First Night

Jane Olivor | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 25, 1990)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Sony
• ASIN: B00000257N
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #35,905 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A darkly and enchanting evening with a songbird, October 11, 1999

By 

Thomas Lapins (Orlando, Florida USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: First Night (Audio CD)

I went to several Jane Oliver concerts in the 70's. For this young man she was a totally new kind of experience. She did music in a way that I had not heard before but somehow knew of. "First Night" and "Turn Away" are two powerful and poignant ballads. I'll not play a Jane Oliver CD for months and then get into the mood to hear her. All the intensity of hearing Jane for the first time comes back instantly, and I wonder why I haven't been playing her music all along. I'm not as thrilled by Jane's "up" songs as I am by her ballads. Her re-make of "Better Days" is terrible. This song was so beautifully done by Melissa, and had so much potential here. Of course "Vincent" and "Some Enchanted Evening" are blistering in lyrics, vocals and arrangements. Here she becomes that eternal, elusive songbird one cannot get enough of. These two songs came from deep within a hungry, hurting soul with great capacity and in need of great expression. Jane has been said to be the American "Piaf". I don't like either Piaf's voice or style. When Jane is trying to be "French" and "light" she reminds me of Piaf. However, when she becomes that darkly and enchanting songbird of "Vincent" she soars on her own wings, and needs no comparisons to Piaf. If Jane is the American "Piaf", then she is the Piaf I hear in Elaine Paige's studio "Piaf" (Jane should do this kind of recording). I so wish she would record again.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Thrilling Pop Singing of the Highest Calibre, June 16, 1998

By 

Greg (New York City) - See all my reviews

This review is from: First Night (Audio CD)

There is more than enough room to argue that Jane Olivor's First Night is the finest pop album ever made by a female singer. Olivor may be too dark/intense for some, but for those who love divas in the lineage of Piaf, Garland and Streisand, there can be no better choice than she. It's obvious that Olivor is thrilled to be singing and this comes across in every song. Her rendition of "Some Enchanted Evening" totally reworks the song and makes it her own, forever, spinning you off into the heavens. I wish Columbia had done a better job of mastering this superb, astonishing album, which, by the way, won Stereo Review's Album of the Year in 1976.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A pleasant surprise!, May 23, 2001

By 

Sid L. Sokol (TX United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: First Night (Audio CD)

Jane Ollivor was recommended to me through Amazon.com when I was shopping for a Linda Eder CD. What a pleasant surprise! I'd never heard of her. But, I bought the CD and could not (1) stop playing it and (2)wait for her new CD, "Love Decides". Now "Love Decides" is my favorite. I've turned her on to several friends incluing an English bloke here on holiday. Can anybody tell me if she's touring or has plans to do so? Particular interest in the Houston area.