Friday 5 June 2015

Shirley – SHIRLEY BASSEY***

In The Still Of The Night/Let There Be Love/All At Once/For Every Man There’s A Woman/I’m In The Mood For Love/So In Love/If I Were A Bell/There Will Never Be Another You/Hooray For Love/Too Late Now/I’m Shooting High/Ev’ry Time We Say Goodbye

Shirley Bassey was Britain’s most successful female vocalist in the early 1960s, appealing mostly to the adult market with her powerful MOR ballads. Shirley was her second album for Columbia. (UK:9)

“Shirley Bassey in her early days as a performer - recorded in the early 1960s. Great musical accompaniment, the voice is not the full developed Bassey of the late 60s early 70s, but the promise is there.”

“This is pretty much the finished article here and there is no denying the power and quality of Shirley's voice. The songs are wonderful as well, long before all that Hey Big Spender stuff.”

“The numbers feature competent but not exciting work by Geoff Love: pretty much your standard saxes-and-strings nightclub style, with the occasional bizarre touch (chirping crickets on In The Still Of The Night and a completely unnecessary choir on I'm In The Mood For Love).”

“Bassey's brassy voice works well and does a lot to cut the overtly sentimental factor of many ballad albums, as does her slight accent. She doesn't dig too deeply into the lyrics, but her voice is thrilling enough that it takes a while to notice this, and by then, you've stopped caring too much. Not to say that there aren't some really good interpretations here: So In Love and Too Late Now are both superb, as is the little heard All At Once."

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