In Nineteen-Ninety, the approximate model year of the above car, I was a teenager and regular Billboard Magazine music chart devotee. The local newspaper, the Flint Journal, which I delivered, included the top-10 lists of four major charts on a weekly basis in its entertainment section: The Billboard 200 album chart, the Hot 100 singles chart, and the corresponding tallies for R&B/Hip-Hop songs and albums.
Once everyone in my family was done with the paper that day, I would take a scissors to it, cut out those charts, and paste them with Elmer’s glue into a spiral notebook in which I also documented my life. Both popular music and statistics have always interested me, and these music charts which tracked the numerical performance of songs and artists seemed to combine the best of both of these worlds for me.
Ft. Myers, Florida. December 2016.
A trip to one of the area malls in Flint would often involve ducking into a bookstore to search the periodicals for a copy of Billboard magazine, which I would search for my favorite artists and the rest of the chart information that wasn’t printed in the newspaper. I remember 1990 as being a year that I had started to get my sea legs in teenage social settings and really liking the person I saw myself becoming. Much of my income was spent on music around this time, and many songs from that era still bring me great joy and make me feel like the world is yet my proverbial oyster when I hear them today.
One of my favorite musical discoveries from 1990 was English R&B singer Lisa Stansfield, who burst onto the U.S. music scene that year with her soulful, multi-format smash hit, “All Around The World”. I have always liked, listened to, and appreciated all kinds of music, across all genres, which probably had less to do with my own multi-ethnic background than with my use of music as an escape and means of connection to my peers at my very diverse high school. My family didn’t have cable television (which made me consider us relatively “poor”, which we weren’t), so I didn’t have regular access to viewing all the latest music videos and seeing what some singers and bands, both new and old, actually looked like.
When I went to buy this cassette single and saw this alabaster-skinned Caucasian woman with shortly-cropped hair and a couple of kiss curls framing her beautiful face, I thought she might be the second coming of Teena Marie (whose artistry I also love, may she rest in peace), another White, female artist with an authentically soulful voice, sound, and phrasing. Unlike Ms. Marie, though, whose initial singles in the late ’70s didn’t include a picture of her on the cover, leading many listeners to assume she was Black, Ms. Stansfield’s image was front and center on the artwork for both her single and its parent album, “Affection”, the latter of which landed in the top-10 of both the Billboard 200 and R&B/Hip-Hop album charts and was certified RIAA Platinum with sales of over 1,000,000 copies, Stateside.
All three singles chosen for official U.S. release from this debut album were successful, but “All Around The World” probably remains my favorite. Around the time “AATW” peaked at No. 3 on the Hot 100, No. 7 Adult Contemporary, and No. 1 on both the R&B and Dance Club charts, the Cadillac Allanté was a new, prestigious, and very expensive car.
And as the lyrics of this song went, an Allanté sitting in the plate glass-lined showroom of your local, friendly Cadillac dealer had also been basically all around the world before getting there. Before its final assembly had been completed, this car had already traveled more miles (or kilometers) than possibly everyone in some families, combined. Its beautiful, chiseled, tastefully restrained styling came from Pininfarina, which also built the bodies at a dedicated facility about twenty miles outside of Turin, Italy.
The bodies were then flown over 4,600 miles (over 7,400 kilometers) in specially-prepared Boeing 747 airplanes to Hamtramck, that city-within-a-city (Detroit) in Michigan. It was there that they were joined to their domestically designed, sourced and produced drivetrains which, for 1990, included a 200-hp 4.5L V8 and a four-speed automatic transmission. The expense involved in all of this was passed down into a really high price point of entry. The first-year ’87 models started at $54,700 (about $125,000 in 2020), which was within 1% of what Mercedes-Benz was charging for the 560SL roadster against which the Allanté was intended to compete.
Only just over 21,400 Allantés were produced over seven model years, with the final ’93 models being the high water mark for sales, with 4,670 sold that year. If the featured car is a 1990, a year I used because it is both the centermost year of production and also the year of the chart peak of the song to which I’m tying it, then it’s one of about 3,100 units sold that year – a figure which, interestingly enough, is very close to the 3,060 average the Allanté sold for each of its seven model years. By contrast, the 560SL sold an average of over 12,000 cars in each of its four model years in the U.S. between 1986 and ’89.
The Allanté has been covered previously and extensively at Curbside, with great essays on it linked both here and here with a lot of great, factual information about this model’s genesis and relatively short life that was not altogether happy. As for me, though, just seeing one of these in the metal reminds me of when they were new, and the way I had started to feel, as an optimistic, teenaged car fan, that General Motors was going to be getting back to the business of designing and building really exciting cars again.
In the aforementioned hit song by Lisa Stansfield, she begins with the chorus, “‘Been around the world, and I… I… I… I can’t find my baby.” In the Allanté’s case, it had been around the world (from birth), but couldn’t find its buyers, respect, or even its quality at the beginning, though the latter did markedly improve. Sometimes a thing represents much more than what it is on the surface, a kind of intangible feeling. For me, the Allanté will always remain a beautiful, desirable machine, much like “Affection” remains a timeless album for me. Both remind me of a time when it felt like truly great things were just around the corner… for General Motors, for popular music, and for myself.
Rogers Park, Chicago, Illinois.
Monday, March 28, 2011.
Great tie-in. Picked up on Lisa Stansfield on our local NY jazz station, WXRK -“CD 101.9“ when her album dropped back in the day. Stunning voice and great style. The Allante was on of the few cars that were locked on the showroom floor when I made my rounds that year. Can’t remember the last time I saw one in the wild although I see the same XLR in traffic during my commute a few times a month during the summer
Tom, it has been a while since I’ve seen one out and about, as well. These examples I photographed were from 2011 and 2016, respectively. I’d like to think that most of the rest of them are garaged somewhere.
I seem to cycle in and out of pop music about every 20 years, and looking back it seems that 1990 was during an “out” cycle, so this bit is new to me. So, on the musical tie-in, I got nuthin’.
The car – same thing. I had pretty much no interest in these, though they appeared to be Cadillac doing what Cadillac has periodically done, going overboard for offering something “special”. Just as the Eldorado Brougham didn’t really accomplish its mission in 1957-60, these failed too. I still remember feeling excited when I shot several pictures of one in a local grocery store parking lot, but then in the years since I have never felt compelled to write anything about it. But I’m glad you did.
Is it me, or were half of the Allantes built painted red?
JP, as others have also concurred, most of them I’ve seen were painted red, but I do remember more than a few of them in that titanium “off-silver” color, as well – both of which I felt suited this car’s lines beautifully.
Red or Black ones are all I remember seeing around here. I too, never gave these cars the time of day. I had just started moonlighting at the used car lot,working on a LOT of X-cars,(mostly Citations and Skylarks) and figured it was just another GM front drive crapbox.
Excellent music association. You are very good at this! Both the car and artist are lasting pop culture icons of the early 90s. I had a similar growing interest in Top 40 music at the time, as a graphic design student, and occasionally bought Billboard and Rolling Stone. As you do, I also have a photographic memory of the Top 40 charts, artists, and various cars from that era. Cassette singles were big in July 1990, and I still have a small handful, of some my favourite songs at the time. Including: Jude Cole – Baby It’s Tonight, Tyler Collins – Girls Night Out, and Tracie Spencer – This House. Artists who’s careers peaked at the time. Songs like ‘Expression’ by Salt N Pepa, like this Allanté, bring me right back to 1990. Thanks for this trip Joseph!
Thanks, Daniel. From a musical perspective, 1990 seems like one of those years where there was so much cross-pollination. So much of it was awesome and noteworthy.
Janet Jackson rocked out on “Black Cat”. DNA remixed “Tom’s Diner” from folk artist Suzanne Vega. Even Sinead O’Connor set an Irish poem to James Brown’s “Funky Drummer” beat sample.
I’m obviously a product of my generation and what was popular at that time, but to me, so much of that musical output just makes me so happy.
By the way, I got to see Salt ‘N Pepa at an outdoor concert a few summers ago, and those ladies still slay.
Lord I had that Salt N’ Pepa remix album back in the day…
CC Effect:
$54,700 to $7,900–Depreciation, man!
https://newjersey.craigslist.org/cto/d/pequannock-1991-cadillac-allante/7216914122.html
That is both super-depressing… and also makes me feel optimistic that I may yet be able to afford one! The cost of parts and labor, though. It would look pretty sitting parked in my basement garage.
I have a red 1990 parked and covered in my yard. Dc ur be to be health and life if interested give me a call I’ve owned it for 20 years many many plusses to hard top . very honest I’m ready to to realize it I’m not getting any younger. If interested 863 272 0608 Lakeland FL 33809 I’m Jeff
Hi I have 1989 and have power top issues any ideas or where to go thanks
Joe, I always enjoy the links you forge between music and the featured cars. I vaguely remember this song, but had never given it much attention.
When you mentioned that Lisa Stansfield’s album didn’t feature a picture and the voice led you to believe she was black, I thought right away about Bobby Caldwell. For decades, I assumed he was black, having heard “What You Won’t Do For Love” countless times and having seen his pictureless record or tape in record stores. I only discovered he was a white guy a couple of years ago.
Michael Jackson’s music broke a lot of the color lines in pop music, but that breakdown was gradual and not absolute. I think a lot of white soul artists faced an uphill battle for acceptance. I’ve always disliked the term “blue-eyed” soul. To me, it seemed like a denigration: If it’s soul, it’s soul, and the color of the artist’s skin shouldn’t make a difference in that designation. But in cases like Caldwell’s or Stansfield’s, it’s a reminder that artists had to fight hard to cross those lines in the not so distant past.
I could not agree with you more about Bobby Caldwell. For the longest time I thought “What You Won’t Do For Love” was recorded by George Benson as he and Bobby Caldwell sounded very much alike and both were very active in releasing new songs during this time. This is one of my all time favorite songs and really defines the last quarter of 1978 for me. Both are really great artists.
Thanks, Scott. Bobby Caldwell came as a surprise to me, as well! It wasn’t until I was writing an essay here at CC and linking videos to other songs I was referencing that found out he was a white artist. “What You Won’t Do For Love” is one of my favorites of that era.
At the risk of oversimplifying, it has been historically complicated for artists to cross-over, in any direction. When I was a college student and belonged to a music CD club, it used to irk me to no end when the music of a black artist would automatically be classified as “R&B”. Nope. Sorry, not sorry. Tracy Chapman is not “R&B”. Tina Turner is not “R&B”. Joan Armatrading is definitely not R&B.
When Donna Summer released the very rock-oriented “The Wanderer” in 1980, she couldn’t get arrested on rock radio. Here’s a great article about that record (my favorite of her output): https://www.popmatters.com/a-long-way-from-wonderland-2496145324.html
By the same token, and to your point, I also do not like the term “Blue Eyed Soul”. Within the past week, I watched a documentary on Hall & Oates (love them!) where they were referred to as that. Not everything they did was R&B, but when they did, it was legit and good.
I understand the negative conversations around cultural appropriation, but at the same time, what if there’s a real appreciation of a musical style and respect for the culture from which it was born? Totally outside the scope of CC, but just a few of my thoughts.
I like it all.
These days, I can’t tell if a song on mainstream radio is pop, R&B, or even country. Doesn’t matter, as I don’t listen to any of it. LOL
The reason many people don’t associate Bobby Caldwell as being white was super intentional on his record label, TC’s part. They were the disco powerhouse in the early years until Donna Summer and Casablanca Records exploded, and they feared a white dude from Miami would be a slap in the face to their core audience.
That’s interesting, because one of the TK label’s biggest acts, K.C. & The Sunshine Band (which was multi-racial), was fronted by Harry Wayne Casey. By chart positions, anyway, KC & The Sunshine Band had slightly more success on the black charts than on the main pop charts. KC’s first big hits pre-dated Caldwell’s breakout smash by a couple of years.
But as in Teena Marie’s case, at least early on, I do understand the rationale behind putting the music first and introducing the image second in terms of targeting the R&B market.
Great song and great car…I finally picked up an 89 and a 90 about 10 years ago in White Pearl over burgundy
And champagne over tan Great weekend car
Very nice Allantés, Carl! The champagne color was always one of my favorites on these cars, set off by the red pinstriping on the sides. I see the tile roofs on the houses in the background, so I’d like to think these cars have a great a/c system.
The Allante was unloved in its day and must have cost GM a fortune. Even now they are unloved and even low km units can’t fetch much of a price. This ad shows just how difficult it is to sell a low Allante. The dealer is practically begging someone to take it away. I’d wager $3000 would put it out the door.
https://www.autotrader.ca/a/cadillac/allante/repentigny/quebec/5_48808919_20061017063017059?showcpo=ShowCpo&ncse=no&orup=1_8_8&sprx=-1
Tyler Hoover is selling one via the Wizard. II would buy one for 3 grand, the starting price for a rusty 450SL. Bargain,or just a NorthStar STS in a tux time bomb?.
Most spectacular end for a Cadillac Allanté…and note the not so subtle dig at GM build quality (or is it Pininfarina’s) as the trunk release pulls off in Charlie Sheen’s hand.
https://cadillaccountryclub.com/flying-cadillac-allante/
I had never seen that before! Both entertaining and depressing… haha I can’t imagine being one of the stunt people shooting that actual scene while flying through the air. I can only hope they were handsomely paid (which I’m sure was the case)!
Your reference to Lisa Stansfield reminded me of another English act that also had a very impactful first hit a few years earlier. Mega pop tunes that ultimately defined their careers. This tune reminds me much of when the Allanté was introduced in 1987.
The Allanté looks great with a set of modern spoke wheels.
This article brings back memories – not just of the Allante and Lisa Stansfield, but of going to the mall to shop and checking out the magazine stands at many stores. Two of the four malls around here are slowly dying. The magazine stands at the few stores that still feature them are much smaller than they were even a decade ago.
Allantes now pop up at the Carlisle GM/Chevrolet Nationals on the show field. As JP Cavanaugh noted, most of them are red. Interesting how GM, for years, barred any division but Chevrolet from offering a two-seater. It relented in the 1980s, with the Pontiac Fiero, Buick Reatta and this car. None of those cars lasted very long on the market.
These never did much for me, but it’s good that someone appreciates them today!
OMG… thought I was the last of the Allante fans! In 1990 I saw a red on black one at my Cadillac dealership and fell in love. Unfortunately, I couldn’t afford the 58,000 sticker price at the time and settled on a 28,000 El Dorado with a moonroof.
Fast forward 30 years and am now the owner of the same Allante as the one I saw all those years ago. It still has the panache and awesomeness that I dreamed of owning in 1990. Still turns heads and creates smiles.
Thanks for reminding us of the music and culture from such a wonderful time in my youth….
I can’t decide if this car reminds more of a mid-aged spread Maserati Biturbo or some sort of rejected Peugeot Coupe proposal…
…either way, a nice piece on an interesting car and the way you develop the context is aver impressive. Well done, Joe!
Early Allantes were not without their problems. The 4.5 motor might be preferred to the later years NorthStar. It’s basically an Eldorado in an Armani suit. J.R.Hewing drove one on Dallas. My biggest concern is the electro luminescent speedo and tach and the hundred soft touch buttons which control all the electrical functions. If these go bad, repair and/or replacements might be hard to source. Good looking car though.
Have Cadillac Alliante 1990 red many plusses to health be and I’ll life if interested please give me a call 8632720608
Jose, the issues you mention – plus the cost of parts (if able to be found) and repairs – would be the main deterrents to my ownership. Still doesn’t make me admire them any less! I must give kudos to those who have and maintain them, including readers who have posted pictures of theirs on this thread. 🙂
The Lisa Stansfield reference reminded me of Caroline Aherne in The Fast Show, which I used to watch when I lived in the UK. Made me smile. Can’t say the Allanté brings any similar joy…
https://youtu.be/ObwtQrAanOQ
This was so great!! I need to find more of “The Fast Show” to watch – I have never heard of it before now. Coincidentally, “All Woman”, was Stansfield’s third and final U.S. R&B No. 1 single.
CC Effect: an Allanté appeared a couple of days after this post, at the small used car desler in my town. Resale Red.