Long Ago Last Summer

[Sara D]

Personally speaking, Blair, I hold fire before dismissing a CD after just one hearing, particularly one featuring no less than 33 Bacharach songs! Yes, most of the songs' structures and arrangements are very much of their time but I think there's still plenty of good music here, especially the tracks by Jane Morgan, Gene McDaniels, The Four Coins, Rosemary June, Keely Smith, Del Shannon, The Wanderers, Perry Como, Gloria Lynn and, of course, Chuck Jackson and the Shirelles. Even the two highly dubious novelty discs by Paul Hampton have fascinating arrangements that more than hint at Bacharach's later film score work. No, it's not a disc I'll be playing much from start to finish but I'll certainly be doing quite a bit of cherry picking.

[Blair N. Cummings]

Sara, apparently my post seemed harsher or more "dismissive" than I intended. It wasn`t meant to trash the collection but to re-state the obvious: that, somehow, "You`re Following Me" is a less magnetic composition than, say (at random), "Check Out Time". Certainly there are enjoyable tracks here but if you heard any of them out of context, would you identify Burt as the composer? That, really, was my only point.