Cutting its way through my dreams like a knife

Continuing my trip back through the 1968 album charts.

26/05/68 : Sher-oo - Cilla Black

Ah, Ms Black - I've been expecting you!  I wasn't expecting an album called Sher-oo though - what's all that about?  My expectations for the songs are something bouncy in a Sandie Shaw kinda way - dated but kinda fun.

And yeah, it's fun in its own way.  The songs are indeed bouncy enough but however, and this was a bit of a surprise, her voice isn't as strong as I was expecting - there are times that it really feels like she's struggling to get to the right pitch (and it's not related to straining to hit high notes).  Yes, it may be intentional but for me it just came across as, well, not very good.  There are exceptions - I liked "Yo Yo" and "Something's Gotten Hold Of My Heart", but "A Man And A Woman" and "Follow Me" are absolutely dreadful.  And I'm not sure that album cover does her any great favours either.

We're at #19 in the charts this week on her seventh week of an eleven week run, having peaked at #7 in her fifth week.  The top five this week were Bob, Scott, TSOM, a Supremes best-of and The Incredible String Band (which is indeed quite incredible) - that's a slightly more varied top five than some weeks.  The highest new entry was Otis (#27) but I'm also going to mention the other one which is Cliff In Japan (#38), which I really wasn't expecting - but apparently it was a very successful tour and the album cover is really quite something.  Back to the charts, there are no new women involved in the chart this week.

Wikipedia doesn't have a lot on the album - most of it talks about "Step Inside Love" which was written by Paul McCartney for her and was the theme tune to the first four seasons of her TV show, imaginative titled Cilla.  It also tells us that the album was produced by George Martin - she certainly had the big guns helping her out, didn't she?

"Customers also listened to" - unfortunately I'm unable to tell you because I had to resort to YouTube for this one (which has happened less often for this year than I was expecting).  I enjoyed the nostalgia of this one giving me a slice of that time, but I'd have to say it was considerably more rubbish in places than I was expecting.  And I still have absolutely no idea why it's called Sher-oo...

19/05/68 - An enjoyable album
30/05/68 - Fine, but not exactly essential

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