Other Female Singers

I still cannot believe that Lulu 1981 self-titled is NOT yet available on Apple iTunes. That album has "I Could Never Miss You (More Than I Do)", "If I Were You" & "Who's Foolin' You" (which I think Reba McEntire should do that remake)!!
I've been listening to I Could Never Miss You a lot lately.
I think that I got it from ITunes, but am not sure.
 
A couple of weeks ago, there was a bit of discussion about Barbara Dickson's "It's Really You, It's Really Me", which Karen also recorded. I've been listening to Barbara Dickson's album, "To Each & Everyone - The Songs of Gerry Rafferty" quite a bit, lately. I used to listen to Gerry Rafferty a bit as a teenager around 1981 and 1982, just after his hey-day. More recently, I've thought that his music tends to be a bit bland and 'samey', but, in her interpretations, Barbara Dickson truly brings out the depth. She made great selections of material from his catalogue. Her interpretations are very atmospheric. The arrangements include instruments that create a wonderful atmosphere, such as Uilleann pipes, bouzouki, harmonium, whistles, double bass, fretless bass, viola, cello, violin, acoustic guitar and grand piano, etc. Barbara's voice is warm, (she was sixty-five when the album was recorded), and she's obviously fully immersed emotionally in the material. Just a few of her notes are a bit rough around the edges, as heard at the very beginning of the video below, but on most of the album, she cuts through the melodies on perfect pitch. I would fully recommend this album.

I like this short 'making of' video, love the piano arrangement and can get lost in Barbara's performance.

Since discovering this album, I have also been listening to Gerry Rafferty's recordings again.

 
How wonderful it would have been if Karen and Richard had recorded an entire album exactly like this - just him at the piano and her in the sound booth - a set of lovely but somewhat challenging songs with extended piano solos from him and pure, unadulterated, non-overdubbed vocals from her - all captured on videotape, the entire recording session for each song... we all know here what an astounding joy this would be to experience.
 
Sophie Ellis-Bextor Kitchen Disco’s
If you’ve watched these or Sophie, you will know she has a unique voice. Not comparable to Karen but unique. She’s been doing online discos during lockdown and what’s great is her children enjoy and join in.
It’s the sort of thing I think Karen would have loved(not Richard I realise) !
 
Last Friday Lana Del Rey released her 7th studio album "Chemtrails Over The Country Club". Today it debuted on the UK charts at No.1, her 5th album to reach No.1. Placing her in joint 5th place with Celine Dion for the female artist with the most UK No.1's. It has outsold the rest of the Top 10 combined and has become the fastest selling vinyl of the century for a female artist.

My copy arrived today on limited edition beige vinyl.
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Here is the title track, I love the overdubbed harmonies:


I love her image inspired by old school Americana and styled as a "gangsta Nancy Sinatra". She does her own thing. Her breakthrough "Video Games" is still as gorgeous, unique and timeless as it was in 2011:
 
Sophie Ellis-Bextor Kitchen Disco’s
If you’ve watched these or Sophie, you will know she has a unique voice. Not comparable to Karen but unique. She’s been doing online discos during lockdown and what’s great is her children enjoy and join in.
It’s the sort of thing I think Karen would have loved(not Richard I realise) !
I should really check these out. I just watched a few seconds of one of these online discos and I can't get over the fact that she still looks and sounds exactly the same as some 15-20 years ago! :shock: Also enjoyed her work with Theaudience. Was great seeing her live once, as the opening act for George Michael on his 25 Live Tour, back in 2007 :cool:
 
Last Friday Lana Del Rey released her 7th studio album "Chemtrails Over The Country Club". Today it debuted on the UK charts at No.1, her 5th album to reach No.1. Placing her in joint 5th place with Celine Dion for the female artist with the most UK No.1's. It has outsold the rest of the Top 10 combined and has become the fastest selling vinyl of the century for a female artist.

My copy arrived today on limited edition beige vinyl.
165064886_1145797992539923_2411434873342009968_n.jpg

165668435_196812195581056_3165945832297095081_n.jpg


Here is the title track, I love the overdubbed harmonies:


I love her image inspired by old school Americana and styled as a "gangsta Nancy Sinatra". She does her own thing. Her breakthrough "Video Games" is still as gorgeous, unique and timeless as it was in 2011:

I like how the end of that first track leaves you with just the drums...and, how you can actually mix that into K&R's "All of my life", which has about the same tempo : )
 
If you’ve watched these or Sophie, you will know she has a unique voice. Not comparable to Karen but unique. She’s been doing online discos during lockdown and what’s great is her children enjoy and join in.

I’ve never rated her as a singer; she has a terribly weak, reedy, warbling voice, although some of her single material has been good over the years. That said, I’ve seen some of her kitchen discos and think she seems like a lovely person. Very grounded, great mother and role model.
 
For the past decade or so I always look forward to the beginning of each year when I'm hoping to find some nice new music/artists to add on my phone or mp3 player. You see, this time of year there are national pre-selections for a thing we have here in Europe called the Eurovision Song Contest. There's always lots of songs by loud-mouthed women/men (good for other people perhaps, but just not for my taste, usually), and then sometimes my ears feel very happy when they're filled with something like this, from Hungary:



Dare I say, if it were in English and in a lower key, it would have been a wonderful tune for Karen to sing :love:
 
I’ve never rated her as a singer; she has a terribly weak, reedy, warbling voice...
Agreed - there is nothing here to distinguish her from10,001 other struggling amateur female singers - and if she is outselling everybody else in the UK then their music in general has reached an all-time low level of mediocrity - no wonder then why the music of the 70s, and especially that of the Carpenters, is enjoying such a widespread and enthusiastic following these days...
 
if she is outselling everybody else in the UK then their music in general has reached an all-time low level of mediocrity

I’d say that’s a depressing but accurate assessment of musical trends in the UK today. I regularly check the top 10 singles chart and not only have I never heard of most of the artists on it, their offerings are pure drivel. Likely fuelled by the need for a bit of festive cheer in the current climate, the record-buying/downloading public turned to older material last Christmas and all the best UK Christmas hits of the last 30 years recharted and filled most of the top 10 slots (and most of the rest of the top 30). It was like being a teenager again!

 
I was just remembering “I’ve Been There Before” by Ann Peebles, which I had on a 45 when I was a ten year old. I obviously couldn’t relate at all to the lyrical content but I liked the sound of it.

Ann, you might know, co-wrote and first performed “I Can’t Stand the Rain”, which was also recorded by hordes of other artists, including Tina Turner and Eruption.

 
Singer songwriter Patti Dahlstrom who wrote "Emotion" for the late Helen Reddy has an album or CD called "Emotion: The Music Of"
 
Singer songwriter Patti Dahlstrom who wrote "Emotion" for the late Helen Reddy has an album or CD called "Emotion: The Music Of"

Additional info just to give credit where credit is due, with all respect to you, AM Matt - what became ‘Emotion’ by Helen Reddy was originally written by French singer-songwriter Veronique Samson. Her original version was called ‘Amoreuse’. An English lyric was later written by UK writer Gary Osbourne and the resulting song, credited to Veronique Samson and Osbourne, was released by Kiki Dee in 1973. This version was a hit in territories such as the UK and Australia, nearing the Top 10 in both regions. In 1975, the version by Helen Reddy with a different English lyric became a moderate hit in the USA and Canada. This version was credited to Veronique Samson and Patti Dahlstrom - so Patti’s contribution to the song was that she wrote new English lyrics.
 
The original of ‘Emotion’ by Veronique Samson sounds just a bit ONJ, I reckon, and I always thought, when Kiki Dee’s version, (‘Amoreuse’), was a frequent on the radio, that it sounded a bit Karen Carpenter - she hit the lower notes stronger on her studio recording - but I was a pre-teen when the song was a hit, so i’m not sure that my ears were too discerning.
 
You guys should check out Beach House, they make “Dream Pop”, I recommend listening to Space Song first. Listen to Teen Dream too.
 
It had been a long time since I heard this and it really needs to be reprised here with the other versions above, if only to remind of just what a good voice Helen had and what an excellent singer of song she was - and, yes, what a good looking lady she was...


 
It is a really good song, but I like the Kiki Dee version even better. The song is called Amoureuse. Same music, but different lyrics. On Elton John’s, Rocket Records titled “Loving and Free” Kiki released her version in 1973, Helen Reddy in 1974.
 
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I am not sure that the 45 Capitol Records single of the late Helen Reddy "Emotion" is in MONO not in STEREO. Also the last MONO 45 single for Capitol.
 
The next Helen Reddy 45 single "Bluebird" was written by the late Leon Russell NOT the Paul McCartney & Wings 1973 remake from "Band On The Run".
 
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