A sudden switch in image accompanied Gilbert O'Sullivan's second album, 1972's Back to Front and its simultaneously released separate single "Alone Again (Naturally)." Gone was the mischievous little scamp sporting a jaunty cap and hand-me-down tweeds, in was a slick, hairy-chested lothario and along with this visual makeover came an aural overhaul, with O'Sullivan's sprightly show tune-inspired pop sounding slicker than before. And it's not just that Back to Front is given a gloss that would not have seemed out of place on a televised variety show from 1972, it's that O'Sullivan is taking great care to write sprightly theatrical tunes, songs that take great pride in their clever-clever twists, smiling, crowd-pleasing melodies, and the proudly cheeky sentimentality that drips off of “Clair,” to name the most obvious example here. In many ways, the unabashed showbiz cheer of Back to Front trumps the bedsit introspection of Himself: in his heart Gilbert O’Sullivan is a song-and-dance man possessing a way with a snappy hook or tearjerking melody, qualities that are amply – and charmingly – displayed here.
In 1993 the Giants of Jazz label released a collection drawing upon seven different Verve albums by Anita O'Day (1919-2006), a skilled and at times somewhat formidable vocalist who had the kind of chops and temperament usually associated with trumpeters, drummers, and booking agents. Recorded in early December 1955, "Honeysuckle Rose" first appeared on the album This Is Anita; technically speaking, this track falls outside of this collection's stated timeframe of 1956-1962. "Stompin' at the Savoy" and "Don't Be That Way" come from Pick Yourself Up, an LP that took almost all of 1956 to create. "Star Eyes" as well as tracks one through seven were taken from Anita O'Day Sings the Winners, a 1958 release that found her backed by a somewhat slick orchestra under the direction of Russ Garcia. Anita O'Day seems to have spent a lot of time in the recording studios during April 1959; during that month she made a Cole Porter album with Billy May (cuts 13 through 21) and collaborated with Jimmy Giuffre on the Cool Heat album, from which "Hershey Bar" was extracted. During 1962 this stunning woman made an LP with Gene Harris and the Three Sounds (see track eight "Whisper Not") and teamed up with vibraphonist Cal Tjader on the marvelous Time for Two album, the source for her rendition of Dave Frishberg's pleasantly smutty opus, "Peel Me a Grape."
In the mid-1950s and early 1960s, the great Anita O’Day recorded several glorious albums for jazz entrepreneur and producer Norman Granz, among them some of the most celebrated of her long career. The LP The Jazz Stylings of Anita O’Day (Verve VLP 9125), presented here in its entirety, consists of a selection of the best songs from those years, and finds her in the company of great jazz soloists and conductors. Eight additional tracks from the same period have been included as a bonus to the original album.
Rod Stewart has been mining the Great American Songbook for the better part of a decade, so it would only make sense that he would get a little bit better as time goes by. And, by some stroke of fate, Fly Me to the Moon – the fifth installment in this never-ending series and first since 2005, as Rod spent the back half of the 2000s taking songbook detours into rock and soul – is Stewart’s best album in the entire serie…
Yet another raer gem by the late Anita O' Day from her "Skylark" recording which was found in the summer of 2006 while searching for footage for the documentary "Anita O'Day Life of a jazz Singer. Tracks 1-10 were recorded on June 15, 1978 live at Club Sometime in Tokyo, Japan. The extra 7 bonus tracks "Rock and Roll Rag", "Come Rain Or Shine", "Fly Me To The Moon", "Sunny" "Walk On By" and "That's Love" makes buying this CD all the more worth it, and for the Anita O'Day fan, will be a welcome addtion to their collection. This CD captures Anita during the late 70's where she was still going strong.
Gary Brooker wrote music and lyrics for all the songs on his second album and acted as his own producer, resulting in perhaps his most personal statement as an artist. Unlike No More Fear Of Flying, on which he sometimes just seemed to be the singer on his own record, here Brooker delivered his songs with feeling, enabling him to overcome the star power of his backup musicians, who included Eric Clapton, George Harrison, and Phil Collins. This was partly because Brooker no longer felt the need to separate himself from The Procol Harum sound that was so much a part of his natural musical identity. Brooker's lyrics weren't as philosophical as longtime writing partner Keith Reid's, but they could be just as intriguingly oblique.
A pleasant compilation of Oscar Peterson tracks with Ed Thigpen, Louis Hayes, Bobby Durham, and others sitting in, all anchored by Peterson's classic version of "Fly Me to the Moon," originally written by Bart Howard in 1954.