What's In Your CD Player/iPod/MP3/Computer/Hi Fi, Right Now?

[Gloria]

It WAS amazing back then, hearing soul music on Top 40 radio, and so much of it being generated by Thom Bell and Gamble & Huff. Thom Bell is alive, and 68 years old. It was his songwriting partner, Linda Creed, who died a number of years ago. I need to revisit that huge catalog of music soon. Instead, I reached for an old guilty pleasure: Frank Sinatra's Cycles. I found myself humming Rain in My Heart this morning, a song featuring one of Don Costa's most bombastic arrangements, with banging cymbals in the foreground that nearly drown out Frank's voice at times. I don't know why, but I've always had a soft spot for Costa's "drama," and this song somehow holds a charm for me, when I get in the mood for it. On the same album, Sinatra even performs a cover of, yes, Little Green Apples. And, no, even Frank couldn't elevate this into a quality song, but he seriously, sincerely tried to. But now that I've gotten my guilty pleasure out of the way (I'll blame the newly-arrived Fall weather for that), I've settled back with Best of Matt Monro and disc 3 of Matt at the Movies playing from my iPod.

[mariana44]

Hi Gloria-thanks for clarifying the sutuation on Thom Bell and Linda Creed--I knew Linda had died, and thought Thom had too-but I am more than happy to find out I was wrong.

[Mark Fox]

Mark, I appreciate all the information you share about Tony, as it's all fascinating to me. I didn't know that Tony owned his Verve recordings. Yes, Listen Easy does include Tell Her It's Snowing. I had never heard this recording before owning the LP, and I was blown away by the deep emotion in Tony's performance, all 6:30 of it. It's such a serious, reflective (but not depressing) album, as Tony slows down the pace of many standards. But Tell Her It's Snowing is the closing song, and you don't expect such an intense song and performance to come along at the end. This entire album is a great showcase of Tony's deep interpretive skills.

The'VERVE'recordings were released in the UK on the PHILIPS label-seek out'THE GOOD THINGS IN LIFE'on LP(it's not available on CD)-it's superb.I sent'THE HANDS OF TIME'to Tony's biographer along with a series of his'art-songs'. One of Tony's wife Susan's favourite tracks is'I Do Not Know I Did Not Love You'-along with'Days Of Love','How Beautiful Is Night And You'are among mine too.
Fingers crossed his'new'contract will free up ALL his back catalogue treasures.

[Gloria]

The'VERVE'recordings were released in the UK on the PHILIPS label-seek out'THE GOOD THINGS IN LIFE'on LP(it's not available on CD)-it's superb.I sent'THE HANDS OF TIME'to Tony's biographer along with a series of his'art-songs'. One of Tony's wife Susan's favourite tracks is'I Do Not Know I Did Not Love You'-along with'Days Of Love','How Beautiful Is Night And You'are among mine too.
Fingers crossed his'new'contract will free up ALL his back catalogue treasures.

This information is greatly appreciated, Mark. I was ready to seek out some of the Columbia/Sony titles, but will definitely look to get The Good Things in Life first. A few of those old Sony titles were released on CD at one time, but those copies are very expensive to purchase now, even Used.

Disc jockey Jonathan Schwartz has often told the story of how he'll ask Tony every time he sees him, 'What is the one song you most enjoy singing?' Tony will answer, 'I Do Not Know a Day I Did Not Love You.' And every year Schwartz will ask again, and the answer is always the same.

[jon]

Hi Gloria/Mariana

Thanks for the clarification re Thom Bell. I see it's Linda Creed who is dead.

Gloria - I'm afraid I just can't share your views on Sinatra. As I've said on this forum once or twice before, I just don't see the appeal of the man and regard him as a highly overrated singer: a minority view, perhaps, but one from which I'll not budge.

[Mark Fox]

The story comes from Jonathan and when I've asked Tony,similar answer-last conversation,I mention'ALL THAT LOVE WENT TO WASTE' which was written by a past head of Faberge Perfumerie. Of course these days Tony doesn't sing'I DO NOT KNOW....',at least not in public.
Some of the back catalogue shouldn't be too costly,perhaps 'THE MOVIE SONG ALBUM','THE COMPLETE CARNEGIE HALL CONCERT'and I know 'I LEFT MY HEART IN SAN FRANCISCO/I WANNA BE AROUND'are reasonable on play.com.Incidentally,I wrote the sleeve notes for the latterly mentioned twofer.
'FOR ONCE IN MY LIFE/I'VE GOTTA BE ME'two LPs on one CD on BGO Records is available on amazon.com in UK&USA.
When you've found'THE GOOD THINGS...'look for'WITH LOVE'his first album dedicated to Frank Sinatra.
HAPPY HUNTING!

[ROBERT M.]

Listening to Matts M&S album release -His Finest- especially to hear..........More

[Gloria]

It's lunchtime, and I'm now playing Sinatra & Strings (following Shirley Horn's Here's to Life and Vic Damone's The Lively Ones).

[john]

Listening to "The Best Of Andy Williams" now.

[Mark Fox]

Listening to "The Best Of Andy Williams" now.

Of course,John-I wouldn't have expected less.
I have 'WINNERS/STEVE ALLEN','UNDER PARIS SKIES' in my car just today-superb albums.

[john]

Yes, all great albums, Mark. In fact all his albums were excellent, apart from his last one.

[Mark Fox]

As is the case with Jack Jones'LONDON albums,some of Andy's best are on CADENCE.

[Terence Lee]

Listening to the late Charlie Rich's last album......Pictures & Paintings.
The last track "Feel Like Going Home" is sad as Charlie died 3 years later.

Here's a great review:
Despite a career that lasted over four decades, no record he ever made came as close to capturing the totality of Charlie Rich's musical persona as Pictures and Paintings. Ironically, it was to be his last recording; Rich died less than three years later of a blood clot in his lung in a motel in Florida. Pictures and Paintings offers 11 slices of Rich the public had rarely, if ever, seen. Produced by Scott Billington with help from writer Peter Guralnick and Joe McEwen, Rich developed his material from informal jam sessions held over a couple of years with friends. The music ranges from jazz and blues to swing to country and gospel. Either Dean Martin or Conway Twitty could have recorded "You Don't Know Me" in their prime. Rich's own version has more soul than both of them put together, though. Rich's reading of Duke Ellington's "Mood Indigo" is no novelty number, but a serious revisioning of the harmonic extrapolations Ellington and Barney Bigard built into its chromatic architecture. Nothing can prepare the listener for the album's final track, however. "Feel Like Going Home" is a gospel tune of such desperation and disappointment, such a plea for deliverance, that it shatters the listener's composure. This writer defies anyone to be unmoved by it -- if you aren't, you must have sawdust instead of blood in your veins. Rich begins with a simple country gospel motif, which he builds upon with each passing verse as the band enters the first into the background and then into the body of the tune, with a Hammond B3 floating above it all. By the time the choir enters, the effect is devastating and the listener feels the crack in Rich's voice and spirit, but the choir buoys him and adds the hope that makes grace possible. It goes out soaring with promise and possibility, summing up an astonishing and extremely complex journey through American music so thorough, so masterfully executed, it could have only been navigated by someone of Rich's unparalleled abilities. To record an album of diverse and difficult material is one achievement, to make that material accessible to a wide range of listeners is yet another. Rich succeeded on both counts, and given that his life ended after this session, that final track is all the more powerful, eerie, and profound. On Pictures and Paintings, Charlie Rich saved the very best, his magnum opus, for last, and we are all the richer for it. For fans, this is as essential; for the beginner, this is as fine an introduction as there is.

[mariana44]

It is such a long time since I heard any Charlie Rich music--on radio or anywhere--I used to have some Lps--but they are now lost !!

[Gloria]

I'm listening to the perfectly smooth and beautiful Jack Jones Sings, always a favorite when Fall arrives.