Being used to trouble I anticipate it - but all the same I hate it, wouldn't you?

Continuing my trip back through the 1977 album charts.

24/04/77 : Evita - Various Artists

Yes, I'm doubling down on avoiding Cliff - I nearly gave in, but then I saw this was the next album and it's definitely taking precedence because it's the first album I bought for the lovely Miss McCormac (as she was back in those dim and distant days - 1990!).  She's a big fan, but I remember it being an album with some quality high points, but some judicious pruning wouldn't have hurt matters.

Yeah, there's nothing here to change my mind on repeat listen.  The high points for me from the women - Barbara Dickson on "Another Suitcase In Another Hall" and Julie Covington on "Don't Cry For Me Argentina" being the obvious choices with, less obviously, the former being the better track for me.  It's all surprisingly ambitious and operatic in places - it doesn't always work, but when it does, it really does.  105 minutes is unnecessarily long though - it certainly drags during the second half for me.

We're at #24 in the charts this week on its fifteenth week of a 21 week run, with it having peaked at #4 in its fourth and fifth weeks - skipping over Cliff at #18 (he's getting harder to ignore!).  The top five this week were ABBA, The Shadows, Frank Sinatra, The Hollies and ABBA again with a best-of (a different one from the two I've already reviewed) and the highest new entry was a greatest hits from Smokie which I was all ready to be rude about, but they did have six top ten tracks over the years, so I'll just about let them off.

Wikipedia reminds me that the album came before the stage show and includes a couple of tracks that didn't make it on to the stage.  Far and away the most interesting facts relate to the cast - Julie Covington only got the role because Elkie Brooks turned it down and Julie then declined to play Eva in the show, giving Elaine Paige her big break.  I'm always surprised when I find out that Che is not David Essex (who sang on the single version of "Oh What A Circus") on the album but Colm Wilkinson, who is best known as the original Jean Valjean in Les Miserables, but was also the original Phantom Of The Opera in the preview shows.  Tony Christie and Barbara Dickson also appear, as do two Manfred Mann vocalists in Paul Jones and Mike d'Abo.  There's absolutely no clue given as to the critical response (I imagine they were quite sniffy) but it did pretty well commercially, even getting to the top spot in The Netherlands.

"Customers also listened to" David Essex, Elaine Paige, Barbsra Dickson and Sarah Brightman - all singing a load of musical numbers, unsurprisingly.  I enjoyed bits of this, but the whole thing is a bit too much of a slog for me, I'm afraid - which is often the case for musical soundtracks.

17/04/77 - Not as dreadful as I feared
01/05/77 - All a bit dated