Back in 1983, Elektra/Asylum Records released an album they resisted. Linda Ronstadt wanted to record some classic songs from The American Songbook. Executives at the record company thought an album of traditional standards would be a flop. Even Ronstadt’s producer, Peter Asher, expressed his doubts. But Ronstadt knew what she was doing. She got The Nelson Riddle Orchestra to provide backup music. The album sold three million copies in the U.S. and Global sales surpassed five million copies. Ronstadt won another Grammy for Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female at the 1984 Grammy Awards. This is an example of a talented singer performing great music. GRADE: A
TRACK LIST:
| 1. | “What’s New?“ | Johnny Burke, Bob Haggart | 3:55 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2. | “I’ve Got a Crush on You“ | George Gershwin, Ira Gershwin | 3:28 |
| 3. | “Guess I’ll Hang My Tears Out to Dry“ | Sammy Cahn, Jule Styne | 4:13 |
| 4. | “Crazy He Calls Me“ | Carl Sigman, Sidney Keith Russell | 3:33 |
| 5. | “Someone to Watch Over Me“ | George Gershwin, Ira Gershwin | 4:09 |
| 6. | “I Don’t Stand a Ghost of a Chance with You“ | Bing Crosby, Ned Washington, Victor Young | 4:06 |
| 7. | “What’ll I Do“ | Irving Berlin | 4:06 |
| 8. | “Lover Man (Oh Where Can You Be?)“ | Jimmy Davis, Jimmy Sherman, Roger “Ram” Ramirez | 4:18 |
| 9. | “Goodbye“ | Gordon Jenkins | 4:47 |
I’ve been a fan of Jennifer Nettles since her days of singing in the Country Music group, Sugarland. Nettles knows how to belt out a song. With her new album, Always Like New, Nettles tries to emulate Linda Ronstadt’s What’s New right down to the similar album cover design. But Broadway songs might not be Nettles best milieu. Nettles doesn’t sound comfortable with this set of songs, but she tries hard to make them sound energetic. I wasn’t convinced. GRADE: B–
TRACK LIST:
| 1. | “Wouldn’t It Be Loverly“ | Alan LernerFrederick Loewe | My Fair Lady | 3:18 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2. | “Sit Down, You’re Rockin’ the Boat“ | Frank Loesser | Guys and Dolls | 3:50 |
| 3. | “Wait for It“ | Lin-Manuel Miranda | Hamilton | 3:26 |
| 4. | “Almost Like Being in Love“ | LernerLoewe | Brigadoon | 2:58 |
| 5. | “It All Fades Away” (featuring Brandi Carlile) | Jason Robert Brown | The Bridges of Madison County | 4:15 |
| 6. | “There’s a Sucker Born Ev’ry Minute” | Cy ColemanMichael Stewart | Barnum | 2:26 |
| 7. | “Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’“ | Oscar Hammerstein IIRichard Rodgers | Oklahoma! | 3:47 |
| 8. | “Anyone Can Whistle“ | Stephen Sondheim | Anyone Can Whistle | 2:48 |
| 9. | “You Will Be Found“ | Benj PasekJustin Paul | Dear Evan Hansen | 5:12 |
| 10. | “Tomorrow“ | Charles StrouseMartin Charnin | Annie | 2:48 |
I’ve liked Annie Lennox since I first heard her singing songs with Dave Stewart in the Eurythmics days. I also enjoyed Lennox’s solo albums: Diva and Medusa. When I first saw this copy of Nostalgia (2014) at a Library Book Sale, I passed on it. I had a premonition that Annie Lennox singing traditional songs might not be wonderful. As I took a second turn around the Library Book Sale tables, I broke down and bought Nostalgia. Sadly, my premonition was right. The only song I thought Annie Lennox performed well was “I Put a Spell on You.” That song put a tingly spell on me, but the rest of the songs on this CD left me deflated. GRADE: C
TRACK LIST:
I like both Ronstadt and Lennox. Not familiar with Nettles but disliked Sugarland’s pop country. But I have no interest in any of these. When an artist drags out songs from the Classic American Songbook it seems reek of lack of imagination or original material. These songs have been done to death. Leave them alone. Does anyone think Rod Stewart’s career was better once he went this route. Artistly anyways?
Steve, I’m with you on Rod Stewart’s “American Songbook” albums. But, Rod put out FOUR of them so sales must have been strong.
When I hear songs from The Great American Songbook I mostly think of Sinatra, and it’s pretty tough for anyone else to measure up. Even though I’ve always loved Ronstadt and sorta like her take on these standards, I wouldn’t miss this album if I never heard it again. As for Lennox, I’ve only heard her work with the Eurythmics, which I definitely like, but none of her solo work. Can’t say much about Nettles. I’m at least aware of Sugarland and have seen them on television but they didn’t make much of an impression. My best advice for country singers is to leave the standards alone unless your name is Willie Nelson.
Michael, I think singers feel they need to sings “the standards” to show off their singing “chops.” Of these three, only Ronstadt achieves her goal.
When Linda recorded these songs, she was doing something very different: pop stars in the 1980s simply didn’t sing from the great American songbook. Now it’s almost de rigueur for a pop singer to present their own version of “Feeling Good,” “I Can’t Get Started,” or “My Heart Belongs to Daddy.” However, it takes not only a great vocal range, but an innate understanding of how those songs should be arranged for a singer to be successful. As much as I like Linda & Annie (not a fan of Nettles), if I want to hear the great classics, I’m going to choose Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, Mel Torme, Sarah Vaughan, et. al., every time.
Deb, I think Linda Ronstadt did the best job of singing these standards because she had the brilliant Nelson Riddle backing her up. Riddle worked with Sinatra on many of these American Songbook classics.
Deb, don’t forget Tony Bennett. We have two of his Great American Songbook collections. My problem with Linda was not her singing, but when we saw her in concert she did mostly more obscure songs rather than the more well known standards.
We also have a couple of Bette Midler collections, one a tribute to Rosemary Clooney, the other Peggy Lee (who I never cared for).
Slight quibble: “Feeling Good” was Anthony Newley’s song, and thanks to Nina Simone (and Michael Buble thanks her so much that he did a half-assed note for note copy of her orchestration and approach), we know it as perhaps his only good one. And although he eventually lived in the US, I’ll suggest the Newley corpus is part of the Mediocre British Songbook.
While latter-day Sinatra could listen to Billie Holiday’s brilliant version of “Sunny Side of the Street” and add such special touches as “All Those Chicks At My Feet!/On the sunny side of the street!/Hep hep!”
At least he didn’t add references to their care of his bird.
Dunno why one would dislike Peggy Lee in this company, but de gustibus.
Todd, I’ve encountered several people who distain Peggy Lee. I have no problem with her or her music.
Jeff, I have several “tribute” albums–like that Bette Midler/Rosemary Clooney CD–but I don’t seem to play them very much.
I’ve always been a fan of this music and other stuff that went out of style before I was born.
When I started working for the Red Cross in ’98, taking elderly and disabled people to medical appointments, I tried to make the trip as pleasant as possible, and picked out CDs with music they enjoyed. Early on, this sort of thing was very popular, and the old foiks often sang along to music from their youth. But over time, their tastes changed. By the time I retired in 2018, at age 68, older folks preferred music from my own younger days.
Just why the favorite songs of the Seniors changed like this is something I’ve never been able to figure out!
Dan, when my mother was in Northgate’s Memory Care Unit, the staff played music from the 1940s and 1950s all the time. Plenty of Sinatra, Fitzgerald, Tony Bennett, etc.
My folks, born 1937, became Eagles fans in the last decade of their lives. I guess having heard the songs at some remove over thirty+ years, and liking the likes of John Denver and the Carpenters over that period, allowed them to eventually click in.
Dan, why do I think you have figured it out?
I liked Ronstadt’s version at the time. She could also do Spanish tunes well-perhaps because she was brought up on that music.
And redoing these songs possibly keeps them alive. The original voices are best but how many younger listeners even know this second batch of singers?
Some will. I found them as I explored jazz beyond my mother’s Peggy Lee and my father’s third stream and some post-bop albums.
We have the Ronstadt and even saw her perform her “standards’ tour in a free concert. She can do no wrong with me, but of course I’d rather hear her sing “Heat Wave” or “Hurt So Bad.”
I know part of the audience for Rod Stewart’s standards albums: Jackie. Each one was a little worse than the one before. But then, she also has Barry Manilow’s CD of Classic Songs of the 1950s.
If you’re doing covers of standards, may I suggest:
THE GLORY OF GERSHWIN (1994) Produced by George Martin
It’s got quite the eclectic list of performers (some much better than you’d expect):
Peter Gabriel, Summertime
Sting, Nice Work if You Can Get It (you’d never guess it was him)
Lisa Stansfield, They Can’t Take That Away From Me
Elton John, Someone to Watch Over Me and Our Love is Here to Stay
Carly Simon, I’ve Got a Crush on You
Elvis Costello, But Not For Me
Cher, It Ain’t Necessarily So (so worth it just to hear sing sing of a “fish’s abdomen”)
Kate Bush, The Man I Love
Jon Bon Jovi, How Long Has This Been Going On
Oleta Adams, Embraceable You
Sinead O’Connor, My Man’s Gone Now (bizarre)
Robert Palmer, I Got Rhythm
Meat Loaf (!), Somebody Loves Me
Issy Van Randwyck, I’ll Build a Stairway to Paradise
Courtney Pine, Summertime
Larry Adler & George Martin, Rhapsody in Blue
Jackie loves these kind of cover and tribute albums so we have a bunch of them.
Possibly the best modern version of “It Ain’t Necessarily So” is by the Bronski Beat. Absolutely original and I looooove it:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=BQpYLhiJB-4
Deb, you need to hear Cher singing “The man made his home in that fish’s abdomen.”
We took Jackie’s mother, who barely knew she was alive then, to see Linda Ronstadt perform standards and she knew every song.
Jeff, I’m ordering THE GLORY OF GERSHWIN right now! Thanks for the heads up!
I too added to Gershwin album to my Spotify library. I was all about the popular music in the 1960s & 1970s, when I was a child, a teen, and then in my early twenties. I really didn’t start exploring classical music until the late-1970s, beginning with those classics collections from Time-Life. As I moved into the 1980s, I was totally into New Wave music, but also started listening to the great American songbook, spearheaded by a friend’s mother who gave me a bunch of those great Sinatra albums from the 1950s & 1960s that she found for a dime a piece at a yard sale. I must have worn out the grooves on “In the Wee Small Hours” and “Sings for Only the Lonely.” That expanded my horizons to Sinatra’s contemporaries and into jazz music. Music from the 1990s & early 2000s is a bit of a blur for me, but I find myself listening to quite a bit of contemporary music these days (I love EDM, which I think of as the natural evolution of my favorite music from my younger years, disco and new wave). I’m not their target demographic, but I love certain songs by The Weeknd, Bebe Rexha, Harry Styles, Lil Nas X, etc.—and Spotify makes it easy to listen to them.
When we were kids, my father got stuff like Mantovani, but he also had live albums – Tony Bennett at Carnegie Hall in 1962. Harry Belafonte live, possibly also at Carnegie Hall. I recently bought a two CD collection of the Tony Bennett, which still sounds great and has 10 or 15 extra songs that weren’t on the original album. They also played Broadway musicals (I remember My Fair Lady and Camelot and Finian’s Rainbow).
My parents weren’t big music listeners. My Dad often took his radio to work (one of his main jobs was house painting), where he would listen to the “easy listening” station. My mom, although she had great recall of her favorites—mostly big-band stuff from the 1940s & 1950s—never expressed an interest in listening to the radio or buying records. I, on the other hand, started buying 45s & LPs as soon as I got my first babysitting gigs. Our daughters grew up in a home full of music, especially Boomer favorites. To them, sixties music is as recognizable as anything contemporary—and one of our girls, Julia, was named for the beautiful Beatles song John Lennon wrote in honor of his mother.
What’s New and For Sentimental Reasons are both terrific albums, which I’ve played hundreds of times and are still favorites. Ronstadt has a perfect voice for the songs and with Riddle doing the music…EXCELLENT!
Diana Krall does a fine job with the standards too, and, of course, Ella.
Rick, I agree with you on Ronstadt and her CDs with Nelson Riddle. I’m growing fonder of Diana Krall the more I listen to her. Ella, of course, is the Queen of the American Songbook.
I love Linda Ronstadt. She can sing anything and I will enjoy it.
Tracy, sadly Linda Ronstadt suffers from a condition that has taken away her ability to sing. Tragic!