Shirley Bassey – Legendary Performers with The London Symphony Orchestra (1982, 1984/Intermusic Alloy Gold CD/Top Music
International reissue)
Sound:
B Music: B
For over
half a century, one of the world’s most successful vocalists has easily been Shirley
Bassey. Since 1955, she has been a vocal
sensation (by age 18!!!), with dozens of hits albums and singles since. Her reputation for dynamic singing was
cemented in 1964 when she recorded the theme to the James Bond film Goldfinger, one of the most imitated
movie themes ever recorded. The result
was an international smash that set her up as one of the longest-running vocal
forces in music history, from live shows that almost always sell out to this
day to albums, singles and even tributes still happening today.
After a
massive run of success on the Liberty/Capitol/EMI/United Artists family of
record labels (plus Philips), Bassey tried to establish herself at new labels
establishing themselves in the marketplace.
After cutting the seminal All By
Myself album at the short-lived Applause label, she collaborated with the
London Symphony Orchestra in a series of recordings that along with the
previous album, set the tone for her career in the decades since.
Most of
the cuts were originally issued for the now-defunct Towerbell Records as the
album I Am What I Am, later issued
through other labels like Freestyle and Aardvark. They became some of her most popular and now
sampled recordings to date. Top Music
has issued a second Gold CD of most of those songs and some of the All By Myself tracks under the title Legendary Performers and transferred
the material at 24Bit/96kHz High Resolution Mastering.
The
tracks that have made this configuration include:
1)
Big
Spender (Field/Coleman)
2)
This
Masquerade (Russell)
3)
Goldfinger
(Bricusse/Newley/Barry)
4)
New York Medley: New York, New York (Ebb/Kander)/New York, New York
(So Good They Named It Twice) (Kenny)
5)
What
Now My Love (Delanoe/Sigman/Becaud)
6)
Something
(Harrison)
7)
As
Long As He Needs Me (Bart)
8)
Kiss
Me Honey Honey Kiss Me (Timothy/Julien)
9)
As
I Love You (Livingston/Evans)
10) Send In The Clowns (Sondheim)
11) I Am What I Am (Herman)
12) I (Who Have Nothing) (Leiber/Stoller/Donida)
13) And I Love You So (McLean)
14) Never, Never, Never (Testa/Newel/Renis)
15) For All We Know (Wilson/James/Karlin)
16) This Is My Life (Newell/Canfora/Amurri)
17) All By Myself (Rachmaninoff, Carmen)
18) Can You Read My Mind (Williams/Bricusse)
19) Only When I Laugh (Shire/Malby Jr.)
20) Solitaire (Sedaka/Cody)
Tracks 2,
4 17 - 20 were cut on the All By Myself
album and were such a hit with fans that and they became major Bassey favorites
since. For the record, songs that did
not make this compilation from those sessions include If You Don’t Understand (the Toto Cutungo/Norman Newell tune that
did not even show up on original versions of the I Am What I Am album), To All
the Men I’ve Loved Before (the Albert Hammond/Hal David classic that only
turned up on the Japanese CD version of the original album) and Natalie (the U
Balsamo/Norman Newell track from the album that the I Am What I Am album that have never turned up anywhere else),
while tracks missing from the All By
Myself album include If & When,
He’s Out Of My Life (yes, the Michael
Jackson song), New York State Of Mind
and We Don’t Cry Out Loud.
For the
older material remade, the idea is to do a variation that is lighter than what
she cut in the past (sometimes more than once) for her original labels. Tracks 1 & 6 are not as affected, but I
tend to like the older studio recordings or live versions from her ever-amazing
Live At Carnegie Hall set released
in 1973 and universally considered an excellent capturing of her on stage.
From the
title, you would think this was a live album too, but it is not, so think of it
as an interesting compilation from an interesting period in a career whose
recording history is underrated. Bassey
material is always in print and there
are many CDs, vinyl and even audio cassettes to choose from, but this sadly
remains the only audiophile release of any of her material to date. Maybe Top Music should consider getting the
oldest hits and issuing an SA-CD?
The PCM
2.0 Stereo is not bad, but not always what I expected, sounding a little more
compressed and bassy than Bassey should sound, but it is also warmer than it
might be on an aluminum CD so this Alloy Gold CD just makes the rating I give
it. It is also a reissue, so sonic
digital standards are not where they are now and this was originally pressed in
2001, so you have to expect some limits.
A paper foldout with brief notes is also included.
To find
out more about ordering, start with this link, then go to the HOW TO ORDER tab
on the left-hand side column:
http://www.topmusic.com/crcd1211.htm
The
direct order link is:
http://www.topmusic.com/to-order.htm
- Nicholas Sheffo
