BRENDA LEE: SINGS TOP TEEN HITS (1965)
1) Dancing In The Streets; 2)
The Crying Game; 3) Thanks A Lot; 4) Let It Be Me; 5) He Loves You; 6) Snap
Your Fingers; 7) Wishin' & Hopin'; 8) Funny How Time Slips Away; 9) Is It
True; 10) Can't Buy Me Love; 11) Always Something There To Remind Me; 12) When
You Loved Me.
The most insulting thing about this album is
its title. Granted, in February 1965 the world was still a few months away from
ʽLike A Rolling Stoneʼ and ʽSatisfactionʼ, so Decca Records could still be
somewhat justified in «wishin' & hopin'» that this new wave of rock'n'roll
craziness would be over them as soon as this next bunch of teenagers starts
getting serious about life. But the title is still condescending — as in, well,
you know, our little lady usually sings mature,
responsible material that treats
human relationships from a healthy, adult perspective ("Tammy, Tammy,
Tammy's in love!"), but sure, we understand the need to cater to this
newfangled teen market as well, and we don't really want to let those silly
kids feel too left out, so here, as
an experiment, is Ms. Brenda Lee doing a couple of those weird «Beetles» songs
for our dear, if a little misguided, offspring. Now run along, little boys and
girls, and make way for some serious
musicians that your parents endorse — like Tony Bennett.
Actually, both of the Beatles covers are among
the highlights here — Brenda had not yet completely forgotten what the
rock'n'roll spirit was all about, and she nails the vocals on both with the
good old abandon. Funny tidbit: even though the song is officially listed as ʽHe Loves Youʼ, Brenda sings the original
lyrics without changing the pronoun — and understandably so, because the idiots
at Decca failed to realize that the song involves three rather than two
characters, and that turning it into ʽhe loves youʼ could have easily made the
song into a gay rights anthem. Oh well, at least they bothered to preserve the
electric guitar solo on ʽCan't Buy Me Loveʼ.
Most of the other songs, though... well, they
were certainly hits, but it is somewhat questionable whether all of them were
truly «teen» hits. ʽLet It Be Meʼ was
covered by the Everleys, it is true, and there is plenty of Brill Building and
Motown material on here, but the accent is very rarely on rock'n'roll even in
its lightest form — most of the covers are lush ballads, soft-pop, or country
with «crossover» appeal, and there is a nasty tendency to butcher some of the
songs (for instance, ʽThe Crying Gameʼ was a very interesting song when
recorded by Dave Berry, mainly due to Big Jim Sullivan's pioneering use of the
wah-wah — here it is all replaced by the usual mushy strings). The Beatles
covers are fun to hear, as is ʽDancing In The Streetsʼ — a song ideally suited
for all the raunch and fire that Brenda's voice can generate — and, at the very
least, the concept allows her to devote some
space to fluffy, but upbeat material like ʽSnap Your Fingersʼ and ʽThanks A
Lotʼ: these aren't great songs, but in between all of them, they make Brenda Lee Sings Some Decca Executives
Favorites They're Too Ashamed To Admit, So They Pose As Teens vastly
preferable to Brenda Lee, By Request Of
Some Other Decca Executives Who Do Not Pose As Teens But It's Not As If We Have
To Respect Them For That.
The corniest moment on the record is saved for
last: a teen idol-type candy piece called ʽWhen You Loved Meʼ, whose first
verse goes "When you loved me / You took the stars / Down from the skies /
Then you put them in my eyes" — I don't know about you, but my first reaction was "Oh man, that
must have really hurt!" But this
is actually a good sign, a crystal clear message from the industry that nothing
has changed in a profound manner: the Beatles will come and go just the same
way as Martha & The Vandellas or Dave Berry or Dusty Springfield, but Serious
Good Taste by Responsible Adults will always prevail in the end. And it's
always useful to be in the know, regardless of whether the news is pleasant or
disappointing.
George, I'm willing to concede that it's worth your spending your time reviewing the whole truckload of Brenda Lee albums if your assessments are this amusing! Decca, Decca . . . . it wasn't enough to opine that "guitar bands are on the way out." They really had to PROVE how much they didn't get what was going on.
ReplyDeleteIt should be pointed out, however, that American and British Decca are not the same company. Sometime in the 1950's, there was a nasty divorce between the US & UK wings of the company. The result was that US Decca continued on as a separate, independent company (later renaming itself MCA), while British Decca established London Records as its American analog.
Delete