Customer Reviews

The Complete A&M Recordings

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Liza Minnelli is the singing wonder of her generation and this tremendous collection is proof...stunning collection should have made the Legendary Diva a Superstar long before Cabaret but radio for some strange reason refused to play these awesome recordings that would easily have sold in the millions plus won a number of well-deserved Grammy Awards...doesn't say much for the music industry in general or the lame radio-programmers of America who were all going psychedelic at the time of Liza's stunning A&M debut. Self-titled "Liza Minnelli" is the extraordinary A&M Records recording debut with incredible performances like "Married/You'd Better Sit Down Kids", "Waiting For My Friend", "The Look Of Love", "My Mammy", "For No One", plus a number of Peter Allen & Randy Newman gems making this landmark album magnificent from start to finish! "Come Saturday Morning" is another awesome collection of great songs filled with more fine singing from Liza like smoldering & mesmerizing performances such as "On A Slow Boat To China", "Don't Let Me Lose This Dream", a haunting "McArthur Park/Didn't We" featuring Peter Allen on piano while "New Feelin'" is a charged rocking and soulful set containing a passionate & stirring "Maybe This Time" plus a sublime gospelized "God Bless The Child". Now by the early 70's only "Singer/Songwriter's" were given airplay but in early 70's "New Feelin'" Liza really lets it rip on old standards such as "Love For Sale" & "I Wonder Where My Easy Riders Gone" while "Can't Help Loving That Man" & "The Man I Love" are soul-deep & satisfying. An exciting early live album recorded at the legendary Olympia Theater in Paris is included along with superb unreleased gems with a jazzy tropicial feel featuring glorious & mesmerizing vocals from Liza.
Liza recorded a rich variety of standards during her productive stint at A & M Records but the real surprise here is the greatness of the contemporary material and unique originality of the varied and richly illuminating performances...the legendary lady can really sing and this magical & wondrous musical treasure should be given a Special "Grammy Award" as it is better late than never to award a deserving stunning collection filled with timeless great performances!!!
Bravo Liza!

When I first saw this two CD set advertised in Collectors' Choice mail order magazine I literally yelped before calling to order a copy. First of all, I would finally own the rare "Liza Minellei: Live at the Olympia in Paris", a 1972 album of which I had only heard portions. That album is a wonderful glimpse of the singer on the verge of superstardom; not quite capturing the all out frenetic style that she would soon become famous for. Secondly, I would be able to listen to a non-scratched version of her 1969 album, "Come Saturday Morning" which includes not only that sweet (but all too short) song from "The Sterile Cuckoo" but also truly beautiful takes on "Raggedy Ann& Raggedy Andy", "Leavin' On A Jet Plane", and a breath-taking version of "On A Slow Boat to China" that will knock your socks off. I forgot just what a good voice Minnelli had as her obvious stage performance skills sometimes obliviated her natural vocal gifts. In third place on this compilation is Minnelli's first A&M entry, a 1968 album with such diverse titles as "My Mammy", "The Happy Time", "The Look of Love", and "For No One". There's also her first recording of a later mainstay of her repertoire, "Married" coupled with "You Better Sit Down Kids". There are also outtakes from this album including "Once in a Lifetime", "I'm Looking Over a Four Leaf Clover" and "Snow". The only weak part of this CD set is the album, "New Feelin'" where the arrangements just don't let Minnelli do justice to otherwise great songs such as "Stormy Weather", "Come Rain or Come Shine", and "Easy Rider's Gone". However, there are other treats including "Frank Mills" from the Broadway musical, "Hair" and "Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon" a song penned by Minnelli's then husband, Peter Allen. Still, even with a few poor choices in arrangements and selection of material this new release is an excellent partner to DRG's wonderful "Liza Minnelli: The Complete (Capitol) Collection"; a welcomed addition in efforts to own all of the singer's commercially recorded material; and an excellent reminder of just what a great talent is Liza Minnelli. Kudoos to Collectors' Choice for another excellent re-release of out of print records with the original cover art intact; to Amazon.com for picking up this independent release; and to Scott Schecter for once again penning excellent liner notes.

I know, Whats a metal head doing listening to Liza, But sometimes I like mellow music too. Put this music in when you have a nice candle lit dinner with the wife and you will see her voice is magic.

This 2 CD Set is one of the most well done CD anthologies that I've ever bought. It's a true labor of love that the producer of this set put into making Liza Minnelli's highly valued recordings at A&M Records into a totally complete double CD. Everything about this set will have a fan extremely satisfied. All four of Liza's A&M albums are here in beautifully restored sound in their entirety. Not just that, but there are many unreleased or rare bonus tracks. And to enhance this tremendous package is the expertly written liner notes , which are very informative. Plus, the visuals of color photos and more.

Liza's late 60's/early 70's recordings are a delight to hear. You can hear transformation from her earlier Capitol album recordings , where she did primarily standards into doing more contemporary , hip songs by the principal songwriters of the time. Liza was young herself, and I find it more satisfying hearing her sing songs from her generation, and not just the old songs that she did for Capitol. There are so many great songs on this 2 CD set that are worthy of being elevated in status in the Minnelli canon of songs. The 3 studio albums are all good: LIZA MINNELLI, COME SATURDAY MORNING and NEW FEELIN' , which I think is really good because it adds contemporay pop style arrangements to standards that makes them more hip. It's not the disaster some say it it, unless they just love the old stuff. But Liza has always been diversified, and every song on here offers the listener something to like. The live album is also very good, as you can hear the live Minnelli personality breaking out in a 1969 Paris concert. What's to complain about on this set? Nothing at all. It's perfect. Just what the fans wanted. There have been endless repackages of her A&M material on CD & albums for years, always missing out on some songs. Well, this corrects the problem, as it has everything she recorded for A&M, right before her Liza With A Z and Cabaret superstar success. Many thanks to the people who put together such a remarkable package. Definitely one of the best CD reissues I've ever bought.

...Liza's first couple studio albums for A&M Records were largely ignored by the buying public, both young and old. The elder crowd didn't, as a rule, purchase albums by younger artists whose work they didn't know well and hadn't heard, and Liza Minnelli was not considered a contemporary by younger buyers - even though she was closer to them in age. They hadn't heard her on their transistor radios. Thus, a real commerical quandary.

However for those who simply know Minnelli's work on her live albums, you will be pleasantly surprised to find that her vocals here are based on singing with actual nuance and real feeling, not bombast and histrionics (which works so much better on stage in the excitement of live performances than on record).

In my humble opinion, these are not perhaps the most exciting vocal performances by the gifted Liza Minnelli, but interestingly enough, they are among her absolute best. She is gentle on some tracks and wistful, but never boring... she truly interprets the lyric dramatically and with simplicity ("Simon", "Come Saturday Morning"). And her "The Look of Love" is just plain sexy. In fact, Liza's version of this golden chestnut stands with the best of them. No small thing.

The sound, overall, is of its time, and in quite a few cases it does not transcend, but it is still a delightful listen. In any case, it is truly wonderful to finally have this collection available for the buying public along with some bonus tracks and fantastic liner notes composed by Scott Schechter that cradle the music in a fun and insightful way.

Wow, the sound on this remaster is excellent. Liza's voice and the arrangements literally jump out of the speaker, crystal-clear. This is a well produced compilation, which Liza fans will no doubt love. Liza's early material is excellent - so many great interpretations of classics including "My Mammy," "The Look of Love," "Leaving on a Jet Plane" and many more.

With the remastered editions of "Results," Liza's Capitol recordings and now her A&M recordings, it's great to see Liza's studio recordings getting their due in recent years.

Highly recommended.

I had to wait almost 2 months for Amazon to deliver this CD after the street date but the wait was certainly worth it. The 9 rare and previously unreleased tracks alone are worth the price of the CD. Can you imagine Liza crooning Dionne staples like I'll Never Fall In Love Again and This Girl's In Love With You? This is Liza at her most sublime! Thank you Scott Schecter for producing this release. Can you please work on getting a CD release of Live At The Winter Garden next? Please top up the CD with rare unreleased tracks from the Columbia vaults. I'm going to play my 2 favourite songs now.....Lazy Bones & Easy Rider's Gone. I've never heard Liza hit those high notes before. Wow!

I had been meaning to buy this 2 disc set and while heading to my wine store in Boston, I ran into a CD shop to see if they had it on the shelf, they had one copy. Quickly I picked it up, paid for it, ran out and opened a bottle of red wine. What a nice suprise! The youth in her voice mixed with the serious potential in her infliction blew me away. With a tinge of happiness I read that the A & M records did not sell well at their release time and I thought how nice to have something so few do. Well, this was worth every penny and each song is just as fresh and polished for the time, some with exceptional production.

This is a bit of rarely heard Liza but not at my home!

This 2-disc set, "The Complete A&M Recordings", is actually four albums Minnelli recorded for the A&M label between the brief period of 1968-1970 , along with alternate recordings & unreleased cuts.

The first two albums, "Liza Minnellli" and "Come Saturday Morning" are quite lovely and find Liza in a mellow, pop-folk early-70's mood, handling this material very well, considering that her forte has always been, and will always be that of the bombastic, socko-boffo-POW Broadway style of singing. I've always preferred these two albums over her earlier, immature Capital recordings, and are completely superior to the bland "The Singer", the weak "Tropical Nights", both recorded later for CBS and the sleep-inducing, boring "Gently" for Angel. Her renditions of "Wailing of the Willow", "Look of Love", "Raggedy Ann & Raggedy Andy",and especially "Simon" are surprisingly lovely & subtle, and she seems truly comfortable in a recording studio. These two albums deserved to be released & completely restored on compact discs.

The third album Minnelli recorded for A&M, "New Feelin' ", is a total embarrassment and should never have been released on CDs, let alone released in the first place in 1970. This ill-advised concept was to have Liza record standards of the Great American Songbook in an R&B-country-rock-mishmash style and is a complete nightmare of bad arrangements, bad taste, and screeching, shouting singing. Not one song on this awful album works. Most of the cuts from this album have already been released on at least two prior compilations produced by Scott Schechter and why he insists on reminding people of this bomb I simply do not understand. Thank God this trash is followed by Liza's first solo "live" album, recorded at the famed Olympia in Paris. She's in fine voice, with great renditions of "I Will Wait For You" (Legrand's beautiful theme from "The Umbrellas of Cherbourg"), "Nous On S aimera", "My Mammy", and a vastly different version of her signature tune "Cabaret" that her admires will be interested in hearing.

With few exceptions (film soundtracks, Broadway/live recordings, Pet Shop Boys "Results", Liza's finest pop studio endevour to date), I admit to NOT being a Minnelli lover when it comes to her recorded work, as I feel her craft & artistry is best captured in other mediums. Her two first albums for A&M are part of that exception and are truly worth purchasing this package.........just be sure to skip "New Feelin' "!!!!

Luigi ~ nyc

Liza Minnelli The Complete A&M Recordings is a treasure for her fans! THANK GOD these songs finally made it to CD in digital form--the sound is crisp and Liza is in excellent form throughout. This is a must-have for Liza fans; and even newcomers to Liza's artistry will be easily impressed with her genius. The artwork is very well done, too.

"The Debutante's Ball" starts the first CD with Liza doing her usual very best; she handles complex tempo and key changes effortlessly as if it were mere breathing--but of course we know it really wasn't all that easy. Liza's talent always carries her through! "The Look of Love" gets a passionate treatment from Ms. Minnelli who never falters--and that percussion is heavenly, too! "Waiting for My Friend" showcases Liza's excellent diction; this enhances her performance even more and that's grand. "Married" is done so very well! "You Better Sit Down, Kids," which was written by Sonny Bono and originally released by Cher, features Liza squarely in the spotlight--which is quite all right by me! "For No One" uses the strings to great advantage while Liza does this with panache; and she sounds so good as she sings this song. "My Mammy" gets a most passionate treatment as Liza swings ever so gently to deliver this with sentimental elegance; and "The Happy Time" is another fine tune that Liza aces with flying colors!

"Leaving on a Jet Plane" has great percussion as Liza sings this wonderfully; and "On a Slow Boat to China" sports a very lush musical arrangement. Liza delivers "Slow Boat to China" to perfection--and beyond! Terrific! "MacArthur Park" is another gem; it's truly a highlight of this two CD set. "I'm Looking Over A Four Leaf Clover" is actually an outtake that has Liza singing an old favorite; and listen for "This Girl's In Love With You" by Burt Bacharach and Hal David--they must have been proud when they heard Liza's rendition of their classic ballad!

"Love for Sale" starts the second CD with style and energy; and I love Liza's version of "Stormy Weather" by Harold Arlen and Ted Koehler. "Stormy Weather" has some excellent backup vocalists to enhance the tune; and "Come Rain or Come Shine" has a more modern arrangement that works wonders for this tune. "The Man I Love" charms me with its beauty; and how's about that piano arrangement? I love it. "How Long Has This Been Going On?" is sublime; and listen for Liza to do a superb job on "God Bless the Child." "Maybe This Time" shines brighter than silver and gold, too--and why not? After all, it's Liza singing it!

"Everybody's Talking" has Liza sounding terrific; and I really like "Good Morning Starshine," too. "Liza with a Z" is one of the wonderful live tracks from a concert Liza gave in France. "My Mammy" gets another turn, this time in a live setting; Liza's fans enjoy it! "Cabaret" has a very spirited arrangement as it should have--that musical arrangement is very sophisticated and exceptionally jazzy--and it all holds its own very well. "Snow" uses the strings very well; and "Marcy" just couldn't have been done any better--BRAVO, LIZA!

Liza Minnelli still has it--and she always will. These recordings are not just classics; they are a testimony to an artist whose talent just can't wither and fade away--ever. Liza fans will cherish this two CD set; and I think people just getting into Liza will become instant "forever fans" once they hear these songs.

BRAVO, LIZA! WE LOVE YOU!