BRENDA LEE: THE VERSATILE BRENDA LEE (1965)
1) Yesterday's Gone; 2) Dear
Heart; 3) I Still Miss Someone; 4) How Glad I Am; 5) Almost There; 6) Don't
Blame Me; 7) Willow Weep For Me; 8) Truly Truly True; 9) Love Letters; 10) The
Birds And The Bees; 11) La Vie En Rose; 12) Maybe.
And by «versatile», I presume, they mean «one
that can perform everything, from lightweight
pre-war popular songs to profound contemporary material by our illustrious
songwriters, like ʽThe Birds And The Beesʼ, for example». Well, truth be told, they
may be right, if they are going not with the third meaning of the word in
Webster's dictionary («turning with ease from one thing to another»), but with
the first one — «capable of being turned round». It must have took quite a bit
of turning round, I'd say, to end up with a cover of ʽLa Vie En Roseʼ on one's
hands in the middle of 1965.
The album doth add insult to injury by opening
in a dishonestly deceitful manner — ʽYesterday's Goneʼ, a fluke hit for the
wimpy UK folk-rock duo Chad & Jeremy, is unexpectedly arranged in a rock'n'roll
manner, with gruff electric guitars and a King Curtis-style saxophone solo. Not
exactly «hard», but probably the toughest sound on a Brenda Lee album in about two
years, making the listener salivate for more. But already track number two is
ʽDear Heartʼ, a thick syrup concocted by Henry Mancini for Andy Williams, with
backing vocals that you thought you'd heard the last of in Disney classics from
the previous decade. And off we go...
In all honesty, the interpretation of ʽWillow
Weep For Meʼ is extremely
«versatile», not to mention powerful, and ʽHow Glad I Amʼ is quite competitive
when it comes to comparison with the Nancy Wilson original — where Nancy has
the upper hand in subtle modulation, Brenda fights back with sheer volume and
determination. It is also interesting that her version of ʽLove Lettersʼ
managed to predate Elvis' hit rendition by about a year — not that either of
them matters all that much in the grand scheme of things.
But a thumbs down all the same, since everything
else is (by now) traditionally rotten, including
ʽThe Birds And The Beesʼ, which must be one of the worst love songs ever
written in an upbeat pop manner (no wonder Jewel Akens never had another hit in
his whole life). Bad songs, worse arrangements, formally impeccable, but fully
predictable vocals, and, worst of all, the realization that this was all made
in the summer of '65... well, couldn't they at
least let her cover ʽAll I Really Want To Doʼ? Maybe we'd have no need for
Cher then.
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