If you’re wondering why I am reviewing an album far removed from my usual jazz selections, it’s because I like to try things that pique my interests, and the title of this album did just that. The LP derives its title from a standard song associated with the fine 1940’s Les Brown band and a vocal aptly handled by Doris Day.
The title track is a bit of a slow opener but done well
enough by Ringo to keep me from skipping ahead. After a fair opening track
things make a dramatic improvement. His rendition of “Night and Day” is
straight out of the Sinatra charts. He handles the swinging big band backing
quite well and keeps up well enough to make me return to this track often. By
the way, the orchestra on the whole album is credited to the Beatles long-time
producer George Martin. Track 3 is, by far, my most favorite and keeps this
album in my collection. The seldom heard “Whispering Grass” is a masterpiece of
both production and vocalizing. The song made popular in the 1940’s by the Ink
Spots has always been a favorite of mine and I have tried to collect every
version I can find. Ringo steps back into the 1920s for “Bye Bye Blackbird”
including a banjo opening that morphs into a full Broadway production. Back to
another big 1940s hit by the Mills Brothers, “I’m A Fool to Care”. It’s
performed well, but I’m not too keen on the multi-tracking of Ringo to simulate
a male trio. Again, the band brings out the best in this selection. He
completes side one with the most popular standard of all time, the Hoagy
Carmichael composition, “Stardust”. Ringo sings this straight forward with a
nice lilting swing arrangement utilizing the full Martin orchestra. This is one
song that has been recorded thousands of times and when I hear a good
performance it reminds me what a beautiful mix of melody and lyrics Hoagy
created.
Side two opens with a Fats Waller number, “Blue Turning Grey
Over You”, a nice swinging big band production, but again the “trio” sound is
not complimenting to Ringo. It is interesting that he chose to open with the
verse though. The newest song on the album “Love Is A Many Splendor Thing” is
handled as a 1960’s ballad with a full chorus, sounding more like Andy Williams
than Ringo Starr. It’s not bad by any means, but kind of takes away from the
sentimentality of the rest of the album. He returns to the multi-tracking for
“Dream”, sounding not great but tolerable and nostalgic. The next two selections
are the low point of the entire program. The overall production is a clunky mix
of 1970s Muzak and bad horn solos, with Ringo in the “trio” setting. The song,
“You Always Hurt the One You Love” was popular by both the Ink Spots and The
Mills Brothers, but Ringo’s version leaves me not wanting to ever hear it again!
Track 11 is just as bad. Somehow, he and George Martin thought making “Have I
Told You Lately I Love You” into a rock/twist tempo mess was good. Simply, it
was not! Fortunately, the closing track brings them back to something closer to
the theme of the album. “Let the Rest of the World Go By” is well done as a
sugary ballad production with the Ringo “trio”, a full chorus and orchestra.
It’s more of a country setting as Eddy Arnold would do. Not terrible, just rather
forgettable.
The entire production is well done, with some amazing tracks
and some more mediocre ones. I give Ringo and George credit for releasing
something so nostalgic in 1970. It was not well received, but for those of us
that enjoy the old standards, it’s a fresh take.
Music: 7/10-Great standard songs for the most part, I could
think of a few compositions that would better suit the overall theme. Ringo may
not be the best vocalist, but “A for effort”.
Production: 9/10-Excellent engineering, decent arrangements,
less “schmaltz” would be better, but there are enough well-done tracks to keep
me interested.
As a side note, Paul McCartney tried something similar in
2015 with “Kisses at the Bottom” which won him a Grammy. We will dig into that
on a future post.
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