steve Noonan, an early peer of Jackson Browne on the contemporary scene, actually reached record stores first when Elektra issued his self-titled album in 1968. That collection included four Browne compositions plus a single Noonan-Browne collaboration. Noonan never followed it with another LP, whereas Browne, whose own debut arrived only in the 1970s, went on to major stardom. The contrast is not accidental. Noonan's lone release offered agreeable yet somewhat affected folk-rock-pop songs that echoed the style of another Elektra act from Southern California, Tim Buckley, without matching its quality. A further shortcoming lay in Noonan's vocals, which lacked body and emotional range and therefore suggested he might have thrived more consistently as a writer of material for other performers.

During the mid-'60s the Los Angeles magazine Cheetah singled him out as one of the "Orange County Three," a promising trio of local singer-songwriters. Of the remaining members, Jackson Browne achieved superstardom and Tim Buckley earned lasting cult esteem as a rock vocalist; Noonan, by comparison, slipped into near-total obscurity. Before his solo debut he did share a modest hit, "Buy Me for the Rain," with the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band in 1967, co-written alongside Greg Copeland. Copeland contributed heavily to the Steve Noonan album itself, co-authoring five of its tracks. The three songwriters—Noonan, Copeland, and Browne—worked closely together at the time; Copeland also partnered with Browne on pieces such as "The Fairest of the Seasons," which Nico recorded in the late '60s. Commercial results remained negligible, however, as evidenced by the album's present-day scarcity. Like other modest-selling Elektra folk-rock titles from the 1960s, among them the sole full-length release by Eclection (its self-titled 1968 LP), it has never appeared on CD.