Most of the Elvis product launched to exploit the 30th anniversary left me unmoved. I admire Elvis’s best music, but much of his work – and the surrounding three ring circus – bores me silly.
A couple of products impressed:
* Elvis – The King, a chart-topping new supermarket-friendly compilation album. If I didn’t already have all the music, this 2CD 50-odd track release would have been a must-buy.
* Elvis – The Official Collector’s Edition is a beautifully conceived and well executed part work series. The bargain launch issue (99p!) was everywhere in the High St and on TV last week. You can buy the 26 issues with or without 13 optional DVDs.
As most Elvis movies are unwatchable, I’d forego the DVD option. And think carefully about effectively shelling out about £75 for an Elvis book, delivered in parts. Nice looking artefact, though.
Gerry Smith
Friday 24 August 2007
Tuesday 21 August 2007
Four new releases mark Ella Fitzgerald anniversary
Seizing on the 90th anniversary of her birth, the record biz is busily pumping out “new” Ella product:
* Love Letters From Ella is the pick. It has 10 previously unreleased late-career tracks, some with new orchestral backings added post facto. It’s hardly peak period Ella, but the disc is well worth investigating.
* Ella Fitzgerald: The Collection (The Capitol Recordings) is a selection from the albums Ella recorded for Sinatra’s label in the 1960s - Misty Blue, Brighten The Corner, 30 By Ella, and Ella Fitzgerald`s Christmas. While none of these match the great Verve songbooks, this compilation is worth seeking out, especially as it has a discount price of £7
* Love, Ella is a short career-spanning sampler, mainly of Verve material. It’s difficult to get too excited about this one – there are many better Ella comps available.
* Universal are also promoting a new tribute album, We All Love Ella: Celebrating the First Lady of Song. Glancing at the performers on track list - Natalie Cole, Chaka Kahn, Gladys Knight et al - I’d much rather spend the time/money on the unutterably wonderful real thing…
Gerry Smith
* Love Letters From Ella is the pick. It has 10 previously unreleased late-career tracks, some with new orchestral backings added post facto. It’s hardly peak period Ella, but the disc is well worth investigating.
* Ella Fitzgerald: The Collection (The Capitol Recordings) is a selection from the albums Ella recorded for Sinatra’s label in the 1960s - Misty Blue, Brighten The Corner, 30 By Ella, and Ella Fitzgerald`s Christmas. While none of these match the great Verve songbooks, this compilation is worth seeking out, especially as it has a discount price of £7
* Love, Ella is a short career-spanning sampler, mainly of Verve material. It’s difficult to get too excited about this one – there are many better Ella comps available.
* Universal are also promoting a new tribute album, We All Love Ella: Celebrating the First Lady of Song. Glancing at the performers on track list - Natalie Cole, Chaka Kahn, Gladys Knight et al - I’d much rather spend the time/money on the unutterably wonderful real thing…
Gerry Smith
Thursday 9 August 2007
Top 50 Elvis songs
Elvis Presley recorded over 700 tracks. Writing in The Times last Friday, critic Bob Stanley ranked his top 50.
It’s an invaluable guide for anyone starting to explore Elvis’s catalogue or compiling a basic set of tunes. Here’s a taster of the listing:
1. HOUND DOG - The intro explodes into your ears, and into the public consciousness, as only A Hard Day's Night and Anarchy In The UK have since. So intense, two minutes of sustained viciousness and sheer malicious glee.
2. SUSPICIOUS MINDS
3. MYSTERY TRAIN
4. HEARTBREAK HOTEL
5. I JUST CAN'T HELP BELIEVING…
The highly recommended full article is here:
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/music/article2186173.ece
Gerry Smith
It’s an invaluable guide for anyone starting to explore Elvis’s catalogue or compiling a basic set of tunes. Here’s a taster of the listing:
1. HOUND DOG - The intro explodes into your ears, and into the public consciousness, as only A Hard Day's Night and Anarchy In The UK have since. So intense, two minutes of sustained viciousness and sheer malicious glee.
2. SUSPICIOUS MINDS
3. MYSTERY TRAIN
4. HEARTBREAK HOTEL
5. I JUST CAN'T HELP BELIEVING…
The highly recommended full article is here:
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/music/article2186173.ece
Gerry Smith
Friday 20 July 2007
Frank Sinatra in new MOJO – really!
It doesn’t happen too often, but it gladdened my heart to see a top pre-rock popster profiled in the new issue of MOJO, the beautifully designed Dadrock monthly.
Frank Sinatra is the subject of an extensive profile by MOJO scribe Fred Dellar. Never mind that the article focuses on the trashy celeb side of the Sinatra legacy, his time-wasting with the reprehensible Rat Pack. Any piece on Sinatra aimed at rockist readers of a mag like MOJO is commendable missionary work.
Fred Dellar is a pre-rock pop specialist: his earlier writing on Sarah Vaughan, for example, reveals an enviable knowledge of the music recorded by the pre-Elvis greats.
Recommended Sinatra buys?
Well, the supermarkets are currently awash with the cream of the catalogue at budget prices (£5) - compilations of the great Capitol (Classic Sinatra: his Great Performances 1953-1960) and Reprise (A Fine Romance: the love songs of Frank Sinatra 2CD) sides stand out.
Now’s the time to try Frank again.
Gerry Smith
Frank Sinatra is the subject of an extensive profile by MOJO scribe Fred Dellar. Never mind that the article focuses on the trashy celeb side of the Sinatra legacy, his time-wasting with the reprehensible Rat Pack. Any piece on Sinatra aimed at rockist readers of a mag like MOJO is commendable missionary work.
Fred Dellar is a pre-rock pop specialist: his earlier writing on Sarah Vaughan, for example, reveals an enviable knowledge of the music recorded by the pre-Elvis greats.
Recommended Sinatra buys?
Well, the supermarkets are currently awash with the cream of the catalogue at budget prices (£5) - compilations of the great Capitol (Classic Sinatra: his Great Performances 1953-1960) and Reprise (A Fine Romance: the love songs of Frank Sinatra 2CD) sides stand out.
Now’s the time to try Frank again.
Gerry Smith
Friday 13 July 2007
At The Movies – an intriguing celebration of the art of Van Morrison
At The Movies, the 2007 Van Morrison compilation released before the even more recent Best Of Vol 3, is a wonderful anthology.
It reveals Morrison as a sometime great songwriter. Just listen carefully to the lyrics of Someone Like You, Real Real Gone, Moondance and Have I Told You Lately That I Love You – pop for grown-ups doesn’t get any better than this.
The vocals – particularly the towering performances on Caravan and Comfortably Numb – remind you that Van The Man has the finest singing voice in rock. And if you haven’t heard Morrison for a while, you might well be surprised at the sheer musicality of his catalogue.
At The Movies is an intriguing release, though. Why are there so many live tracks? Presumably so that Morrison receives royalties that would otherwise go to Warner Brothers if their album tracks had been used.
Why was Brown-Eyed Girl re-recorded? Presumably to divert royalties to Morrison and away from Bang, Morrison’s hated first label as a solo artist.
And why was the cinema on the cover artwork given the exceedingly unlikely name of “CALVIN”? Presumably it’s a joke by a very witty Belfast Calvinist. It certainly made this fellow Calvinist laugh out loud!
Super album: a must-listen for grown-up fans of mature popular music.
Gerry Smith
It reveals Morrison as a sometime great songwriter. Just listen carefully to the lyrics of Someone Like You, Real Real Gone, Moondance and Have I Told You Lately That I Love You – pop for grown-ups doesn’t get any better than this.
The vocals – particularly the towering performances on Caravan and Comfortably Numb – remind you that Van The Man has the finest singing voice in rock. And if you haven’t heard Morrison for a while, you might well be surprised at the sheer musicality of his catalogue.
At The Movies is an intriguing release, though. Why are there so many live tracks? Presumably so that Morrison receives royalties that would otherwise go to Warner Brothers if their album tracks had been used.
Why was Brown-Eyed Girl re-recorded? Presumably to divert royalties to Morrison and away from Bang, Morrison’s hated first label as a solo artist.
And why was the cinema on the cover artwork given the exceedingly unlikely name of “CALVIN”? Presumably it’s a joke by a very witty Belfast Calvinist. It certainly made this fellow Calvinist laugh out loud!
Super album: a must-listen for grown-up fans of mature popular music.
Gerry Smith
Tuesday 10 July 2007
Elvis Presley’s great 1956 recordings
Elvis Presley’s massive catalogue might be the least consistent of any major musician, but the early material – the Sun sessions and the early recordings for RCA – are beyond reproach.
Elvis and Elvis Presley, the first two RCA LPs, are widely available on CD, with added tracks. Borders is currently offering a 2CD, 35 track package at a mere £6.99. Elvis 1956, the beautifully designed repackaged compilation which has all 22 non-film recordings from an epochal year in popular music, is also being discounted by Borders at £7.99. One or the other is a must-have in any grown-up collection.
But the best value package of The King from 1956 has to be the new Elvis Presley: Original Recordings, in the Icons series released by budget label Green Umbrella. Its two CDs pull together 47 tracks, including the first two LPs – all the post-Sun early Elvis you’re ever likely to need. I bought mine from supermarket chain Morrison’s for the princely sum of £3.39: any cheaper and they’d be paying customers to cart the stuff away.
www.guentertainment.co.uk
(nb: the enterprise is so new, the site isn’t fully operational; linked here because it looks worth watching…)
Gerry Smith
Elvis and Elvis Presley, the first two RCA LPs, are widely available on CD, with added tracks. Borders is currently offering a 2CD, 35 track package at a mere £6.99. Elvis 1956, the beautifully designed repackaged compilation which has all 22 non-film recordings from an epochal year in popular music, is also being discounted by Borders at £7.99. One or the other is a must-have in any grown-up collection.
But the best value package of The King from 1956 has to be the new Elvis Presley: Original Recordings, in the Icons series released by budget label Green Umbrella. Its two CDs pull together 47 tracks, including the first two LPs – all the post-Sun early Elvis you’re ever likely to need. I bought mine from supermarket chain Morrison’s for the princely sum of £3.39: any cheaper and they’d be paying customers to cart the stuff away.
www.guentertainment.co.uk
(nb: the enterprise is so new, the site isn’t fully operational; linked here because it looks worth watching…)
Gerry Smith
Tuesday 3 July 2007
NOT Music for Grown-Ups… We All Love Ella
Universal are promoting a new Ella Fitzgerald tribute album. Glancing at the performers on track list, I’d much rather spend the time/money on the unutterably wonderful real thing…
Promo:
“Various Artists - We All Love Ella: Celebrating the First Lady of Song - Ella Fitzgerald was the most popular female jazz singer in the United States for more than half a century. In her lifetime, she won 13 Grammy awards and sold over 40 million albums. Her voice was flexible, wide-ranging, accurate and ageless. She could sing sultry ballads, sweet jazz and imitate every instrument in an orchestra with unmatched rhythmic acuity and an unimpeachable sense of swing.
“Ella's 90th birthday would have been April 25th, 2007. Please join us in this year-long celebration! "We All Love Ella: Celebrating The First Lady of Song" is an Ella Tribute Album featuring a host of stars including Natalie Cole, Chaka Kahn, Gladys Knight, Diana Krall and many more.”
On reflection, you couldn’t pay me to play such an album instead of, say, the Cole Porter Songbook.
Who on Earth listens to this kind of stuff?
Gerry Smith
Promo:
“Various Artists - We All Love Ella: Celebrating the First Lady of Song - Ella Fitzgerald was the most popular female jazz singer in the United States for more than half a century. In her lifetime, she won 13 Grammy awards and sold over 40 million albums. Her voice was flexible, wide-ranging, accurate and ageless. She could sing sultry ballads, sweet jazz and imitate every instrument in an orchestra with unmatched rhythmic acuity and an unimpeachable sense of swing.
“Ella's 90th birthday would have been April 25th, 2007. Please join us in this year-long celebration! "We All Love Ella: Celebrating The First Lady of Song" is an Ella Tribute Album featuring a host of stars including Natalie Cole, Chaka Kahn, Gladys Knight, Diana Krall and many more.”
On reflection, you couldn’t pay me to play such an album instead of, say, the Cole Porter Songbook.
Who on Earth listens to this kind of stuff?
Gerry Smith
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