RECORD SLEEVES FROM THE PAST – 25

This 16 track compilation was issued on the Liberty label in Japan in 1981.  All of the tracks are from her United Artists recordings but two of them are ‘live’ as the studio recordings of the songs are from her Columbia days.

Although the album is called ‘Greatest Hits’ not all the tracks were hits for her.  The big ones are certainly there i.e. ‘Something’, ‘Never, Never, Never’ and ‘For All We Know’ but it also includes such songs as ‘Feelings’ and ‘Send In The Clowns’.  ‘Yesterday When I Was Young’ is included as that song was a big hit for her in Japan.  The one track that stands out and makes this album special for me is the original UK single release recording of ‘This Is My Life’ in stereo.  I hadn’t played vinyl for a while as I had nothing to play them on but I bought a record deck and played this record out of curiosity.  I was astounded when I heard the track and have to say the quality is terrific.  I’ve always loved that version (it’s similar to the Italian ‘La Vita’ version) and although I had got it on an LP from America I feel this is better quality.

The photo on the front of the album is taken from the session for the UA album ‘The Magic Is You’.  There are three colour concert photos on the back which may have been taken at her 1977 Japanese concert.

Below is the track ‘This Is My Life’ which I have taken from this album.  Hard to believe that this recording is actually 50 years old this year.