Customer Reviews

I'll Always Love You / Somebody's Waiting

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

These were the first two Anne Murray albums I ever bought, and they sound as fresh today as they did when they were new. I was so happy to see them both offered as one unit.

"Somebody's Waiting" is definitely my favorite of the two albums, but they are both excellent. Unfortunately commercial success eluded the album, but I feel it was due more to the fact that it followed too closely behind "I'll Always Love You" and it's megahit singles "Broken Hearted Me" and "Daydream Believer" than to any lack of quality of the material included in "Somebody's Waiting". In fact, I think its highest charting single, "Lucky Me", is a much better song than either of the hits from "I'll Always Love You". Moreover, none of the songs on "Somebody's Waiting" have that "filler" feel of songs that are there just to meet the quota of tracks for an album of its day; every song is unique and very good. "Moon Over Brooklyn" is marvelous and "Nevertheless (I'm In Love With You)" is an excellent version of an old standard and undoubtedly inspired Anne to record her later album of standards, "Croonin'".

Overall, these are two albums that I sorely missed and am so happy to finally have on CD.

The album "I'll always love you" was something I had been waiting most of my life to get on CD and finally it became available.For me it is definately the best of all her albums, although the others are also excellent, this would be the one I just couldn't do without. "You've Got Me To Hold On To", "I'll Always Love You" & "Lovers Knot are my top 3 from this album.

Grab you partner and a good glass of wine and put this CD on. Anne Murray has a special way with a song and no one to this day can imitate or hope to achieve what Anne has in her long and storied career. The mega-hits are here : "Broken Hearted Me" a delicate yet heart wrenching number that no one today can touch or even come close to the class this song has. "Daydream Believer" again is pure pop perfection. Anne makes the song her own without taking away from the original. Hidden gems are "Stranger at My Door" (perfect for breakups), "Lucky Me" (perfect after a breakup) and "Wintery Feeling"-the perfect song to cuddle up to. Finally the ancient "Nevertheless" is brought back to life by Anne and she sounds as classy as any vocalist from the era the song came from. There are also upbeat and sassy numbers like "Lover's Knot" and "Good Ol' Song" which are neither Country nor Pop but just about the best music ever made.

I bought the vinyl, "Somebody's Waiting" when I was 16 and the songs remained playing in my head over and over again for more than 20 years without listening to the album (my record player broke down since I was 18 and the vinyl format, as we all know, became obselete more than a decade ago)!

That is how powerful this album is for me. The melodies are beautiful and lyrics meaningful! This is one of Anne's best album ever (the other ultimate albums of hers that I can't live without are "Lets Keep it That Way" and "New Kind of Feeling"). I spent years looking high and low for it and praying that someday it will be released on CD and one can imagine the joy when I saw it offered on Amazon!

Listen to the outstanding tracks like "Lucky Me", "Moon over Brooklyn", "What's Forever for", "The French Waltz","Beginning to feel like Home", and "Somebody's Waiting". Simply Beautiful!

I'll Always Love You album is my all time favorite from Anne Murray-it's melancholy tunes hit the spot on a cold, wintery evening-along with a glass of wine, a cozy fire and the one you love.

excellent to have two of her best together in one package. don't miss "moon over brooklyn", "easy love", "you set my dreams", "good old song", "you've got me", "why don't you stick around", "french waltz", "lucky me" & "somebody's waiting". These are some classic vocals (subtle and cutting at times). She is a singer with a classic AND classy sound. Hope to hear something new from her soon!!!

Having had both of these titles on vinyl back in the early 1980s, I'm very familiar with all 20 of these songs. It's hard to find fault with Anne's simple, heartfelt interpretations and Jim Ed Norman's understated productions, but I have to be honest: by the time of "Somebody's Waiting", I felt that Anne and Jim Ed were struggling a bit to not repeat themselves. I think "I'll Always Love You" was a fine follow-up to the double knockout of 1978's "Let's Keep It That Way" and 1979's "New Kind of Feeling", but "Somebody's Waiting" always had a kind of rushed, copycat feeling to it to me. Recorded when Anne was pregnant with her daughter Dawn (notice how her stomach is hidden behind the table on the album cover?), "I'll Always Love You" has ten melodic songs that stand apart and don't flow one into the other. I love the hook of the song "I'll Always Love You" - try getting the chorus out of your head. Anne shows some grit in "Why Don't You Stick Around" and somehow makes "Daydream Believer" work for a female singer. After three great albums in a row, though, "Somebody's Waiting" doesn't quite deliver. The first single, "Lucky Me", has to be one of the most unremarkable singles in Anne's long career. There simply isn't anything notable about it at all. It ended Anne's string of pop top 30 hits at five, failing to even crack the top 40. The second single, a slowed down cover of the Beatles' "I'm Happy Just To Dance With You", is nice, but I never felt that this was one of the Fab Four's stronger songs either. (It certainly pales in comparison to Anne's take on "You Won't See Me" from 1974.) While there are some pretty cuts on this album (such as "The French Waltz" and "Moon Over Brooklyn"), some of the magic of the previous three albums is missing. Regardless of my hesitations in recommending this CD, there are plenty of songs here to please any Anne fan. I wouldn't start with these two as my first Anne CD, though.

This was the re-release I was waiting for. These are my two favorite Anne Murray albums. What a treat to get them on CD, finally.

This CD is a combination of "I'll Always Love You" from 1979 and "Somebody's Waiting" from 1980. The hits on this package include "Broken Hearted Me," "Daydream Believer" and "Lucky Me." There is so much more here than the hits. "Moon Over Brooklyn is Anne's best work ever! This songs gives me chills 20 years after first hearing it. The arrangement and production are so subtle, that the song soars on Anne's voice, piano, and saxophone. That song alone makes it worth the price of the CD. Other songs to look for include both title tracks, "Stranger at My Door," later covered by Juice Newton, "What's Forever For," later covered by Michael Martin Murphy, "Easy Love," and "You Set My Dreams to Music."

This CD is a treasure!

Here are two of Anne Murray's albums which followed the blockbusters, "Let's Keep It That Way" from 1978, which featured her only American #1 Pop hit, "You Needed Me" and "New Kind of Feeling," which featured the Dusty Springfield remake and monster hit, "I Just Fall in Love Again."

"I'll Always Love You" finds Anne in a smoky, romantic place as does "Somebody's Waiting." The difference between the two is a very fine line. "I'll Always Love You," though more pop-oriented than the latter with its singles ("Broken Hearted Me," #4 American Pop and the killer Monkees remake "Daydream Believer,") leave plenty of room for the Queen of Canadian Pop to croon her way through some beautifully crafted Pop songs.

"Somebody's Waiting," on the other hand, somehow got lost in the black hole between "I'll Always Love You" and the pointless, "A Country Collection" and predated her first "Greatest Hits," which would put her back on top with yet another new single, the wedding song, "Could I Have This Dance."

The first single from "Somebody's Waiting," "Lucky Me," tried too hard to recapture the tragic sadness of "Broken Hearted Me" and resulted in a poorly written (lyrically) ode to loneliness. There are, though, some magical moments, namingly, "Moon Over Brooklyn" and the title cut, as well as the beautiful "French Waltz." The Beatles' remake, "I'm Happy Just to Dance with You" was eyebrow raising, and NOT in a GOOD way either. Bear in mind also, that she was just coming down off the high of two consecutive Platinum albums and one Gold album and by the time "Somebody's Waiting" rolled around, a commercial slump was apparent, so at that point, she NEEDED another big hit.

Had Capitol introduced "Somebody's Waiting" with "Could I Have This Dance" and scrapped the abysmal "Lucky Me," the opportunity for another Platinum album would have presented especially where Urban Cowboy (from which the song was culled) was such a HUGE movie. Then, "Greatest Hits" could have followed directly AFTER and have been JUST as BIG, if not BIGGER. Sorry, Capitol, but y'blew THAT ONE!

These two albums, recently reissued on this CD, represent some of Anne Murray's best singing and song choice. Many of the songs are perfectly suited to her rich alto, such as the chestnut "Nevertheless I'm In Love With You" (what a lower register) and the haunting "Moon Over Brooklyn," which is probably one of the best-written songs Anne has ever lent her smooth as silk voice to. She also saves Michael Martin Murphy's syrupy "What's Forever For" from itself and achieves simple elegance with "Beginning to Feel Like Home." I'll Always Love You includes her mega-hit, the morose "Broken Hearted Me," which is like a drug for people at the end of a relationship (it's a killer if you're in a down mood). There's also a lively number called "Lover's Knot," with some great backgrond singing, and a wonderful cover of Jesse Winchester's affecting "Wintry Feeling" (if only more of Anne's material had been arranged in this manner!). She also breathes new life into, of all things, the Monkees' "Daydream Believer," much more convincing in her hands. As these two albums attest to, Anne represents one of the last great pure pop voices, in need of no gimmickry or psychotic theatrics to emote in a song.