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Best of the Verve Song Books: Love Songs
Home > Complete List of "v-w" Artists > The Verve > Item 95
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Best of the Verve Song Books: Love Songs
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by Ella Fitzgerald
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$11.98
At Amazon
on 9-8-2008.
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It's been well documented that the favorite singer of composers like Kern, Gershwin, Berlin, Porter was, of all people, Fred Astaire. They loved him for the same reason listeners and collectors of the "American Songbook" should be thankful for these Ella collections: The interpreter remained true to the composer's intentions--melodically, rhythmically, lyrically. Admittedly, this respectful, "straight" approach to the material has its liabilities. There's a certain sameness and sterility to these studio recordings (one almost wishes for an audience, or for an Oscar Peterson on piano), yet I couldn't be without them. They're a valuable resource--for definitive, exemplary, relatively unembellished readings of many of the best songs by America's greatest composers. But therein lies the problem with these Verve reissues. The originals were all grouped by composer, but the anthologies, by trying to organize the tunes "thematically," simply diffuse the focus of the original albums, which was as much on a composer as on Ella. "Love Songs" is scarcely a useful title for a collection of popular standards, especially one containing songs of every hue and tempo. And one of the selections, "Love You Madly," sounds as much a "period piece" today as it did on the original vinyl. Otherwise, the songs indeed are "classics," and one can only hope that listeners of the album will do enough research about the songwriters to give credit where credit is due.
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Best of the Verve Song Books: Love Songs
Available from Amazon
Price: $11.98
Updated on 9-8-2008.
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