Various Artists – Greatest Love Songs (2001)

And here is one of these countless compilation albums with “Greatest Love Song” …

… Compilations of this kind are part of the music industry to earn a little more money with low budget productions.
Many of the songs are actually “sad love songs” and I think there is something for everyone on these two CDs.

My favourite songs are “Morning Has Broken “, “Island In The Sun”, “The Air That I Breathe”, “Light My Fire”, “When A Man Loves A Woman”, “Pretty Woman”, “Wonderful World”, “My Girl”, “Only You”, “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue” and “Brown Eyed Girl” … they touch my soul.

Enjoy your sentimental side.

Tracklist:

CD 1:
01. Al Martino: Spanish Eyes (Kaempfert/ingleton/Snyder) 2.49
02. America: Sister Golden Hair (Beckley) 3.21
03. Art Garfunkel: Bright Eyes (Batt) 3.59
04. Barry White: You’re The First, The Last, My Everything (White/Sepe/Redcliffe) 3.26
05. Bellamy Brothers: If I Said You Have A Beautiful Body Would You Hold It Against Me (D.Bellamy) 3.12
06. Cat Stevens: Morning Has Broken (Stevens/Farjeon) 3.19
07. Chicago: If You Leave Me Now (Cetera) 3.54
08. Commodores: Three Times A Lady (Richie) 3.38
09. Dean Martin: Everybody Loves Somebody (Lane/Coslow/Taylor) 2.46
10. Diane Warwick: Heartbreaker (B.Gibb/R.Gibb/M.Gibb) 4.18
11. Eric Carmen: All By Myself (Carmen) 4.54
12. Everly Brothers: All I Have To Do Is Dream (Bryant) 2.24
13. F. R. Davids: Words (Fetoussi) 2.51
14. Gary Pucket: Young Girl (Fuller) 3.08
15. Gary Wright: Dream Weaver (Wright) 4.18
16. Harry Belafonte: Island In The Sun (Belafonte/Burgess) 3.23

CD 2:
01. Hazlewood/Sinatra: Summerwine (Nayer/Mercer) 3.39
02. Hollies: The Air That I Breathe (Hammond/Hazlewood) 4.03
03. Jose Feliciano: Light My Fire (Morrison/Manzarek/Densmore/Krieger) 3.04
04. Leo Sayer: When I Need You (Hammond/Sager) 4.07
05. Pat Boone: Love Letters In The Sand (Kenny/Coots) 2.08
06. Paul Anka: Put Your Head On My Shoulder (Anka) 2.37
07. Percy Sledge: When A Man Loves A Woman (Lewis/Wright) 2.49
08. Righteous Brothers: Unchained Melody (Zaret/North) 3.37
09. Roy Orbison: Pretty Woman (Orbinson/Dees) 2.59
10. Sam Cooke: Wonderful World (Cooke/Adler/Alpert) 3.00
11. Temptation: My Girl (Robinson/White) 2.41
12. The Platters: Only You (Ram/Rand) 2.36
13. Them: It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue (Dylan) 3.48
14. Tom Jones: She’s A Lady (Anka) 3.36
15. Van Morrison: Brown Eyed Girl (Morrison) 3.03
16. Walker Brothers: The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine Any More (Crewe/Gauido) 3.01

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Various Artists – An Easy Christmas (2001)

This is just a sampler, full with 20 old and classic christmas songs, performed by many stars in the easy listening style.
You can hear singers like Don McLean, David Bowie, Andy Williams, Nat King Cole, Doris Day, Perry Como and Al Green.

“This is my most favourite christmas album ever-I had to order a second copy as the first had a scratch on. I listen to it all the time. Not your average Christmas album!”(by miss r aughton)

“Great to listen to while wrapping presents” (by Zoe Bell)

And I guess, I will play this album (amongst others) on December 24, 2016 … Enjoy this romantic and sentimental sampler.

Tracklist:
01. Andy Williams: Most Wonderful Time Of Year (2001) (Pola/Wyle) 2.34
02. Nat King Cole: Christmas Song (1963) (Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire) (Tormé/Wells) 3.14
03. Eartha Kitt: Santa Baby (1953) (Javits/Springer) 3.26
04. Dean Martin: Let It Snow Let It Snow Let It Snow (1965) (Cahn/Styne) 1.58
05. Judy Garland: Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas (1944) (Martin/Blane) 2.45
06. Harry Belafonte: Mary’s Boy Child (1957) (Hairston) 2.59
07. Bing Crosby: White Christmas (1954) (Berlin) 3.04
08. Al Green: Silent Night (1963) (Gruber/Mohr) 3.19
09. Crystal Gayle: Rudolph The Red Nose Reindeer (1996) (Marks) 2.57
10. Anne Murray: Snowbird (1978) (MacLellan) 2.11
11. Don McLean: Winter Wonderland (1991) (Bernard/Smith) 2.54
12. Charles Brown: Please Come Home For Christmas (Christmas Finds Me Oh So Sad) (1961) (Brown/Redd) 3.18
13. Doris Day: I’ll Be Home For Christmas (1964) (Gannon/Kent/Ram) 2.27
14. Andy Williams: Sleigh Ride (live) (2001) (Anderson) 2.22
15. Crystal Gayle: Silver Bells (1996) (Livingston/Evans) 4.09
16. Don McLean: Santa Claus Is Comin’ To Town (1991) (Coots/Gillespie) 3.06
17. Perry Como: God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen (1959)(Traditional) 2.56
18. Al Green: What Christmas Means To Me (1963) (Story/Gaye/ Gordy) 3.44
19. Bing Crosby + David Bowie: Peace On Earth/Little Drummer Boy (1977) (Fraser/Grossman/Alan Kohan/Simeone/Davis/Onorati) 2.38
20. Michael Ball: Happy New Year (1999) (Andersson/Ulvaeus) 4.18

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Dean Martin – The Dean Martin Christmas Album (1966)

The Dean Martin Christmas Album is a 1966 studio album by Dean Martin arranged by Ernie Freeman and Bill Justis.

This was Martin’s only album of Christmas music released on Reprise Records (his only other Christmas album, A Winter Romance, having been released in 1959 on Capitol Records). It was reissued on CD by Hip-O Records in 2008, retitled A Very Cool Christmas.

Ricci James Martin, Martin’s son, wrote in a biography of his father that The Dean Martin Christmas Album was the only one of his father’s albums that was played in the Martin household, his parents seldom listening to Dean Martin’s music.

This was the fourth of five albums Martin released in 1966. Billboard magazine reported in its December 3, 1966 issue that The Dean Martin Christmas Album was on top of its “Best Bets for Christmas” chart.

The release of The Dean Martin Christmas Album in October and The Dean Martin TV Show in November 1966 were accompanied by what Billboard described as a “merchandising avalanche” by Reprise Records and their parent company Warner Music. Billboard described Martin as running the “hottest streak of his career”, and said that Reprise planned to sell $4 million of his records over the Christmas sales period. Billboard later reported that Martin had sold 850,000 albums in December 1966.

Reviewing A Very Cool Christmas, the 2008 reissue of the Dean Martin Christmas Album on Allmusic.com, William Ruhlmann gave the album three and a half stars out of five. Ruhlmann commented that Martin was in a “typically easygoing, good-natured mood on these tracks…He sings the seasonal material with the same nonchalance he gave to pop music of the period”. (by wikipedia)

Personnel:
Dean Martin (vocals)
+
unknown orchestra

Tracklist:
01. White Christmas (Berlin) 2.54
02. Jingle Bells (Pierpont) 2.22
03. I’ll Be Home For Christmas (Cannon/Kent/Ram) 2.28
04. Blue Christmas (Hayes/Johnson) 2.15
05. Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow! (Cahn/Styne) 1.57
06. Marshmallow World (DeRose/Sigman) 2.41
07. Silver Bells (Evans/Livingston) 2.25
08. Winter Wonderland (Bernard/Smith) 2.10
09. The Things We Did Last Summer (Cahn/Styne) 2.43
10. Silent Night (Gruber/Mohr) 2.47

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Dean Martin – Forever Cool (2007)

 The concept of the artificially created duets collection — in which newly recorded vocal or instrumental performances by an array of big-name contemporary artists are spliced with existing tracks from another artist, living or dead — is hardly a new one. Now it’s Dean Martin’s turn: Capitol Records, Martin’s home throughout most of the 1950s, follows the established format by taking vintage tracks by the late, beloved crooner and grafting onto them vocal takes by country star Martina McBride, neo-R&B diva Joss Stone, actor Kevin Spacey, jazz musicians Chris Botti and Dave Koz and others, to unsurprisingly mixed results.

The thing to keep in mind before diving in to Forever Cool is that Martin’s coolness credentials have never been in question — hence the title — whereas just about anyone who would dare breathe in his airspace is relatively uncool by default. Spacey, for example, may be engaging on the screen, but pretending to banter with the monumentally überhip Dino on “Ain’t That a Kick in the Head” and Roger Miller’s “King of the Road” (which Martin cut for Reprise, his post-Capitol label, on 1965’s (Remember Me) I’m the One Who Loves You album), only makes Spacey seem dorky and the whole exercise somewhat ghoulish. Relative newbies like Stone and former American Idol contestant Paris Bennett don’t stand a chance in this company, trying so hard when all Martin has to do is open his mouth. Even a seasoned vocalist like McBride, taking the traditional female role in Frank Loesser’s seasonal perennial “Baby, It’s Cold Outside,” comes off as flat and uninspired. And Robbie Williams’ turn on “Please Don’t Talk About Me When I’m Gone” just emphasizes that he’s out of his league.

The instrumentalists fare better: Big Bad Voodoo Daddy was born to create Rat Pack-style big-band arrangements, and they do Martin justice on both “Who’s Got the Action” and “You’re Nobody Till Somebody Loves You,” which they share not only with the big bad voodoo boozer himself but with country’s Shelby Lynne, who holds her own. And both Botti (trumpet) and Koz (sax), maybe because they don’t need to vocalize, only blow and brighten up their respective tracks: “I’ve Grown Accustomed to Her Face” and “Just in Time.” There is one true standout here, the only character in the bunch with as much certifiable personality as Martin, and that would be French superstar Charles Aznavour, who swings with Dino on the signature “Everybody Loves Somebody.” Too bad, however, that the original hit single was not used but instead a lesser version. In the end, it’s Dean Martin who saves the day each time out. What Forever Cool ultimately reaffirms is that there is no one like him. So just don’t go expecting world-class performances from the posthumous partners and it’s easy to have a good time with this experiment in studio manipulation. Now, where is that martini? (by Jeff Tamarkin)

Personnel:
Kevin Axt (bass)
Charles Aznavour (vocals)
Rick Baptist (trumpet)
Paris Bennett (vocals)
Wayne Bergeron (trumpet)
Chuck Berghofer (bass)
Big Bad Voodoo Daddy (vocals)
George Bohannon (trombone)
Chris Botti (trumpet)
Brian Bromberg (bass)
Richard Bullock (trombone)
Lee Callet (saxophone)
John Chiodini (guitar)
Rob Christie (background vocals)
Gene Cipriano (saxophone)
Vinnie Colaiuta (drums)
Bill Elton (trombone)
Tiziano Ferro (vocals)
Gregg Field (drums)
Joey Gian (background vocals)
Craig Gosnell (trombone)
Gary Grant (trumpet)
Daniel Greco (vibraphone)
Justin Hageman (french horn)
James Harrah (guitar)
Dan Higgins (saxophone)
Greg Huckins (saxophone)
Dave Koz (saxophone)
Steve Kujala (flute)
Michael Lang (piano)
Charles Loper (trombone)
Sal Lozano (saxophone)
Warren Luening (trumpet)
Larry Lunetta (trumpet)
Shelby Lynne (vocals)
Frank Marocco (accordion)
Andy Martin (trombone)
Dean Martin (vocals)
Martina McBride (vocals)
Bob McChesney (trombone)
Larry McGuire (trumpet)
Rick Mitchell (flute)
Suzette Moriarty (french horn)
Brian O’Connor (french horn)
Tom Ranier (piano)
Paula Salvatore (background vocals)
Bob Sheppard (saxophone)
Robert Shulgold (flute)
Kurt Snyder (french horn)
Kevin Spacey (vocals)
Joss Stone (vocals)
Vince Trombetta (saxophone)
Randy Waldman (piano)
Chauncey Welsch (trombone)
+
Capitol Studio Orchestra

Tracklist:
01. Who’s Got the Action?  (feat. Big Bad Voodoo Daddy) (Duning) 3.12
02. Ain’t That A Kick In The Head? (feat. Kevin Spacey) (Van Heusen(Cahn) 2.38
03. I’ve Grown Accustomed To Her Face (feat. Chris Botti) (Loewe/Lerner) 3.05
04. Baby O (feat. Paris Bennett) (Mercer/Rotella)
05. Who Was That Lady? (with The Capitol Studios Orchestra) (Heusen/Cahn) 2.24
06. Please Don’t Talk About Me When I’m Gone (feat. Robbie Williams) (Stept/Clare) 2.32
07. I Can’t Believe That You’re In Love (feat. Joss Stone) (Gaskil/McHugh) 2.42
08. Just In Time (featuring Dave Koz) (Styne/Comden/Green) 2.43
09. Baby, It’s Cold Outside (feat. Martina McBride) (Loesser) 2.56
10. King Of The Road (featuring Kevin Spacey) (Miller) 3.14
11. You’re Nobody Till Somebody Loves You (feat. Shelby Lynne and Big Bad Voodoo Daddy) (Morgan/Stock/Cavanaugh) 3.10
12. Arrivederci Roma (feat. Tiziano Ferro) (Rascel/Garinei/Giovannini/Sigman) 2.43
13. Everybody Loves Somebody (feat. Charles Aznavour) (Taylor/Lane) 3.17
14. Lullaby (Brahms/Traditional) 2.12

 

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