Today is the second of two requests for Mike. Another beautiful
recording from the This Is My Life album. Who Am I was made famous by
Petula Clark but Mike prefers Shirley’s version, and so do I. I hope
you all enjoy this one today.
Who Am I
Today is the second of two requests for Mike. Another beautiful
recording from the This Is My Life album. Who Am I was made famous by
Petula Clark but Mike prefers Shirley’s version, and so do I. I hope
you all enjoy this one today.
Who Am I
Dame Shirley Bassey Blog 
Thanks for playing ‘who Am I ‘ This is one of my favourite song which I uploaded on my MP3 player . Songs like Never Never Know,Picture Puzzle, I Only Miss Him, Think Of Me, Where Is Tomorrow and the list go on… I played regularly when I am unable to go to sleep.
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Beautiful song !!!!! thank you so much, Astrid for sharing !
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They just don’t make catchy, well-crafted pop tunes like this anymore. This one just transports me back to the 60s. I think “This Is My Life” was one of Shirley’s most underappreciated albums. It is a gem. Great song!
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I love this song, too, very catchy! I play it quite regularly, thanks for playing it on the Blog!
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Ms Bassey is an extremely accomplished artiste with a massive fan base, but she’s not in teh same genre of music as Petula Clark, who had the hit round the world with this song. Pet is essentially a pop singer, Ms Bassey (you see, I wouldn’t dare call her Shirl) is a standards singer.
Like many standards singers (Sinatra did it) she occasinally sings a pop song with an arrangement that is a mixture of pop and big band, and for me it doesn’t work.
I’d say thiis was not one of Pet’s best records, but her live version with which she has been opening English language shows recently is so fantastic, it is unreal. (It can be seen on Youtube) I’ve been in the front row of the audience when she has sung this and even the expressions on her face show how much emotion she puts into the song. Who AM I?
Sorry, this is not going top be a popular post on Bassey blog, but I just had to say it.
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I’m not that familiar with Petula Clark, of course I’ve heard of her (6 US top ten hits, including two #1). No question Shirley is a standards singer (I include show tunes in that category), but I find her difficult to classify overall. She is a force of nature who probably could go in any direction she wants to. She could have been a jazz singer, but I wouldn’t call her a jazz singer, even though big bands are jazz oriented. She could have been a Soul singer but never really went in that direction. Her first album showed her singing the Blues. She could have even been an Opera singer. But I think you can hear all those styles in her music. I think being a standards singer caused her career to start to decline, you can see this in her record sales in the mid to late 1960s. From 1970 on I wouldn’t classify her as a standards singer, even though standards would always be part of her act. When I see her picture on the cover of ‘Something Else’, standards singer doesn’t come to mind!
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thank you for another gem from DSB. i love it and i don’t know that i’ve heard it before. i’ve heard the PC version of course.
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This is my first time hearing this song! This is great! It is interesting to hear Dame Shirley sing the question Who am I? I automatically think of her fantabulous song and convincing performance of I Am What I Am : where she simply states, this is what I am, take it or leave it. I for one will take it, whether she is classified as a Jazz singer, Standards singer, Pops singer or as she herself said Operatic Pop singer. I think she is wonderous at any song she blesses with her voice. I can appreciate the comment of Tris about Petula Clark. I get it, especially if you have been in the front row of her concerts, you have a whole different perception. I am glad you enjoy her talent. That is your opinion. I respect that. In my opinion, whatever genre or classification you put Dame Shirley in, she is leaps and bounds in front of Petula and actually in a whole different stratosphere! I think the numbers back up my humble opinion. Hasn’t Dame Shirley outsold every other British female performer in record sales?
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