Tiffany’s 2nd Try a Teen-Pop Gem

After teen star Tiffany’s concert tour this year, which exposed her weaknesses as performer, she seemed to be just another flash in the pan. The joke was that the Norwalk lass had better hold on to the royalties from her best-selling debut album because there might not be a lot more royalties.

Surprise!

Tiffany’s second album, “Hold an Old Friend’s Hand,” is a teen-pop gem. It will be released by MCA Records on Monday and it’s a well-crafted, commercial collection several notches better than her debut album, “Tiffany,” which featured three Top 10 singles and sold more than 4 million copies.

Last year Tiffany, then 16, was the target of some vicious critical potshots. Most reviewers regarded the album as a triumph of mediocrity, an unsettling sign that pop was regressing--that bad taste was really in.

But they missed the point. That first album was full of terrific female-oriented teen pop. Sure it’s sappy, simplistic and more than a little sophomoric, but that’s part of the appeal of this grubby little genre. Insightful, poetic lyrics, sophisticated music and powerful, far-ranging vocals have no place in this low-brow brand of pop. Vocal limitations are an integral part of the genre. If she sings too well, she wouldn’t be an Everyteen.

Tiffany’s strength is that she’s a capable singer in the studio, where electronic gadgetry can beef up her thin voice and she has the advantage of retakes. In concert, though, she loses points because she doesn’t sing with much passion and tends to drift off key.

Though Debbie Gibson and Tiffany are often compared, they’re similar only in age and superstar status. Gibson is largely a dance-music artist, while Tiffany is a teen balladeer, in the tradition of Connie Francis and Lesley Gore, former teen-pop queens.

Tiffany doesn’t do anything differently on the new album, though she does show a little more vocal strength. At times, she sounds like a junior-league Stevie Nicks, singing in that soft, sensuous growl and slurring her lyrics in that same sassy way.

The material on the new album, however, is an improvement. These songs--full of adolescent yearning--tune in to the fantasies of teen-age girls even more keenly than the tunes on the first album.

As usual, melodies are a key to the appeal of the material. Songs like “All This Time” and “It’s the Lover (Not the Love)” are swathed in some of the year’s prettiest melodies.

The production, by George Tobin again, deftly plays up sentiment, often so much that some songs border on the maudlin. But that’s what teen pop is all about.

A SECOND SURPRISE: English dance-music singer Samantha Fox is nearly as famous for her topless layouts in the British tabloids as she is for her singing. Dance-music acts usually come and go quickly, but she seemed as if she’d be gone faster than most, despite two big hit singles, “Touch Me” and “Naughty Girls Need Love Too,” on her last album.

However, Fox, too, might be around for a while. Her new album, “I Wanna Have Some Fun,” features at least three outstanding dance tracks and several that are above average.

The best is the title song--produced by Full Force, the New York recording and production unit--which is propelled by a blistering, slightly Latin beat. The hot British team of Stock, Aitken and Waterman also contribute two tracks, including a snappy remake of Dusty Springfield’s “I Only Wanna Be With You.”

Fox’s voice--even enhanced by a studio technique called double-tracking--isn’t much. But then it’s the beat and the producers that really count in dance music.

LIVE ACTION: Tickets for a third Luther Vandross-Anita Baker concert (Dec. 3) at the Los Angeles Sports Arena go on sale Sunday. . . . John Hiatt will be at the Wiltern Theatre on Dec. 15. Tickets available Monday. . . . Second nights have been added at the Roxy for Was (Not Was) on Nov. 22, Concrete Blonde on Nov. 26 and Edie Brickell on Dec. 6. . . . the Mekons headline Bogart’s on Dec. 3, while the Rave-Ups return the same night to the Palomino. . . . Devo has added a second show (Dec. 8) at the Palace. . . . Osamu will be joined by Eliza Gilkyson on Dec. 10 at the Wadsworth Theatre.