🎵 AotW Classics Lucille Starr THE FRENCH SONG SP-4107

[Harry]

Lucille Starr
THE FRENCH SONG
A&M SP-4107

Released on LP and later in Canada on CD 69832

Tracks:

Side One:
1. The French Song (Pease-Vincent)
2. Dominique (Sourire-Regne)
3. La Vie En Rose (David-Piaf-Louiguy)
4. In A Little Spanish Town (Wayne-Lewis-Young-Granier)
5. Colinda (Davis-LeBlanc-Guidry)
6. Crazy Arms (Seals-Mooney)

Side Two:
1. Sukiyaka (Leslie-Cason-Nakamura-Ei)
2. Wooden Heart (Wine-Wiseman-Twomey-Kaempfert)
3. Release Me (Miller-Stevenson)
4. Jolie Jacqueline (J. Warfield)
5. Yours (Roig-Sherr-Gamse)
6. My Man (Willemetz-Charles--Pollack-Yvain)

Bonus tracks on CD 69832

13. Gone
14, My Happiness
15. Don't Let The Stars Get In Your Eyes
16. Freight Train
17. I'm Leaving It All Up To You

(the latter three being tracks from SP-4106)

Produced by: Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss
Co-Producer: Dorsey Burnette
Arranged by: Herb Alpert and Julius Wechter
Album Design: Peter Whorf Graphics

Liner Notes:

1964 has been a particularly good year for Lucille Starr. She was presented with her first gold record by Quality Records Limited, in her native land, Canada, for the equivalent of a million sales of "The French Song". The same recording was also Lucille's first big hit in the U.S. Most recently, it was the year she recorded a collection of some of her very favorite songs in her first album. After listening to this mavelously talented artist, we know you'll agree with us that this is only the first spark of a future magnificent glow - that is Lucille Starr.

 

[Dave]

Well, this has been a fun album to listen to... Also revealing that Lucille was "the real STAR" in Canadian Sweethearts... I've got such a soft spot for "La Vie En Rose" enough that I voted for it... "Wooden Heart" would come next, followed by "The French Song"... And "Dominique" a popular song in French by Soeur Sourire, the Singing Nun from Belgium, about Saint Dominic and his fight against the Albigensians, which became a worldwide hit in 1963... It was followed by a Spanish version interpreted by Cuban superstar, La Lupe, a few years later...

All intricately building a very cosmopolitan Acadian theme... Even "Release Me" doesn't seem ordinary here, though would later turn up in versions by Elvis and Engelbert Humperdinct and "Crazy Arms" was a Country-Rock standard written by Ralph Mooney and Charles Seals which would be later turned into "Loving Arms" by Troy Seals, a descendant of Charles...

"Ue o muite arukō" (上を向いて歩こう) Which means "I look up when I walk", is apparently the real title of the song named Sukiyaki, the Japanese entree... So named, just because it was thought to be that American audiences would be better able to acknowledge the song if a more simpler name for it was used, even if it was "a love song named after a food dish"...!

(Kind'a makes you wonder if someone at A&M could'a named a TjB or BMB song aimed at the Japanese market, "Burrito"...!)

Another perfect Sunday Morning Serenade by our superb chantress, Lucille, who sadly in light of the upcoming changes in '60's popular culture, seemed to have drifted in musical obscurities, only to be remembered in a Forum such as this...



Dave

...--Also noting that it was either this album or its predecessor, Candian Sweethearts (w/ Bob Regan) was a Canadian copy, though forgot which, and one or perhaps both, were also in Mono...

 

[Harry]

My copy of this album on LP is the blue-bordered version from Quality Records in Canada. My CD has the same cover and also emanates from Canada.

I have to say that I enjoy this album much more than its CANADIAN SWEETHEARTS predecessor. Lucille seemed better suited as a soloist.

Normally I love harmony vocals, but somehow Lucille and Bob Regan never blended that well, IMHO.

"The French Song", with its strong Herb Alpert influence is my favorite track.

Harry

 

[DAN BOLTON]

I had to go with JOLIE JAQUELINE, because it was the first song by Lucille that I ever heard. Interesting story... we were on vacation on the way to Florida to visit my grandparents; it was either '64 or '65, long before the day of completed Interstate highways. So, my father decided to take a route through eastern Kentucky that promised more 4-lane highway than the usual Louisville-to-Nashville I-65 run did at that time. We had to drive on some 2-laners, and the road was narrow and twisty, but it was a shorter stretch that should have promised a shorter travel time. However, we came upon a horrible accident just a few cars in front of us; the ambulances hadn't even arrived, and the road was blocked...somebody; a local, I guess, offered a suggestion of an alternate route, a State road that made kind of a circle around the area. We took it...and promptly found a fork in the road. Dad made a wrong turn, and we found ourselves in Hillbilly Heaven...the asphalt gave was to gravel, the gravel to dirt, and soon it became evident we were driving in a riverbed. We turned around very quickly, afraid that the road might just end up in front of somebody's still. everybody we passed looked at us like we were crazy...we were scared to death of running into some real-life Kentucky Headhunters.

The radio came in clear and loud, however; and just as soon as we got back on the right road, JOLIE JAQUELINE came on the radio. After what we'd just been through, it was a very welcome relief. It was just a local station, though, and Dad didn't have the volume up very loud, but I was positive that I was hearing the TJB backing up a vocalist I couldn't recognize[ the announcer didn't identify the artist or the song title...]. I searched for years to find out who it was I'd heard...and over the years I realized it HAD to be Lucille Starr; but her records weren't popular here in central Indiana...at least, I never saw any of them in any stores. I figured the album would probably elude me until Harry told me it was available on CD. I ordered one from Tower Records a few years ago, and, Lo and Behold...there was JOLIE JAQUELINE, complete with the Herb Alpert trumpet solo I'd first heard in the mountains of eastern Kentucky.

Strange, isn't it...how some things just come together...


As for comments on the album itself, it's a tour-de-force of Herb and Julius' production skills for me...both play on the album. I can hear some traces of the ensemble that was assembled for some of the WCAOD sessions, especially for DOMINIQUE, which foreshadows BUTTERBALL, and MY MAN does, too...and I wonder just who played trumpet on DON'T LET THE STARS GET IN YOUR EYES from the previous album.

Too bad her career seemed to stall after this album...she deserved much better fortune. A very colorful and, at times, a very playful voice.

I wonder if Bonnie Tyler was influenced by her...


Dan

 

[Dave]

More thoughts on this album and Lucille...:

The Dorsey Burnette-connection resulted in Burnette's son, Billy Burnette becoming a popular Country recording artist, while Dorsey's brother, Johnny was the father of yet another "singing Burnette", Rocky, while Dorsey, himself also pioneered a lasting performing/recording legacy in addition to the Burnette name becoming a succeeding musical dynasty...

No surprise that "Sukiyaki"'s original writers (Nakamura-Ei) seem to have a couple of American co-writers, (Leslie-Cason) on board to flesh out a translation of the lyrics to make it adaptable for the American version, though with still its inexplicable name-change/name-sake...

"Don't Let The Stars Get In Your Eyes" seemed like the Easy Listening fare that with a few more songs like it or Standards of American Popular Song, in the more musical mainstream of more general recognition, Lucille may have stayed...

And "La Vie En Rose" was later done by Better Midler, as well as a host of other singers, too...



Dave

 

[Harry]

Ms. Starr deserves better than the "simple" discussion, which has been moved to FAO.

Please keep on topic.

Harry