Ranking the Studio Albums: Return to Forever

Join host Pete Pardo as he ranks the studio albums of legendary jazz-fusion legends Return to Forever, led by the acclaimed keyboard maestro Chick Corea. #returntoforever #chickcorea
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[alder]

Cheers Pete! My favorite Jazz Fusion band for sure. Al Di Meola savage guitar player, Stanley Clarke my favorite Fusion bass player, Lenny White great drummer second to Billy Cobham and Chick Corea one of the best keyboard players ever. Saw them twice and blown away both times. Agree no vocals required for RTF.
7) Return To Forever
6) Light As a Feather
5) Musicmagic
4) Hymn of the Seventh Galaxy
3) Where Have I Known You Before
2) No Mystery
1) Romantic Warrior

[diannecarpenter]

Wow!! I've never heard of this band until now. I gave Return to Forever a listen and they have a unique sound. Thank you for mentioning Return to Forever. 🎤🎸🎵🥁

[paull]

Light As A Feather's been one of my go-to albums for decades.

[jeffplus]

Don't forget to rank Weather Report.

[Jellybeantiger]

I love Flora Purim, her vocals work great within the context of the music.

[rightchordleadership]

Great show Pete! Thanks for showing some love for the legendary RTF!

[photopicker]

Return to Forever blew the lid off the world as we once knew it. Saw them on TV. DiMeola was 19.

[danielberrettini]

I knew this band in your video of favorite jazz fusion albuns and since then I have listened a lot. Amazing band!!!

[GlorryGaming]

Im in college and just recently got into Return to Forever, and as someone who played piano and keyboards in many jazz bands with my friends throughout high school I absolutely love them! I’ve been keeping up with your vids recently Pete so this one was just perfect timing for me. I enjoyed listening to your commentary about them, keep it real 👍

[rockism]

Thank you so much for reviewing this! One of my favourite bands of Jazz Fusion, I do like so much Light As A Feather but agree with you about the vocals, Romantic Warrior/Seventh Galaxy are my favourites without any doubt, the rest of the discography is equally enjoyable.

[buffalosoldier]

Wow, what memories, my favorite jazz fusion band, saw them while growing up in San Francisco maybe 5 times. Jean Luc Ponty as well. Great review, loved it when the wife came home, good stuff.

[KickflipGnasty]

This was a terrific video Pete! Loved it, thank you!!!

[adampoll]

Discovered Return to Forever (the classic Romantic Warrior) as kid exploring someone's record collection - you can imagine how mind-blowing it would have been. They had given me a bunch of blank tapes and basically said, "Go for it." I played that tape for about 15 years 😁

[andrecito]

Wonderful work, Pete. Your number one is mine also. Waiting for WR, Mahavishnu, Lifetime.

[Dave-mbkb]

Pete, your top 4 is the same as mine, and for the same reason. Of the 4 my favorite is whichever one I'm listening to at the time.

I saw them in 2008 when they got back together. What an amazing show with the classic lineup of Corea, Clarke, White and DiMeola.

Absolutely fantastic music, thanks for shining some light on these guys.

[ellielovelace]

Hey pete! Just gotta say I found your channel a couple weeks ago when I got suggested your Hawkwind rankings video. I LOVE LOVE LOVE what you're doing here and appreciate such rapid fire uploads during lockdown. Giving me stuff to do! :D

[rebeccassweetmusic]

I really love your channel, I've been following your favorite albums of the year vids and been commenting my favs on every video. I'm 21 going on 22 in August, and I always take pride in finding good music that features top-notch musicians with good musicianship. Your taste in music is almost similar to mine. Personally, I like Weather Report more than Return to Forever because they're a bit more jammy. But thanks for recommending No Mystery. As you talked about Excerpt from the First Movement of Heavy Metal, I went to my Spotify and listened to it. That song is AWESOME!!! \m/. I really hope that you do a Ranking the Studio Albums: Weather Report next. I'm big into Weather Report when Jaco Pastorius was in the band.

[ziggylayneable]

You remind me of my dad Pete even though we're close in age(I'm 50).I absolutely love your taste in music because it's almost the same as mine man.we go all over the spectrum and we loved every minute of it. You're doing return to forever
We were doing Genesis Peter Gabriel era a couple weeks ago. I am so glad I found this channel.I'm going to find the newspaper article they did on my father so I can show you a picture of his CD collection. My dad has over 30, 000 CD's.... He's kind of a"mini celebrity"here in Eastern Pennsylvania.

[georgelamie]

My ranks: 7. Musicmagic
6. Return to Forever
5. Light as a Feather
4. No Mystery
3. Where Have I Known You Before
2. Hymn of the Seventh Galaxy
1. Romantic Warrior

[sheldoninst]

Great list... I’m gonna listen to “Hymn..” and “No Mystery...” as per your recommendation!

After having the opportunity to see RTF during their last tour, I was able to go backstage and meet the guys... Stanley Clarke was cordial, Frank was cool, Chick was really nice and sort of hippieish with his expressions, and Jean Luc was super nice and very talkative.

I was especially interested to ask these guys questions as it related to their contemporaries in other fusion and especially prog bands... Chick mentioned he did listen to prog guys and mentioned that he was also honored to have a back and forth of influences particularly with prog bands... I also asked what he thought of some of the “competition fusion bands”, mainly the Dixie Dregs and Happy The Man (although the Dregs were a bit more eclectic and slightly more prog rock)... Chick’s response was “sure, we were all friends even though we haven’t spoke in a while”.

On this same topic, Jean Luc interceded by mentioning that he follows Mark O’Connor (Dregs violinist on “Industry Standard”) and thought that Mark is one of the best in the world, especially mentioning Mark’s violin schools.

Jean Luc also talked about Scott Henderson (who was in the CK electric band) but had a falling out with Chick.... Jean Luc still said he maintains a friendship with Scott Henderson.

Very interesting guys indeed...