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KOCH
MILK & HONEY/original Broadway cast recording: So, why do you need this reissue if you got the RCA one from a decade ago? Because someone went digging in the crates and added the totally irrelevant but essential Robert Goulet version of “Shalom”. Did we ever realize he could do anything? This almost beats the hell out of any singing album Bill Shatner ever did. This is the time we need to hear Stewie Griffin curse out Mitch Miller for not letting Goulet explore the full range of his talents when Miller was sticking him with his own vision of what Goulet should be singing. The rest of it is a great gift idea for anyone you know that still plays the bejesus out of “Fiddler on the Roof”.
19114 (DRG)
ME & JULIET/original cast recording: Perry Como singing “Keep It Gay”? You mean it wasn’t originally from the movie version of “The Producers”? Freaking Rodgers & Hammerstein? The duo’s first musical comedy predated Jackson Browne’s whining about life on the road as they put together a show about putting together a show, but this had Barbara Carroll lending a hand. Staged at a time when they owned Broadway like Andy Webber would a few decades later, this is the proverbial insider’s show that real Broadway freeks always get into. It was done right the first time and this set stands the test of time to prove just that.
19115 (DRG)
IS PARIS BURNING/soundtrack: The pic was actually a flop, but it came from a time when there was a such thing as noble flops and Maurice Jarre certainly pulled his weight in creating this score. Quite a grand effort that’s symphonic in scope, this is the kind of stuff that legends are forged from . Certainly an essential work in the Jarre canon.
19117 (DRG)
NICK COLIONNE/No Limits: The smooth jazz guitar man adds vocals and goes for the whole package as an antidote to tough times in the music biz. Adding to the halo effect by co-writing with Jim Peterik and Paul Richmond (individually), everybody keeps their game sharp and fans should be kept on board when a lot of fans across the board are jumping ship when confronted with too many choices. It’s familiar and comfortable but it isn’t more of the same.
4482
RAVEN
RITA COOLIDGE/Anytime, Anywhere-Love Me Again: After years and years of bitching to deaf ears, our pals in Oz finally pick up the ball and run with it bringing “Love Me Again” to cd. While the first half of this set is a no brainer, it was Coolidge’s biggest album, “Love Me Again” took some courage. It was easily her best album and it fell on deaf ears. Veering away from the Southern, white girl soul that powered “Anywhere”, she reteamed with Kristofferson’s band, keeping it strictly LA, and unleashed a monster that just didn’t have a wasted track. A nice set of bookends, her biggest and her best, this is the snapshot of when Coolidge had to be taken seriously. And any real pop fan owes it to themselves to have a copy of “Love Me Again”; it’s just that good and it’s stood up that well.
Volume 31/Number 246
July 3, 2008
MIDWEST RECORD
830 W. Route 22 #144
Lake Zurich, IL., 60047
CHRIS SPECTOR, Editor and Publisher
©2008 Midwest Record
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