Let’s Face The Music – Complete Edition

After the disappointment of last year when nothing was released or done to celebrate Dame Shirley’s 60th Anniversary we have the excitement of a new song, ‘We Got Music‘, being released next month.  It is already available to pre-order on iTunes and is listed on Amazon.co.uk to download on 23rd February.  We are all hoping it will be a massive hit and will bring Dame Shirley back into the spotlight.

Last year virtually nothing was released of Dame Shirley’s and it seems as though the record companies who own her back catalogue are ignoring her and her fans and not interested in releasing anything.  It appears that the situation remains the same at the moment.  Shame on them!  However a CD has just been released by Jackpot Records entitled ‘Let’s Face The Music – Complete Edition‘.  As I collect all her CDs I naturally have had to buy it.

This is a remastered version of the 1962 album she recorded with Nelson Riddle and released on the Columbia label in the UK with added bonus tracks.  The quality is outstanding.  Also included is the 1957 8 track album ‘Born To Sing The Blues’ originally released on the Philips label.  I thought it strange when I saw it was included as bonus tracks when I ordered the CD but decided it was a nice touch.  What I didn’t realise until the day it was actually released was the fact that another 4 tracks were also included.  Although it states that these 4 tracks have never before been issued on CD it is in fact 3 of them as ‘As Long As He Needs Me’ has been many times before.  When the album was released in America the title was altered to ‘Shirley Bassey sings the hit song from Oliver’ and ‘As Long As He Needs Me’ was included.  However 3 of the other tracks were alternate takes to the ones released on the UK album.  It’s these 3 tracks that are included on the CD as bonus tracks and have also been remastered.  They are ‘Imagination’, ‘All The Things You Are’ and ‘All Of Me’.  The quality of this CD is excellent and to have these 3 tracks released on CD is great.  There is also a 12 page booklet included.  The cost is around £7.50 and it is available from Amazon.

I really do hope ‘We Got Music‘ is a massive hit.  I love it and obviously will be buying it.  Would love it on a physical CD as well as a download.  Maybe the other record companies will sit up and listen and realise people are still very interested in Dame Shirley’s music.  We may get more releases and who knows maybe a new album of newly recorded material.  Now that really would be ‘Something’!!

From the archive # 127 -1968-

In 1968 Dame Shirley Bassey recorded My Love Has Two Faces with music by John Barry and lyrics by Jack Lawrence. It was the theme song from the 1968 film Deadfall. Released in 1968 on the soundtrack album and on a single.

This song is available on the 1997 CD release of the soundtrack album and is also available on the collection Bassey – The EMI/UA Years 1959 – 1979.

The note from the soundtrack album refers to the recording of this vocal: “As for Shirley Bassey – well, it was snowing in London when we recorded her vocal, but as always, she raised the temperature the moment she started to sing. The mercury, I think you will agree, stayed high.” John Barry By Joseph Stevenson, All Music Guide Jonathan Barry Prendergast is one of the world’s best-known and most popular film score composers. Aside from those who were also well-known classical composers, he is probably the most notable of all British film composers. His career was “inherited” from both his mother and father. His mother was a pianist with classical training who saw to it that he got a musical education, playing trumpet and piano. His father owned a movie theatre. John’s exposure to films increased when he left school at 15 to work full-time as a projectionist in his father’s cinema. By then he was already on the way to deciding definitely to pursue a career in film music. He joined a local band as trumpet player and was a bandsman during his military service from 1952 to 1955. Meanwhile, he studied with the organist of York Minster (the historic church of York) and by correspondence with American composer/arranger William Russo and with Joseph Schillinger, the theorist-teacher who had also taught George Gershwin compositional technique and form (after Gershwin had already become a famous composer). At this time Barry began arranging for band. In 1957, he founded John Barry and the Seven, a pop/rock band (later the John Barry Seven) which remained in existence through 1966. One of his most prominent early jobs was as arranger-musical director for the popular British singer Adam Faith. Barry appeared on radio and television, worked as an A&R man for record companies, and in 1959 scored his first film, the rock musical Beat Girl (1959), staring Adam Faith. In 1962, he was asked to orchestrate and arrange a non-symphonic, “hip” score by composer and band leader Monty Norman, engaged to compose the soundtrack for “Dr. No” (1962), the first James Bond film. It was this project that led to Barry’s fame, but not without controversy. The single distinctive cue in the soundtrack is the famous “James Bond Theme.” It is rumored that the producers were dissatisfied with Norman’s James Bond theme and approached Barry directly to “fix” it. Whether Barry composed a theme anew or worked up Norman’s theme is the crux of the issue. But contractually Norman is credited with its authorship and has successfully maintained legal actions in court to defend that credit. Barry proponents, however, respond that it is telling that for 11 several subsequent Bond films (including all the classic Sean Connery movies) the producers hired Barry to do the scoring and never Norman. However, it has also been reported that Barry has succeeded in reclaiming authorship of the theme. The Bond films made Barry famous, and established a personal non-symphonic sound, often orchestrated by Barry himself, that is among the most distinctive personal sounds in film music. Traits of it include a remarkably well-timed ability to “freeze” the harmonies quietly to build suspense, often while melody instruments continue to move slowly. He is notable for his use of the trumpet, the guitar, and the flute in a low register. But he has gone on to score dozens of movies, and none of his five Academy Awards are for Bond thrillers. They are for the scores of Born Free (1966), The Lion in Winter (1968), Out of Africa (1985), and Dances with Wolves (1990) and for Best Song for Born Free. (He says he wrote the song with the private idea of composing a satire on a Disney animal movie). Barry has also written successful West End musicals, most notably “Billy” starring Michael Crawford (1974). Barry moved to California in 1975 and New York in 1980 and lives in Oyster Bay with his wife, Laurie.

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(Video courtesy of YouTube channel Debra Skinner)

Lyrics:

My love has two faces One false one true
My love has two faces
Which one is you?
The first night A warm light flickered in your eyes
The first time you held me summer filled my heart
The first kiss you gave me woke a sleeping dream and I began to scheme how we would never part
But love has two faces
One false one true
Which face are you wearing?
I wish I knew
Oh last night
A cold light shivered in your glance yes last night your cold eyes started sudden fears
That moment my heart felt winter’s icy kiss did I imagine this or can the end be near?
My love has two faces
One false one true
One lies and one loves me which one is you? which one is you?