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:: Something ::

:: You Send Me ::

:: Oh Darling ::

Saturday was quite a day for the Robot kids. In the afternoon we got to pick through a pile of records left to Mike's nephew by his grandfather, all the while drinking a sumptious variety of ales, and in the evening we got to see The Fall. I ended up at Pink's at 3am. Tough to beat that. This record is one of the ones I scored.

Joe Williams was a singer's singer, possibly the most famous big band singer of all time. He was milky smooth in more than one vocal range, and one album he did with Count Basie (Count Basie Swings, Joe Williams Sings) is one of my favorites.

This 1970 offering on Blue Note is yet another case where a famous, established singer was given a crack at some hits of the day, the kind of thing that more often than not turns out more humorous than good. As great as Joe Williams is, some of these readings really don't work too well. It's not all Joe's fault, some of the arrangements pretty much guarantee a strange trip, but there's something about the way he sings the Beatles classic "Something" that's just not right. Over all, it's at the very least different than what you might expect, even if you know all the originals and are familiar with Williams' work. Here's both Beatles covers from the record, and a darkly minor jazz rendition of the Sam Cooke hit "You Send Me." Enjoe!


Tony

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