For every Joe there's a Joan
Continuing my trip back through the 1961 album charts.
12/03/61 : Shirley - Shirley Bassey
Yet another woman - and finally we've an album where she's not sharing the spotlight with a random dude. I'm expecting this to sound dated, but in a good way - you can't fault our Shirley's voice, can you?
Yeah, they're all perfectly acceptable cabaret style numbers elevated by her excellent voice - she's got a great tone and control. I particularly liked "For Every Man There's A Woman" which she's drawls out perfectly above some excellent brasswork - I thought she'd do a better job with "Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye" though.
We're at #13 in the charts this week on her fourth week of a five week run, with it having peaked at #9. A woman in the top ten - was that even allowed?!? It also came back for another five week in '62 - well done, Shirley! The top five this week was Elvis, South Pacific, George, The Everly Brothers and Frank and we have one new entry in the chart for Chet Atkins (#20).
Wikipedia tells me it's her fourth album and was her first to get into the top ten, a feat that she wouldn't repeat until 1970. Her entry also tells me she did a TV special in 1962 with Nelson Riddle and I can imagine his arrangements and her voice would have worked really well together.
"Customers also listened to" a million other Shirley Bassey albums, John Barry, Petula Clark and Nancy Sinatra - which is a somewhat strange combination, but someone who's released albums between 1958 and 2020 is going to have picked up a few random fans along the way. I've absolutely no problems with this album - yes, it's a bit dated but it's very enjoyably so and you really can't fault that voice.
Comments
Post a Comment