>The fact that Nelson Riddle was involved made me pay attention to >the Ronstadt >recordings. In '83 (as a high school junior) I plunked down a >pretty penny for a 5 >disc, import vinyl set - "Ella Fitzgerald Sings the George & Ira >Gershwin Song Book,"
in 1981, i did a version of 'girl crazy' at college of marin's summer theater program, which was very fine. the music director was someone who had worked with ira g., and the show was absolutely chock full of gershwin's greatest and talented singers. that just rocked my world, and i acquired the double-album ella-george songbook on lp soon after. that longer import version must be amazing... >I bought the Ronstadt recordings later and found the performances >fairly tame (and >in some instances, downright dull) by comparison. > i know what you mean, but the ronstadt records for me were almost a re-introduction of the standards, for me. my mom was a singer, we'd learned broadway and other 40-50s popular songs around the piano, but by the eighties that was far behind. i was a led zep/floyd head, plus disco. ronstadt's project, with the experience above, the very familiar name of nelson riddle (i really loved those cheesy early '70s variety specials and riddle was a huge presence) and some other reasons, just really caught me. ronstadt's standards are very far under the top, but she was very honest with the songs, and her voice was just so aurally beautiful. i don't listen to them a lot, but i'll always be fond of them. patrick np - bonnie raitt - angel from montgomery
