Paradise Island: The Rare Songs Of Bacharach

[nymusicalsguy]

The PARADISE ISLAND anthology produced by St. Etienne/Eclipse/Universal is finally scheduled for release on February 16, 2009! Here's the tracklist courtesy Amazon UK...I've asterisked the songs which I believe are making their CD debuts.

1. Keep Me In Mind - Patti Page
2. I Cry More - Alan Dale
3. Winter Warm - Gale Storm (*)
4. Uninvited Dream - Peggy Lee
5. Sad Sack - Jerry Lewis (*)
6. Paradise Island - Al Alberts, The Four Aces (*)
7. With Open Arms - Jane Morgan
8. In Times Like These - Gene McDaniels
9. Your Lips Are Warmer Than Your Heart - Rosemary June (*)
10. Close - Keely Smith (*)
11. Waiting For Charlie (To Come Home) - Etta James, Riley Hampton
12. You Don`t Have To Be A Tower Of Strength - Gloria Lynne
13. Pick Up The Pieces - Jack Jones (*)
14. I Cry Alone - Ruby & The Romantics
15. Loving Is A Way Of Living - Steve Lawrence
16. Blue Guitar - Richard Chamberlain
17. Everyone`s Who`s Been In Love With You - Marv Johnson (*)
18. The Love Of A Boy - Julie Rogers
19. And So Goodbye My Love - Burt Bacharach
20. Look Into My Eyes Maria - Jay & The Americans
21. It`s Love That Really Counts - The Merseybeats
22. That`s The Way I`ll Come To You - Jack Jones (*)
23. A House Is Not A Home - Brook Benton
24. Accept It - Tony Orlando
25. London Life - Anita Harris
26. Long After Tonight Is Over - Dusty Springfield
27. The Last One To Be Loved - Billie Davis
28. If I Never Get To Love You - Marianne Faithfull
29. To Wait For Love - Tony Orlando
30. Live Again - Irma Thomas
31. Promise Her Anything - Peter Sullivan, Tom Jones, Johnny Harris
32. Don`t Go Breaking My Heart - Roger Nichols & The Small Circle of Friends
33. Try To See It My Way - Peggy March
34. Wanting Things - Connie Francis
35. I`m A Better Man (For Having Loved You) - Engelbert Humperdinck
36. Pacific Coast Highway - Burt Bacharach

I'm disappointed that the compilers had to pad the set with fairly common tracks (Tom Jones' "Promise Her Anything", Tony Orlando's "To Wait For Love", Dusty's "Long After Tonight Is Over", Burt's solo songs), but the CD debut of so many great songs is indeed cause for rejoicing...these debuts include the ultra-rare Rosemary June recording "Your Lips Are Warmer Than Your Heart".

Kudos, Bob Stanley & co. Can't wait for this one. With the recent releases of the Rhino UK three-disc set and the Ace compilation, it's been a good few months to be a Bacharach collector or fan!

[blueonblue]

Thanks Joe.......great news !!!

"blue"

[outstretchedarm]

hmmm wondering if they have this on napster

[pljms]

Another Bacharach CD compilation is aways good news and one is reluctant to gripe, but I think the compilers should have kept this collection down to one CD of genuine rare material. To call songs like A House is not a Home, one of BB's biggest standards, Long after Tonight is all Over, I'm a Better Man (a hit all round the world for Englebert), To Wait for Love and dozens of other readily available tracks 'rare' is very misleading. Personally I think that some of the covers of the more familiar songs included here should have been kept on vinyl where they belong, particularly Billie Davis's excruciating The Last one to be Loved. Believe me, after you've heard that once you'll never want to hear it again. Marianne Faithfull's If I Never get to Love You is only slightly less painful to endure. Still, any compilation that includes Patti Page's Keep Me in Mind from 1955, which, leaving aside a certain Nat King Cole instrumental, is the first recording of a Bacharach song, is worth investing in and it's great to see tracks like Gene McDaniels's marvellous In Times Like These and Jane Morgan's With Open Arms included, and for those of you not familiar with Alan Dale's I Cry More, be prepared to be more than mildly amused!

[Rio]

"Still, any compilation that includes Patti Page's Keep Me in Mind from 1955, which, leaving aside a certain Nat King Cole instrumental, is the first recording of a Bacharach song..."

I don't recall reading that Nat King Cole was the first to record a Bacharach song/work. I know this is a bit off topic, but I would be interested in learning more about this.

[pljms]

Rio, the instrumental from 1952 by Nat king Cole is 'Once in a Blue Moon' and is an adaptation of Rubinstein's Melody in F and was included in last year's Ace compilation of Bacharach rarities 'There's Always something There', which you really should own. It's actually credited to Bacharach alone, although he claims to have received some assistance from his dad in the adaptation.

[Rio]

Unfortuntely, taxes, S&H, and bureacracy keep me from buying some CDs, at least as early as I would like.
Thank you very much for you prompt, helpful response.

(I wish I could find a video of Burt playing Beethoven (one that begins with Bette Midler is the one I have in mind, though this is not important in itself) that may or may not still be available on YouTube. I really liked that arrangement, but can't find the video.)

[An Enormous BB Fan]

Rio, the instrumental from 1952 by Nat king Cole is 'Once in a Blue Moon', credited to Bacharach and his father. It's an adaptation of a Beethoven piano work and was included in last year's Ace compilation of Bacharach rarities 'There's Always something There', which you really should own.

Did you say that Once in a Blue Moon was credited to Burt and Burt's father??

I checked this out on the ASCAP database to see if Burt's father was listed as a co-writer and he is not. This piece is only credited to Burt -- at least on the ASCAP database it is. Here is the link:

http://www.ascap.com/ace/search.cfm?req ... 20&start=1

[Sara D]

Whether Once in a Blue Moon is credited to Bacharach and his dad or Bacharach alone isn't really important as it's an adaptation rather than a genuine original work.

Yes, I'm looking forward to getting my hands on this collection, especially for Patti Page's now historic Keep Me in Mind. I've heard excerpts of this song once or twice on the radio and thought it sounded really bright and swingy and certainly nothing for Bacharach to be embarrassed about, as he's claimed he is more than once.

[pljms]

I see the release date on Amazon UK has been put back to March 16, probably so it doesn't clash with the so-called 'Definitive' compilation Magic Moments released in February. Below is a link to a British TV performance from 1969 by Englebert Humperdinck of one of the songs from Paradise Island, the really not that rare I'm a Better Man (UK Top 20 ; US Top 40). Rare it might not be, underrated it certainly is.

[Sara D]

Thanks for the link to Englebert, pljms. I've always thought it a pity that Bacharach didn't cut 'I'm a Better Man' with BJ Thomas. It would have been interesting to hear his arrangement of the song, which in the hands of Englebert and the arranger Peter Knight sounds like a Les Reed tune. Not out of BB's top drawer, of course, and the fact that he never cut it suggests that he thought so too!

[An Enormous BB Fan]

I remember hearing Engelbert on the radio singing "I'm a Better Man." I really loved it and thought it was such a great song. I had no idea that Burt and Hal wrote it. So when I went to get the sheet music for it, once again it was me running to the store to get a song that Burt and Hal wrote. I think it's a very smooth and wonderful song and I'm surprised it hasn't been sung by more singers through the years.

[pljms]

I don't think anyone would have identified 'I'm a Better Man' as a Bacharach tune on first hearing it. I certainly didn't and wasn't aware of the fact until I'd been a serious BB collector for several years. The only artists of note to cover it are Al Martino, David McAlmont, Terry Baxter and his Orchestra (on the 40 track album 'Bacharach & David Treasury' from 1971, which is not on CD and is very difficult to find on vinyl) and - wait for it - Mantovani!

[blueonblue]

There's also a wonderful "instrumental" version by Arthur Greenslade and his orchestra on
the "Reader's Digest" Bacharach collection..........check it out !!!

"blue"

[pljms]

I see the release date for this compilation has been delayed again. Initially it was scheduled to be released in February, then March and now...who knows when? I should imagine it's the appearance of the 'First Book of Songs' compilation that's the reason its been kept back.