The Best of Patience and Prudence

Patience and Prudence | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (July 13, 2004)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Collector's Choice
• ASIN: B0001CKREG
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #188,856 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Tonight You Belong to Me

2. A Smile and a Ribbon

3. Gonna Get Along Without Ya Now

4. The Money Tree

5. We Can't Sing Rhythm and Blues

6. Dreamer's Bay

7. You Tattletale

8. Very Nice Is Bali Bali

9. Witchraft

10. Over Here

11. Heavenly Angel

12. Little Wheel

13. All I Do Is Dream of You

14. Your Carless Love

15. Tom Thumb's Tune

16. Golly Oh Gee

17. Should I

18. Whisper Whisper

19. Dodn't I

20. Apples on the Lilac Tree

See all 24 tracks on this disc

Editorial Reviews

Daughters of orchestra leader Mark McIntyre, Patience & Prudence were all of 14 and 11 years old when they hit the Top Five in 1956 with 'Tonight You Belong to Me', and they went on to score several more hits for Liberty before leaving the music industry for good at the end of the decade. However, despite having a recording legacy consisting of little more than a few singles, ’50s pop and rock fans have been "patiently" awaiting reissue of their work; that’s probably because their harmonies were among the most bewitching of the era, catnip for both lounge lizards in search of exotica and rockabillies with a yen for the lighter side. We’ve gathered up their ENTIRE Liberty recordings, thrown in their four sides for Chattahoochee and procured some photos from Patience McIntryre’s private collection for the definitive retrospective.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Hard to rate -- a good news/bad news CD, December 22, 2004

By 

Bruce R. Gilson (Wheaton, MD United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Best of Patience and Prudence (Audio CD)

As I say in my title, this CD is good news and bad news both. One problem, of course, is that so little was recorded by these girls that "best of" is a misnomer; it is really ALL of their work. So it has to include good stuff and bad.

A significant problem, too, is that the liner notes have a significant omission as well as what seems to be a serious error. The omission? The liner notes talk of two demo recordings made (one for their grandmother and one for a family friend who sang professionally) but do not mention that the last two tracks on the CD are those demo recordings. I'm sure that is the case, but you couldn't tell that from what is actually written there. (The liner notes also say that "Tonight You Belong to Me" was a song the girls learned in camp under the title "They Say" but don't prepare you for the fact that the lyrics that go with that title are the ones they sang in the demo!)

The error (or at least it seems to be an error!) refers to the work that the girls did after their big hits. The notes state that the girls joined with another young artist named Mike Clifford, but the collaboration lasted only about a year; then five years later the girls (who up to then had recorded for Liberty Records) signed up with a different label, Chattahoochee Records. If this is correct, why are all the Chattahoochee tracks listed as "Mike Clifford and Patience and Prudence"? Something doesn't fit.

The CD divides into three parts. The first is the era of Patience and Prudence by themselves, on the Liberty label, including their three hits, "Tonight You Belong to Me," "Gonna Get along Without You Now," and "All I Do Is Dream of You." The other more obscure songs from this era (many written by Mark McIntyre, their father) still have the typical Patience & Prudence sound, and if you like the three big hits (as I do!), the others ought to sound good to you as well. This group constitutes about 2/3 of the CD, and is the "good news" part.

Then there are the "Mike Clifford and Patience and Prudence" tracks. They begin on Liberty and include all the Chattahoochee tracks; they seem to be an attempt to do Rock'n'Roll, with a big loud guitar that overpowers the girls' voices, and I just don't think that sound works. (This is the "bad news" (together with the problems with the kiner notes!)

And finally the CD ends with the two demos I referred to earlier. They are interesting to listen to, and nice to have, though clearly amateurish. I think I'm happy to have those two tracks, but wish that the liner notes would confirm my assumption that they are those demos the notes describe.

One thing that unifies the CD is that all three portions have one song in common, the girls' biggest hit, "Tonight You Belong to Me," in three quite different versions!

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Delicious Ear Candy - The Cover Art Says It All, July 17, 2007

By 

Vincent Incardona (Rochester, NY) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Best of Patience and Prudence (Audio CD)

Patience McIntyre was quoted as saying that there would be two types of people interested in this CD: collectors who like it for their own reasons, and people who like it because it reminds them of a happy time in their life. I don't qualify on either count--I wasn't even born until 1961, never heard of Patience and Prudence until a few months ago, and since I haven't bought a music CD in ten years, I hardly qualify as a collector. One morning on my way to work, I happened to hear "Tonight You Belong To Me", and about six bars into the song, I realized I had a big smile on my face for no apparent reason. Then, a few weeks later, I heard "Gonna Get Along Without You Now" and had the same reaction. It's been a long time since a musician did that to me once, much less twice, so naturally I had to find out who that was, why I'd never heard them before, and whether there was more.

It wasn't easy. It took a call to the station and a lot of time with a search engine to find out who and what I was hearing and where I could get it, and since the rest of the tracks on the CD apparently didn't do well commercially, I wasn't sure whether I'd be disappointed when I found it. I decided that I wanted it anyway, even if only for the two big hits and the cover art (nice job, Patience), and I was pleasantly surprised to find out that I really, really liked the whole thing. It could be their harmony, the gentle quality of their voices, the catchy pop arrangements, or the unpretentious style that does it for me, or maybe it's enough to say they made a unique and really nice sound together and just leave it at that. It's true that a couple of the songs are a bit lyrically challenged ("Should I comb my hair back, baby? Should I? Whaddya say?"), but even those sound good. This music is one of those things that exist just for pure sensory delight, like furry cats and ice cream sodas.

One hidden treat was probably not apparent to anyone but the recording engineer at the time: because the girl's voices were soft and gentle, they were miked very closely. The best part of that probably got lost on vinyl, but if you download the CD to your favorite MP3 player and listen to the earlier tracks through a pair of ear buds, the effect is like having the songs whispered in your ear. Delicious! On later tracks, you can hear their voices mature and mellow a bit, and although that's a slightly different sound, I think I like it even better. My favorites from this group were "Heavenly Angel" and "Whisper Whisper". Some people don't care for the more up-tempo rock and roll, but I found that I even liked that too. "Didn't I" and "How Can I Tell Him" always stay in my head for awhile after I've heard them.

My only real complaint? Pictures! We want pictures. I only found two with all that searching, one of which is a muddy reproduction from TIME magazine (March 1957) on microfilm. A clip of their TV appearance would be a real bonus.

I'll confess that I was a little disappointed when I found out that the two "kids" who made me smile that day are in their early sixties, mostly because it means that this collection is all there is and there isn't going to be any more. But I'm really pleased that both Patience and Prudence and their music are still with us. Thanks, ladies, for the smiles.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Trip Down Memory Lane, September 11, 2005

By 

K. Lloyd (Loma Linda, CA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Best of Patience and Prudence (Audio CD)

I remember listening to Patience and Prudence at my Grandmother's house. She had an album with various songs by various artists and I'd always play it when we visited. It brings back alot of good memories. This album is a gentle reminder of the way things used to be and I will always cherish it. Thanks so much for the trip down memory lane.