I’ve been listening to a lot of music during this Stay-at-Home lifestyle. Just by accident, I found some Women & Music CDs and I’m both in the process of listening to them and buying the CDs in the series that I lack (only two more to go!).
I thought I’d start with a 2-CD set, Women & Music: Beginnings. One of the usual aspects of this set is that singers from different musical eras rub shoulders with one another. I remember the first time I heard Carly Simon’s “You’re So Vain” (featuring Mick Jagger) in 1972 and immediately headed to the local record store to buy No Secrets with the daring (for that time) braless photo album cover. On Disc 1, it follows Mary Wells’s “My Guy” which expresses a completely different attitude toward guys.
Marie Muldaur is represented by “Midnight at the Oasis” and Melissa Manchester’s “Midnight Blue” sounds great. I’m a big fan of Doris Troy’s “Just One Look” and Nicolette Larson’s “Lotta Love” which sounds like a faux-Fleetwood Mac song to me.
How many of these songs do you remember? Any favorites here? GRADE: B+
TRACK LIST:
Disc 1
- God Bless the Child [4:00]
- (performed by Billie Holiday)
- What a Diff’rence a Day Made [2:31]
- (performed by Dinah Washington)
- Fever [3:22]
- (performed by Peggy Lee)
- Son of a Preacher Man [2:27]
- (performed by Dusty Springfield)
- Respect [2:26]
- (performed by Aretha Franklin)
- Downtown [3:11]
- (performed by Petula Clark)
- Walkin’ After Midnight [2:01]
- (performed by Patsy Cline)
- Ode to Billie Joe [4:16]
- (performed by Bobbie Gentry)
- Put a Little Love in Your Heart [2:35]
- (performed by Jackie DeShannon)
- Midnight Train to Georgia [4:40]
- (performed by Gladys Knight & The Pips)
- Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off [4:30]
- (performed by Ella Fitzgerald)
- My Guy [2:53]
- (performed by Mary Wells)
- You’re So Vain [4:20]
- (performed by Carly Simon)
- The Rose [3:33]
- (performed by Bette Midler)
- Me and Bobby McGee [4:30]
- (performed by Janis Joplin)
Disc 2
- I Feel the Earth Move [3:00]
- (performed by Carole King)
- Lotta Love [3:09]
- (performed by Nicolette Larson)
- At Last [3:02]
- (performed by Etta James)
- Chuck E’s in Love [3:31]
- (performed by Rickie Lee Jones)
- Just One Look [2:32]
- (performed by Doris Troy)
- So Long [2:39]
- (performed by Ruth Brown)
- Baby I’m Yours [2:32]
- (performed by Barbara Lewis)
- I’ll Never Fall in Love Again [3:03]
- (performed by Dionne Warwick)
- Midnight at the Oasis [3:47]
- (performed by Maria Muldaur)
- Reflections [2:53]
- (performed by The Supremes)
- Misty [3:02]
- (performed by Sarah Vaughan)
- Midnight Blue [3:55]
- (performed by Melissa Manchester)
- Blue Bayou [3:55]
- (performed by Linda Ronstadt)
- Both Sides Now [3:16]
- (performed by Judy Collins)
- I Will Always Love You [3:07]
- (performed by Dolly Parton)
- Over the Rainbow [3:30]
- (performed by Judy Garland)
Pretty good selection here. I know all but one or two. Never a fan of Ode to Billie Joe. Reflections is not one of my favorite Supremes songs. I would have chosen something else by them . Same with The Rose by Bette Midler. And never liked Melissa Manchester who sings Midnight Blue not Maria Muldaur as you wrote. All, in all a pretty good selection. I would actually give it a A- Now if only they had included Brand New Key by Melanie.
Steve, you’re right. It is Melissa Manchester who sings “Midnight Blue.” I got confused by the MMs: Maria Muldaur and Melissa Manchester. I have Melanie’s “Brand New Key” on one of my compilation CDs. I’ll try to find it.
Just realized one major omission. Joni Mitchell. Although she wrote Both Sides Now sung by Judy Collins here.
It’s frequently difficult to find songs I like on the compilations featured here. On this one I can’t find anything I DON’T like. “Lotta Love” is a Neil Young song.
Michael, glad you like the songs on WOMEN & SONGS: BEGINNINGS. You’ll be seeing more WOMEN & SONGS compilations over the next couple of years.
Can’t pick a favorite. Love them all except “Ode to Billie Joe.”
Jerry, “Ode to Bille Joe” is a very weird song. I remember our local rock station ran a contest where listeners where supposed to call in and identify what Bill Joe and his girl friend threw off the Tallahatchie Bridge. Most votes went to “A Baby.”
I have always liked “Ode to Billie Joe.” It gives a real feel for the time and place. And speaking of what they threw off the bridge, there was actually a movie adaptation nine years later starring Robby Benson in the title role, with Glynnis O’Connor. SPOILER ALERT: since Bobbie Gentry admitted she had no idea why the real kid killed himself, screenwriter Herman (SUMMER OF ’42) Raucher used his imagination. It was Bilie Joe’s guilt for getting drunk and having sex with another guy, rather than impregnating Bobbie Lee (who wasn’t pregnant, and threw her rag doll off the bridge, not the non-existent baby). The movie, produced and directed by Jethro Bodine himself – Max Baer Jr. – had a budget of $1.1 million and took in over $27 million at the box office,
Even Robby Benson fan Jackie has never seen this one.
Jeff, wow! You certainly have a grasp of Movie Trivia! I have NOT seen ODE TO BILLIE JOE. Interesting plot twist!
I would have voted to throw Bobbie Gentry over the bridge.
Jerry, Bobbie Gentry’s money belt from “Ode to Billie Joe” (which she wrote and sang) would keep her afloat!
I agree with the previous comments. Starting from the top, you cannot go wrong with Billie Holliday, as far as I’m concerned. Also a big fan of Patsy Cline and Dusty Springfield and Aretha (of course) , as well as Etta James’s version of “At Last.” I’ve never cared for Peggy Lee, but overall this is a pretty good collection, though of course I could pick different songs by some of the singers. You mentioned “My Guy” by Mary Wells – that and “My Girl” by The Temptations were both #1 songs written by Smokey Robinson (in 1964 and 1965, respectively).
Jeff, like you and Michael, I listened to most of these songs fondly. And, like you, I would have made some different choices on the songs. I saw Etta James in Madison, Wisconsin in 1977. She was terrific!
We have a CD of THE DUKES OF SEPTEMBER from the early ’90s – Donald Fagen, Michael McDonald, Phoebe Snow, Boz Scaggs, Eddie & David Brigati of the Rascals. Phoebe Snow did a great version of “At Last.”
Jeff, I have that CD of THE DUKES OF SEPTEMBER around here somewhere. I like Phoebe Snow and was saddened by her demise.
Steve already pointed out that Melissa Manchester sang “Midnight Blue,” so I won’t belabor the point, lol.
I like most of the songs here, but—as is often the case with these compilations—there really isn’t any rhyme or reason to the songs they chose or the order in which they appear. I agree with Steve: the omission of Joni is a serious one. Although it’s true she wrote “Both Sides Now,” I think she’s important enough to be represented by one of the songs she performed herself.
Deb, there’s still plenty of WOMEN & SONGS CDs to listen to and present here on the blog. I’m sure Joni Mitchell will show up on one of them.
I love them all. Downtown seems especially poignant right now. But my favorite would be “At Last” by Etta James.
Patti, when I heard Etta James sing “At Last” in Madison, Wisconsin it was thrilling!
For once I knew all but one of the songs by title (Lotta love isn’t familiar to me by title, but possibly if I heard it I’d recognize it)
Hard to pick a favorite, and most of the performers did songs I liked better than the ones listed, but a good selection. I generally prefer fast songs, ones that get you off your feet, so that’s why I’d probably pick other songs to represent the singer. I guess I’d pick you’re so vain by Carly Simon as my favorite, or Feel the Earth Move by Carole King.
Agree about the omission of Joni Mitchell.
Maggie, I have over a dozen WOMEN & SONGS CDs to listen to. I’m sure Joni Mitchell will show up on at least one of them. WOMEN & SONGS is a wonderful series that I discovered by chance. Now I’m scrambling to acquire all the discs in the series. Only two to go!
George-I checked a few of the other cd’s in this series. They seem to go in chronological order. So no Joni Mitchell. They tend to stay away from rock also. I didn’t see anything by Debby Harry, Joan Jet, Chrissie Hynde, Patti Smith. Saw a lot of soft pop like Diane Warren, Cher and Jewel coming up.
Steve, you’re right in your assessment. I checked the WOMEN & SONGS CDs I own and there’s no Joni, Debby, Joan, Chrissie, Patti, or Fiona. Unless they’re on the 2 CDs I don’t have…yet.
Well, I liked just about all of these songs, George.
I wish somebody would include Barbara Lewis’ Hello, Stranger in one of these compilation CDs. I think it’s her best.
I was going to mention Barbara Lewis too, Beth. We went to two different Do Wop concerts in the last ten years, both on the strength of Barbara Lewis being among the performers, but alas, she was like Fats Domino at Jazzfest 2006, a no show. One time they announced she was sick and the other they just said she “wasn’t up to it” or something like that. I’ve always liked both “Hello Stranger” and “Baby I’m Yours.”
I see on Wikipedia that she retired from singing “for health reasons” in 2017.
And how is this for trivia: “On August 8, 1969, along with actress Joanna Pettet, Lewis had lunch at the house of Sharon Tate in Benedict Canyon…a few hours before Tate’s murder there during the night that followed.” !!
By the way, Jackie says she did indeed see the Robby Benson movie ODE TO BILLIE JOE.
Jeff, I suspected that Jackie might have seen ODE TO BILLIE JOE because of Robby Benson.
Beth, I’ll look around for Barbara Lewis’s “Hello, Stranger.” It’s a marvelous song from an underrated singer!
I remember almost all of them!
Many are from my teenage years when I used to listen to the AFN (American Forces Network) in Germany and later as a student my friends and I exchanged tapes/cassettes. Those were the days!
What we missed though were pictures of all those good looking girls … 🙂
ODE TO BILLIE JOE would also have been my favourite – took me a long time to understand what it was all about, of course some speculation too.
Wolf, “Ode to Billie Joe” was played constantly when it first was released. Listeners would call the Disk Jockeys (remember them?) and request the song. “Ode to Billie Joe” is a strange hit.
There are some songs that you can predict are going to be huge hits as soon as you hear them for the first time. ODE is one of them. It was that way for me. I couldn’t get it out of my head for days. Some songs for whatever reason are perfectly structured that way, but I don’t have enough musical expertise to explain why.
Steve, you’re right about the haunting quality of “Ode to Billie Joe.” It zoomed to Number One in three weeks and stayed there for four weeks. “Ode to Billie Joe” stayed in the BILLBOARD 100 for 20 weeks. BILLBOARD ranked it the #3 song of 1967.
Despite hating Robby Benson, who talked like he had a tomato in his mouth, I saw the Ode to Billy Joe movie! It stunk! It came out when I was in Nam and I used to sing: “It was the fourth of June, another dusty Mekong Delta day.”
I like the rest, although two are low on my rating scale!
Bob, I’m glad you found some songs to like with this compilation CD. I’ve found that most people either hate “Ode to Billie Joe” or love it.