Streetlights by Bonnie Raitt

Streetlights, Bonnie Raitt's fourth album, came out on Warner Bros. in 1974, and it's the sound of a label losing patience. After the long, drawn-out sessions for Takin' My Time, Warners pinched the purse to $10,000, the smallest budget she'd ever been handed, then agreed to loosen it only if she hired a producer who knew his way around a hit. She picked Jerry Ragovoy, who had made records with Janis Joplin and Dionne Warwick.

Ragovoy figured all that blues was weighing her down and went for sleek pop polish instead; Raitt hated the idea and went along anyway. So the easygoing, grab-bag charm of her first three records gives way to cleaner arrangements, swelling strings and a pop-and-R&B sheen, and critics would come to hear it as her first real swing at the mainstream. "Angel from Montgomery" is where the gloss falls away and that weathered voice takes over.

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