Other Female Singers

i love alessia cara, abba, janis ian and julie london's voice! i also listen to lana del rey but i like her songs, not her voice
 
This is obviously not a female singer (although there are females involved here), but it is such an upbeat, delightful take on the Carpenter classic that some of you might really enjoy this - Harry is, to say the least, a very talented performer:

 
This is obviously not a female singer (although there are females involved here), but it is such an upbeat, delightful take on the Carpenter classic that some of you might really enjoy this - Harry is, to say the least, a very talented performer:


Thanks for sharing this. I hadn't heard it before. This version really seems to get better at the trumpet solo and afterwards. The comments do not disappoint with many acknowledging Carpenters and Karen's talent.
 
I think Richard might like this rendition, especially with the strings and the extended trumpet solo...and we could only speculate on which Karen would like better: Harry's smooth, highly listenable singing, or Harry himself...
 
Debbie Gibson "I'd Rather Leave While I'm In Love" (from 2003 "Colored Lights: The Broadway Album") (from "The Wayne Brady Show") which was also done by Rita Coolidge in 1980. Also Debbie's new album "The Body Remembers" is out Friday, August 20 & also a "Christmas Album" coming in November!!
 
Not female singers, but:
I recently discovered a Belgian band called Puggy. I watch Euro TV (English subs) and a portion of their song "When you know" is the theme song of a French TV show. Had to listen to the whole song! Good band, they also do ballads.
 
This past Saturday was the second Record Store Day of the year and included this release from Bobbie Gentry. Titled The Windows of the World it is her long-lost jazz album from 1968 and this marks it's first stand-alone release (the tracks were released on the 2018 box set). It's a really laid back album of contemporary classics and jazz numbers that she proves herself to be capable of doing as with the other genres (I still couldn't place her into one category).

I'm glad my copy arrived today; I had gone to a store on Saturday morning but it had sold out! got this online and the packaging and imagery is perfect for the feel of the album, which plays perfectly. Her voice has that same characteristic as Karen's of sounding like it's in the room, especially on this album. The LP includes two songs not from the jazz sessions: a Gentry original "I Didn't Know" from the Delta Sweete sessions and a previously unreleased alternative take of "Hushabye Mountain".

The album includes two Bacharach/David recordings, despite being an outstanding songwriter and producer herself, the Bacharach/David team seem well suited to her - she later had a global hit outside of the US with "I'll Never Fall In Love Again" which became one of the biggest sellers in the UK of 1970 after it reached No.1 and she soon got to the UK Top 40 again with "Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head".

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Here's Since I Fell For You:
 
This past Saturday was the second Record Store Day of the year and included this release from Bobbie Gentry. Titled The Windows of the World it is her long-lost jazz album from 1968 and this marks it's first stand-alone release (the tracks were released on the 2018 box set). It's a really laid back album of contemporary classics and jazz numbers that she proves herself to be capable of doing as with the other genres (I still couldn't place her into one category).

I'm glad my copy arrived today; I had gone to a store on Saturday morning but it had sold out! got this online and the packaging and imagery is perfect for the feel of the album, which plays perfectly. Her voice has that same characteristic as Karen's of sounding like it's in the room, especially on this album. The LP includes two songs not from the jazz sessions: a Gentry original "I Didn't Know" from the Delta Sweete sessions and a previously unreleased alternative take of "Hushabye Mountain".

The album includes two Bacharach/David recordings, despite being an outstanding songwriter and producer herself, the Bacharach/David team seem well suited to her - she later had a global hit outside of the US with "I'll Never Fall In Love Again" which became one of the biggest sellers in the UK of 1970 after it reached No.1 and she soon got to the UK Top 40 again with "Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head".

222002511_3052427248320872_4050435842995327893_n.jpg


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Here's Since I Fell For You:

Not really familiar with Bobbie's music, I only knew her from "Ode to Billy Joe" which I haven't heard in many a year, but in this particular recording, her voice sounds a bit between Karen's and Dusty Springfield's (at least to my ears) :phones:
 
Back in the mid-'90s I discovered the music of British acid jazz band The Brand New Heavies with (American) female lead singer N'dea Davenport (that's pronouned as "en-dee-yah"). I discovered them through the song "Midnight at the Oasis", which was played regularly on MTV Europe in the summer of 1994. Quickly became hooked on their (to me) refreshing funky style and N'dea's strong vocals. A few years later I found out that she had been replaced by Siedah Garrett, whom I only knew from her duet with Michael Jackson and the Lovelines CD. Still a really great album and Siedah's voice fitted the funky music perfectly, too!

By the time I had the chance to see them live (Belgium, 2005) they were already 2 female singers ahead. Carleen Anderson replaced Siedah and she had a much darker voice (although she used her higher regions when she was with The Young Dsciples in the early '90s). It was fun to see Carleen walking behind me at some point at the North Sea Jazz Festival, probably on her own way to see some jazz legend's performance :) Was great to see them live in Belgium with Nicole Russo, but I missed N'dea's or Siedah's voice.

Luckily N'dea rejoined the Heavies in 2006 (until ca. 2012) and in 2008 I finally got to see the band's concert here in Holland with N'dea and briefly got to meet them after the show :cool: On their 2006 album she even drummed on one track and I just discovered that she drums more often (a female lead vocalist drumming at the same time...now where have I heard that before? :wink: )

So here's the title track from the Brand New Heavies album "Brother SIster" from 1994:



And a track from N'dea's eponymous solo album from 1998:
 
Barbra Streisand's "Release Me 2", released today, comes with a nice booklet with notes on each track. I was happy to see that for the Walter Afanasieff / John Bettis song "Sweet Forgiveness", the Carpenters and 'Yesterday Once More' are mentioned as a credit for John. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I think this may mark the first time that the Carpenters are mentioned in a Streisand album's liner notes.
 
Revisiting the voice of this songstress from South Africa today. I've known a few of Miriam Makeba's songs since I was a kid, from my parents' music collection; a 45 of her hit "Pata Pata" and a few other songs on a reel-to-reel mixtape.

This one wasn't on it, but it's nice and gentle. At times her voice reminds me a bit of Patti Page's:



This next one was on that mixtape. It was only until many years later that I discovered that the click sound was actually a letter (written as "q") and not a woodblock or some other percussion instrument 🙃. Originally, the song title is Qongqothwane, but it's better known as The Click Song and sung in Xhosa, one of the 11 official languages in South Africa.



And... should you like to sing that way too, this easy 5-minute video teaches you how to make the sound(s) 🤓

The Three Xhosa Clicks taught easy! (YouTube video)
 
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Not the same at all but - our eldest son married a woman from Kenya. He is a huge music fan like me, so he’s shared a good amount of her local music. Very cool, jazzy at times, and beautiful.
 
Another lady that got a lot of airplay with "The Power Of Love"(Not the song by Huey Lewis) was Jenifer Rush. Her version of the song was the first I heard but once Celine Dion got hold of it, Rush's version disappeared from the airwaves. It does show up now and then on AM radio here. Miss Rush should have had a much bigger career.
 
Another lady that got a lot of airplay with "The Power Of Love"(Not the song by Huey Lewis) was Jenifer Rush. Her version of the song was the first I heard but once Celine Dion got hold of it, Rush's version disappeared from the airwaves. It does show up now and then on AM radio here. Miss Rush should have had a much bigger career.
I had actually forgotten about Celine Dion's version; I've only been aware of Jennifer Rush's version, long time ago. I immediately see her face before me : )
Speaking of which...

"I See Your Face Before Me"
 
Another lady that got a lot of airplay with "The Power Of Love"(Not the song by Huey Lewis) was Jenifer Rush. Her version of the song was the first I heard but once Celine Dion got hold of it, Rush's version disappeared from the airwaves. It does show up now and then on AM radio here. Miss Rush should have had a much bigger career.
Jennifer Rush’s version of ‘The Power of Love’ was Number One in at least six territories, including Australia and the UK, and Top 3 in a few others. In my country, it was on the charts for over seven months and spawned a Top 10 album, so is the definitive version, I believe.

Yes, I’m also surprised that she wasn’t more successful in her home country. A couple of years ago, I looked Jennifer Rush’s chart history up, thinking she must have been a huge star in the US and was amazed to find that she only had one single scrape the bottom end of the Top 40 there.

It wasn’t ‘The Power of Love’ that I rushed out to buy when it was released, but ‘Flames of Paradise’ a few years later, which reached the Top 40 here and was Top 10 in Sweden and Germany, (so she did have great success in her other home country).

I also have her ‘Best Of’, and her ‘Passion’ album, featuring ‘Love Get Ready’.

Jennifer Rush grew up mainly in the US but also lived in Germany for a few years, in her young years. Her father was an operatic tenor and she studied violin at the Juilliard School.




 
Revisiting the voice of this songstress from South Africa today. I've known a few of Miriam Makeba's songs since I was a kid, from my parents' music collection; a 45 of her hit "Pata Pata" and a few other songs on a reel-to-reel mixtape.

This one wasn't on it, but it's nice and gentle. At times her voice reminds me a bit of Patti Page's:



This next one was on that mixtape. It was only until many years later that I discovered that the click sound was actually a letter (written as "q") and not a woodblock or some other percussion instrument 🙃. Originally, the song title is Qongqothwane, but it's better known as The Click Song and sung in Xhosa, one of the 11 official languages in South Africa.



And... should you like to sing that way too, this easy 5-minute video teaches you how to make the sound(s) 🤓

The Three Xhosa Clicks taught easy! (YouTube video)

Coincidence - I had been listening to both Jennifer Rush and Miriam Makeba in the last week, (including Makeba’s ‘Malaika’ and her 1980’s album, ‘Sangoma’), and, unbeknownst to me, both were mentioned on this thread during that time.

Another singer whose albums I have collected over the years is Angelique Kidjo, from Benin in West Africa, who, coincidentally, also recorded ‘Malaika’. The Benin region used to be referred to as the Slave Coast due to the massive number of people who were trafficked through that area to the so-called New World during the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. In Benin lies the Door of No Return.

Such terrible things have been done in the world down through the ages, right down to the present day. We can all work to make things better in our own way, in accordance with our personal talents, strengths and positions - and artists like Miriam Makeba, Angelique Kidjo and Richard and Karen Carpenter can continue to heal the world with music.


 
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I've been in a big Lana Del Rey phase this summer and to top it she has announced her second album of the year, Blue Bannisters, will be released on the 22nd of October.

She released the song "Arcadia" as a single on Wednesday and I've had it on repeat since. It's such a beautiful song. I love everything about it: the vocals, the piano, the strings, the horns. The whole arrangement and production is very nicely done.

It's very interestingly written with the metaphors between love and Arcadia/LA/CA/USA.

Her best song in a while I would say.

 

Olivia Newton-John Announces 'Physical' 40th Anniversary Edition​

The new edition will be released October 22 with a vinyl release in Spring 2022.​

by Michael Major Sep. 24, 2021

"It's hard to believe that it has been 40 years since Physical was first released and I am thrilled that it's getting this beautiful 40th anniversary Deluxe Edition,"
"I am so proud of this record as it not only allowed me to try new things musically, but it became such a part of pop-culture history."
Olivia Newton-John said in a statement.
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"This deluxe CD & DVD edition will not only feature the original hit album fully remastered but, the 31-track collection also features bonus tracks, remixes, and live recordings. In addition, it will feature the iconic pop star's two video collections - the Physical video album - which won the Grammy Award for Video of the Year - showcasing music videos for each of the album's timeless tracks - a first for of its kind, as well as the full Olivia: Live in Concert Grammy-nominated television special which features exclusive heart-pumping footage of the star performing her hits."
Here:
 
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