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Tuesday, 29 July 2025

Skeeter Davis...The Closest Thing To Love.

The first of some Girl singers, all different !! so we start with a Country Singer and see what comes after that !!.....Thanks John !!.......Wow what a gem of a track "Hold Me Tight" is.... it's a cool one !!

Mary Frances Penick (December 30, 1931 – September 19, 2004), known as Skeeter Davis, was an American country music singer who sang crossover pop music songs including 1962's "The End of the World". She started out as part of the Davis Sisters as a teenager in the late 1940s, eventually landing on RCA Victor. In the late 1950s, she became a solo star.
One of the first women to achieve major stardom in the country music field as a solo vocalist, she was an acknowledged influence on Tammy Wynette and Dolly Parton and was hailed as an "extraordinary country/pop singer" by The New York Times music critic Robert Palmer.
           7. Hold Me Tight

Sue Raney...All By Myself.

We are in the midst of some Lady singers at the moment and I must admit that although I have heard of this singer but not actually heard anything by her !..so this is a first for me !!..lets give it a whirl !!

In 1963, Capitol Records producer Lee Gillette was looking for a way to amp up the singing career of young crooner Sue Raney. Impossibly young when she entered the music business, Raney nevertheless had the talent, looks, and delivery of a star -- she just needed to shake that "little girl" aspect and tap into a more "adult" vein. Gillette tried to secure Stan Kenton as her backing arranger (for the album that would become All by Myself), but when that fell through, Capitol house arranger Ralph Carmichael was brought on board, and he channelled that stabbing, boisterous Kenton vibe to a T. In fact, the arrangements proved so volatile that Raney wondered how she was going to compete. Well, she mostly succeeded. Some tracks (like the explosive opener, "Some of These Days") find Raney struggling to overcome the blasting brass, which all but bury her vocal line. She was not as forceful as Anita O'Day, nor did she have the shrewd phrasing talents of, say, June Christy, but Raney did have a sweet, sweet voice -- maybe not powerful enough to blast through the more bombastic numbers, but on slow burners (like the über-sensual "Don't Let the Sun Catch You Crying" or the appropriately melancholy "Here's That Rainy Day") her breathy delivery is stunning. The album's title track is without a doubt the most successful venture here. By peeling away the flash and getting down to an intimate purr, "All By Myself"'s comely arrangement allows Raney to whisper in your ear, which is ultimately the best way she comes across on record.  
         4. I'm Gonna Laugh You Right Out Of My Life

Rita Reys Today.

Its 1969 and Europe's first lady of jazz was in London recording this one !!... Where was my music taste then !!..up the creek I think by missing this great voice !!!

1. The Moment of Truth
2. When I Look Into Your Eyes
3. On A Clear Day You Can see For Ever
4. Our Language Of Love
5. What The World needs Now is Love
6. Soon Its Gonna Rain

1. More Than You Know
2. You'd Better Love Me
3. Sing A Rainbow
4. The Look Of Love
5. Baubles Bangles And Beads
6. Come Back To Me
          4. Our Language Of Love

Nina Simone...Sings Ellington.

Some early Nina Simone tracks 1962 to be exact...Its different with some duff tracks and some very good ones !!....The pianist Nina shines through !!...saying that though it is still a good L/P that needs listening too more than once !!

Nina Simone was on her way to becoming a major name by 1962, with her protest and civil rights songs granting her acclaim and recognition far beyond the jazz world. Sings Ellington is a change of pace for the singer/pianist, who is heard performing 11 songs written by Duke Ellington and/or Billy Strayhorn. Backed by an unidentified string orchestra (the accompaniment is often sparse) and the Malcolm Dodds Singers, she not only revives the usual Duke hits but such obscurities as "Hey, Buddy Bolden," "Merry Mending," and "You Better Know It." None of these performances sound like a typical treatment of Ellington material, with "I Got It Bad" having a gospel feel, "Something to Live For" being brief but heartfelt, "I Like the Sunrise" sounding like a big production number, and "Satin Doll" being taken as an instrumental. Though short in length, what is here is quite intriguing and original. 
        4. Merry Mending

The Greatest Of Jerry Vale.

We are in Belgium seeing what Bob has to offer now...26 tracks of popular and standard songs and I have heard of Jerry Vale and he is okay !!....cross between Andy Williams & Vic Damone I Should say !!

1. Come Back To Sorrento
2. More
3. Born Free
4. Non Dementicar
5. You Don't Know me
6. Speak Softly Love
7. Love Is A many Splendored Thing
8. In Amorata
9. What A Wonderful World
10. We've Only Just Begun
11. Anema a Cuore
12. You Belong To My Heart
13. For Mama

1. O Sole Mio
2. You Don't Have To Say You Love me
3. Have you looked Into My Heart
4. Spanish Eyes
5. Prima Donna
6. Domage Domage
7. And This Is My Beloved
8. Pretend You Don't See Her
9. I Can't Get You Out Of My Heart
10. Lovers Roulette
11. Go Chase A Moonbeam
12. Where Were You When I needed You
13. My Way
Jerry Vale (born Gennaro Louis Vitaliano; July 8, 1930 – May 18, 2014) was an American traditional pop singer. During the 1950s and 1960s, he reached the top of the pop charts with his interpretations of romantic ballads, including a cover of Eddy Arnold hit "You Don't Know Me" (1956) and "Have You Looked into Your Heart" (1964). Vale, who was of Italian descent, sang numerous songs in Italian, many of which were used in soundtracks of films by Martin Scorsese.
His renditions of "Volare", "Innamorata (Sweetheart)", and "Al di là" became classic Italian-American songs.

      12. You Belong to My Heart

Monday, 28 July 2025

Ray Conniff...I Write The Songs.

Ray Conniff Orchestra and chorus moving with the times and giving some of his old hits a 60's/70's Disco feel...Not much of his shuffle sound left in this release !!...But its still first class !!
Thanks Bob !!
         3. The Hustle / I Only Have Eyes For You

Richard Digance...How The West Was Lost.

I don't know what I expected when I got this L/P from John...the cover definitely doesn't give away the fact that this is a folk comedy set of songs definitely with tongue in cheek !!definitely something different !!

Richard Digance (pronounced DYE-jance; born 24 February 1949) is an English comedian and folk singer.
In the 1970s, Digance toured the United States. He supported Steve Martin, whilst in Britain he also supported Jethro Tull on two British tours, Steeleye Span, Tom Jones, Elkie Brooks, Supertramp and Joan Armatrading. From 1974 until 1978 Doug Morter, guitarist and singer with Hunter Muskett, joined Digance as accompanist on vocals and guitar.He has been a frequent guest in 'Dictionary Corner' on the Channel 4 game show Countdown.
       6. Edward Sayers Brass Band

The Spotnicks,

A surprisingly good L/P that does include the Cosmic Telstar !!...along with other twangy tunes... love "Take Five"
        1. Take Five

Sunday, 27 July 2025

Shirley Bassey...Live At Carnegie Hall.

A great live performance from the Dame from Tiger Bay !!....."Dame Shirley Bassey"
Let the Voice and performance be the preface and Introduction !!

1. Goldfinger
2. Where Am I Going
3. I Capricorn
4. Let Me Sing And I'm Happy
5. Johnny One Note
6. For All We Know
7. I'd Like to Hate Myself in The Morning
8. I Who Have Nothing
9. Day By Day
10. Narration
11. And I Love You So
12. Diamonds Are Forever
13. Narration
14. Big Spender
15. Introduction Of Orchestra
16. Never Never Never
17. You And I
18. Something
19. This Is My Life
20. A Lovely Way To Spend An Evening
21.The Party's Over

Sarah Vaughan...At The Blue Note.

These are studio recordings despite the title given it.
Sarah Lois Vaughan (March 27, 1924 – April 3, 1990) was an American jazz singer.
Nicknamed "Sassy" and "The Divine One", she won four Grammy Awards, including the Lifetime Achievement Award. She was given an NEA Jazz Masters Award in 1989. Critic Scott Yanow wrote that she had "one of the most wondrous voices of the 20th century".
Vaughan began her solo career in 1945 by freelancing on 52nd Street in New York City at the Three Deuces, the Famous Door, the Downbeat, and the Onyx Club. She spent time at Braddock Grill next to the Apollo Theater in Harlem. On May 11, 1945, she recorded "Lover Man" for Guild with a quintet featuring Gillespie and Parker with Al Haig on piano, Curly Russell on double bass, and Sid Catlett on drums. Later that month, she went into the studio with a slightly different and larger Gillespie/Parker aggregation and recorded three more sides.
In the latter half of the 1950s she followed a schedule of almost non-stop touring. She was featured at the first Newport Jazz Festival in the summer of 1954 and starred in subsequent editions of that festival at Newport and in New York City for the remainder of her life. In the fall of 1954, she performed at Carnegie Hall with the Count Basie Orchestra on a bill that also included Billie Holiday, Charlie Parker, Lester Young and the Modern Jazz Quartet. That fall, she again toured Europe before embarking on a "Big Show" U.S. tour, a succession of performances that included Count Basie, George Shearing, Erroll Garner and Jimmy Rushing. 
She made her UK debut in 1958 at Sunday Night at the London Palladium with several songs including "Who's Got the Last Laugh Now".

1. The Touch Of Your Lips
2. 'Swonderful
3. Tenderly
4. Its Magic
5. Honey
6. Let's Put out The Lights

1. I'm In The Mood For Love
2. I Don't Know Why
3. Paradise
4. Time On My Hands
5. Gimme A little Kiss
6. Make Yourself Comfortable
          2. S'wonderful

Sammy Davies Jnr...Here's Lookin' At You.

 Samuel George Davis Jr. (December 8, 1925 – May 16, 1990) was an American singer, dancer, actor, vaudevillian, and comedian whom critic Randy Blaser called "the greatest entertainer ever to grace a stage in these United States".

He became a recording artist. In 1954, at the age of 29, he lost his left eye in a car accident.
In 1954, Davis was hired to sing the title song for the Universal Pictures film Six Bridges to Cross. In 1956, he starred in the Broadway musical Mr. Wonderful.
In 1959, Davis became a member of the Rat Pack, led by his friend Frank Sinatra, which included fellow performers Dean Martin, Joey Bishop, and Peter Lawford, a brother-in-law of John F. Kennedy. Initially, Sinatra called the gathering "the Clan", but Davis voiced his opposition, saying that it reminded people of the Ku Klux Klan. Sinatra renamed the group "the Summit". One long night of poker that went on into the early morning saw the men drunken and dishevelled. As Angie Dickinson approached the group, she said, "You all look like a pack of rats." The nickname caught on, and they were then called the Rat Pack.....The group around Sinatra made several movies together, including Ocean's 11 (1960), Sergeants 3 (1962), and Robin and the 7 Hoods (1964), and they performed onstage together in Las Vegas. In 1964, Davis was the first African American to sing at the Copacabana night club in New York.
On December 11, 1967, NBC broadcast a musical-variety special featuring Nancy Sinatra, the daughter of Frank Sinatra, titled Movin' with Nancy. In addition to the Emmy Award-winning musical performances, the show is notable for Nancy Sinatra and Davis greeting each other with a kiss, one of the first black-white kisses in US television.
In August 1989, Davis began to develop symptoms: a tickle in his throat and an inability to taste food. Doctors found a cancerous tumor in Davis' throat. He was a heavy smoker and had often smoked four packs of cigarettes a day as an adult. When told that surgery (laryngectomy) offered him the best chance of survival, Davis replied he would rather keep his voice than have a part of his throat removed; he was initially treated with a combination of chemotherapy and radiation. His larynx was later removed when his cancer recurred. He was released from the hospital on March 13, 1990.
Davis died of complications from throat cancer two months later at his home in Beverly Hills, California, on May 16, 1990, at age 64. 

1. It Started All Over Again
2. She Always Knows
3. Love
4. A Foggy Day
5. The Clown
6. Just One Of Those Things

1. Don't Let Her Go
2. Give A Fool A Chance
3. In A Persian Market
4. The Nearness Of You
5. The World Is Mine Tonight
6. The Blues To End The Blues
        9. In A Persian Market

The Four Preps

This is a new one for me....very similar sound to "The Lettermen" with shades of "The Four Aces" !! and as I like the vocal groups that fine by me a good mixture of songs not heard of any of them so I guess it will be the more I hear it the better it will become !!!

          4. I Cried A Million Tears

Claude Taylor & Orchestra...Sax e Boleros.

Soooo now we have a Sexy Sax !!!

             8. I Only Have Eyes For You

To Sir With Love...Film Soundtrack.

We are still in NZ with this Soundtrack..Lulu..The Mindbenders. & Ron Grainer Orchestra !

          1. To Sir Wth Love

The World Of Hits...VA.

A blast from the past (1969)...via NZ...thanks JohnF !

          11. I Want To Be Your Baby

Saturday, 26 July 2025

Ella Fitzgerald.

Here is the third Volume of Gershwins Songbook...Once again Lush arrangements and Ella At Her Peak

1. A Foggy Day
2.Clap Yo Hands
3. For You For Me Forevermore
4. Stiff Upper Lip
5. Boy Wanted 
6. Strike Up The Band

1. Soon
2. I've Got A Crush On You
3. Bidin' My Time
4. Aren't You Kind Of Glad We Did
5. Of Thee I Sing


          10. Aren't You Glad We Did

Tuesday, 22 July 2025