Customer Reviews

Joni James - Latest and Greatest Hits

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Nearly a half-century separates the first nine tracks and last nine tracks in this album but you'd never know it. Joni James sounds as young as ever and, because the same creative team was involved in creating both sets of recordings, the new and the tried and true blend seamlessly into one totally enjoyable collection. It takes a lot of courage for a veteran performer to tackle new material and then go another step by holding it up by comparison to a string of multimillion sellers. The hits sound better than ever. The new songs are totally delightful and range from big beautiful ballads to country swing to blues to a weepers. James does everything up to perfection aided by the arrangements of Lew Douglas, who also arranged the first round of hits. This is a most unusual album and a most daring concept and she pulls it off handsomely. It will sell big and merits recognition both as a totally enjoyable album and an example of a front runner staying up front.

I'm a little confused by the comparisons of Joni James to jazz singers. In the records here she unmistakenly a pop singer, so why is she being held up to the mirror of jazz singers? Joni did do some jazz-inflected albums in a later period of her career, and they sold well, particularly in Japan. But here she is a pop singer. Regarding her phrasing, I don't think it's clumsy. It's original and unique, influenced clearly by Gregorian chants with a bit of Sarah Vaughan. As for Louis Armstrong, he was a big admirer of Joni's, they knew each other, and she grew up listening to his records, Sarah Vaughan's, Dinah Washington's, Billie Holiday's and Anita O'Day's. And as for Joni not swinging, ALL her first albums take usually slow ballads and speed them up, adding all sorts of nuances, time stretching and especially phrasing behind the beat. She sang a lot backed by Stan Kenton's orchestra in concerts and he thought she WAS a jazz singer at heart with an incredible sense of time. This album is well worth getting, even just to hear a singer unlike any other. Selling more than 100 million records she can't be so bad.

This is a lovely collection of music. The "latest" songs are sung with the same warmth and conviction that Ms. James has always been known for. Her voice is still sweet and clear, but with a strength that comes from time and experience. My favorite of this group is "I'm In Love Again," which is the best new ballad I have heard in a long time. Of the "greatest" songs, I had never before heard "Is It Any Wonder," and what a wonderful song it is. That and "Wishing Ring" rate as two of Ms. James' most intimate, heartfelt performances. "Almost Always," with its lush Latin arrangement, is another treat. A CD with new recordings combined with old recordings is an unusual concept, but in this case it works. I recently had the privilege of seeing Ms. James in concert, which was a treat. I have never seen a performer who has such a rapport with an audience. Plus, she sounds as great in person as she does on the CD.

This marvelous cd displays the unique vocal stylings of a truly classic singer. The is no discernable difference in her voice between the new and old recordings. Listening to this lovely cd makes me look forward to her Westbury Long Island concert on October 28. Joni is still the queen of romance.

Joni, you've made us wait far too long for your new music and then you have gone and done it! Nine super new songs... you sound really lovely (as in REALLY LOVELY)! A deliciously wonderful potpourri of sounds - it's difficult to choose the best.. they are all so good. YOU are something else. Plus the nine vintage songs from the vaults which sound bright and fresh. What a treat!! You had better be ready for a new wave of fans when they hear your lightness and lilt, class, talent and really wonderful sound -- '00 Style - Love and Thank You!!

Joni James proves with this album that she can still sing... beautifully. The new cuts are well-produced with good arrangements and excellent audio quality. In this era of overdriven CD's (maximum volume and maximum distortion), this is exceptionally pleasant! You may already have some of the earlier cuts, but the new material makes it a worthwhile addition to any Joni James collection.

Joni James is one of the most talented and successful singers in all of recorded history. Her voice is wholly extraordinary. It has a perfect pitch and tone, and it possesses a lyrical, even magically lilting quality, in which the notes slide up and down in a consummately evocative way to convey her every very
deep and honest feeling. Due to her extraordinary capacity to convey very deep feelings, she is more than just a popular singer. Her songs address the human condition in the most fundamental ways.

Joni James was a protege of MGM, and she performed between 1952 and 1966 on that basis, and yet, on the good side, MGM did for her a most unusual thing by giving her alone the right to
choose her own material. This permitted her to take a principled position on the relations between men and women, a position to which she maintained total fidelity, both in her singing and so far as we know in her personal life.

On the bad side, MGM exploited her shamelessly, having her record so many songs that she became more overexposed than perhaps any other performing artist has ever been in all of "recorded" history. This ensured that her songs would no longer become gold or platinum best sellers, because people simply had heard far too much of her singing during those years. Yet back on the good side, MGM allowed her singing to convey the basic life message she chose to give to the world. And her message was perfectly clear.

In the corpus of the work of Joni James we can clearly see one fundamentally basic message coming through a majority of her songs. She chose to celebrate and insist upon the ideal union
between a man and a woman. Many, many of her songs celebrated the joy of total commitment and total fidelity. In her view, it is the absolute love with one other person to the exclusion of all others that makes for the most happy life. Of course, she was right.

During the 1960s, when the hippies were recommending and practicing "free love" and acting upon their philosophy by smoking dope and asking: "do you want to ball?" and answering: "your place or my place?" Joni held to the high ground of marital fidelity. She believed in true love, and she tried to make people understand that this required sexual fidelity. The hippy movement is no more, but Joni James' message remains valid for all of eternity.

Joni James held out for the kind of love that is serious, that lasts for a lifetime, that is totally monogamous, and that is faithful in an absolute sense. Although she was an enormously popular singer, she did not pander to her times, but instead sought to pull against those times by insisting upon certain fundamental principles that should govern the relationships between a man and a woman. She always held strongly to the woman's point of view, by insisting that fidelity was the most important virtue in any couple's love life. In her music she took the position that one must never commit oneself until one has come to be ready to make a firm commitment, not just for the
moment but for life. This was her basic message, and it did not vary from song to song.

In the current age, one in which such a message may sound quaint, naive or idealistic, Joni James' songs may seem a bit old fashioned. But she did not adopt a message for her times only; her ideas of the need for sexual fidelity are valid for all places and all times, especially in an era of AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases. Joni James used her extraordinary voice, which I think we can now in retrospect call America's female Voice of the Century, to proclaim what is the best way for a man and a woman to love each other for the long term, for life.

Let the contemporary nihilists who believe in nothing attack her all they want, and they have. This holds no importance. Her fundamental message will withstand all such mindless battering; Joni James has a message for us all about how best to live.

In this current comback recording, she holds to the old virtues, the tried and true forms of relationships. Her voice has lost nothing of its lyric quality, but has gained a substantive emotional quality, and so is even more lovely than it was before in her heyday of the 1950s and 1960s. That a woman who was popular so long ago should have produced such a wonderful set of music so much later in her life is little short of incredible. But Joni James was always astonishing anyway.

I recommend her music to anyone who has an open mind and a willingness to consider that the old fundamentals still apply. Born in 1930 and therefore now 75 years old, this woman is simply amazing. She still has a lot to say to you

Joni James "Latest And Greatest Hits" is her first new release in over 35 years. Amazingly, Miss James still sounds as young and vibrant as she did in the 50's and 60's. She's remarkable. There aren't many other singers who could accomplish such a feat. This recording is a must for any Joni James fan. It includes three of her hits never before released on cd,"Almost Always", "Wishing Ring" and "Is It Any Wonder?" plus nine new tunes showing Joni's versatility from pop ballad to country. And Joni is in top form all the way through. Her range and phrasing are first rate. I highly recommend this cd to any one who loves fine music.

Come on Joni, if you do a comeback album, have a little more class. Throw in some Gershwin, Porter, Berlin, Rogers & Hart, Mercer, Ellington... but not the sappy miidle of the road crud that's on this cd, with even stickier strings, eeewww, I;m gonna puke. Skip this one, at least Rosemry Clooney, Tony Bennett, and Jack Jones record wuality standard material wit hjazz backing, while James si trying to do someting commercial and unartistic or fun, or jazzy or swingy... and it makes her sound old... should be called "Best Of Granny"

If you like Patti Page, and Teresa Brewer you'll love this. If you liked her cheezy "you're hit parade" sounding songs in the 50's, you'll love this modern day MUZAK. I'm sure this stuff will be played in elevators and grocery store everywhere. For me I'll stick with June Christy, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Anita O'Day and Chris Connor. Note: if you respect jazz singing don't buy this CD.