Customer Reviews

Jukebox Joni

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Jukebox Joni is a Joni James album that really shows off her great voice! Joni James doesn't get the recognition that she deserves but hopefully as her CDs continue to sell people will remember her all over again. The sound quality is very good and the artwork is great!

"Somebody Else Is Taking My Place" starts the CD with Joni singing her heart out on this beautiful torch song! The upbeat melody belies the sadness of the lyrics. Joni sings this wonderfully and she never misses a beat! The backup chorus enhances the natural beauty of this number. "You Are My Sunshine" slows down the pace somewhat as Joni delivers this like the pro she always was! Joni sings "You Are My Sunshine" so sweetly that I think Joni's rendition is THE definitive rendition of this classic love song.

"Teach Me To Forget You" features Joni squarely front and center--where she deserves to be! The backup chorus again works well for this ballad; and Joni sings this very sweetly. "I Need You So" again showcases Joni's fine vocal talents and the strings are used to great advantage. "I Need You So" is a beautiful number that you can slow dance to with your sweetheart late at night in your living room--it's THAT good.

"I Almost Lost My Mind" has great percussion and the brass really round out the musical arrangement. Joni sings this to perfection and beyond! I love every minute of it. "I Almost Lost My Mind" is easily a major highlight of this album.

"Don't Let The Neighbors Know" places Joni front and center--and the backup chorus works well for this ballad. This torch song sparkles like gold when Joni sings it; she delivers this so well it stuns me with its beauty. Awesome! Listen also for "Forgive A Fool;" this is a classic love song that gets the royal treatment from Joni as she performs this brilliantly! The strings work well and this number holds its own very well. "Vaya Con Dios" is also another beautiful highlight of this CD; Joni sings this without a flaw and the guitar arrangement is very pretty.

This certainly is one Joni James CD her fans won't want to miss! This CD is sure to please fans of classic pop vocals as well. It's even an excellent starter CD for people just getting to know the wonderful artistry of the great Joni James.

jukebox joni is a must for any joni james fan .to hear her renditions of you are my sunshine , my last date, and vaya con dios .so beautifully sung in stero is great. this cd is a perfect example of the versatility of miss james .the clairty of her voice and her turn with the lyric proves once again that joni james is one of the best in her field....for anyone who loves songs from the heart ...buy this cd.

WOW! Joni picked some of her best "jukebox treasures" on this new release. Hearing them in stereo for the first time blew off my socks! Let's hope for a volume two - and soon!

Here's a collection of rare Joni James singles from the M-G-M Records days sounding like they never sounded on vinyl and many of them in true stereo for the first time. From ballads, to swing, to country, to rockish to folkish to bluesish numbers, the full range of Joni's eclectic musical tastes are represented here, along with the usual distinctive orchestrations and topnotch production values which have always been her trademarks. The big fascination is how different Joni sounds track to track--unlike most lady pop vocalists her sound evolved over the years and from song genre to song genre. It's always her unmistakably, but a different her song to song. A large portion of the music here consists of alternate versions, takes different from those which appeared on albums and so on. It all adds up to a refreshing, fun album with music still amazingly full of vitality. Nothing sounds dated here. Great for listening, romancing and dancing!

WOW! Joni picked some of her best "jukebox treasures" on this new release. Hearing them in stereo for the first time blew off my socks! Let's hope for a volume two - and soon!

This CD has songs I wasn't aware that Joni James had done. I'm very happy to add these to my music collection.

Very few CDs I order today have NOTHING on them that I don't already have, but this is one; I have gotten to the point now that most of the CDs I order have only a few tracks I want. So the rarity of the tracks on this CD is clear in that I didn't have a single one of these tracks, and in fact had never even HEARD any of them. (I'm familiar with about 5 of the songs, but only by other artists.) But just about all of these sound very good. There is a considerable variation in style, and really only one sounds like "typical Joni James": that one being a Hank Williams composition (not too surprising, since she was known for pop covers of Hank Williams compositions).

Joni James was not known for multi-tracking (as Patti Page and Mary Ford were) but several of the pieces on this CD were done that way -- one being "Vaya con Dios" which, of course, was a Les Paul/Mary Ford hit. She does a pretty good job in that mode, even though it is unusual for her.

This is a fine collection, even if atypical of Joni James' singing.

According to the 3 pages of liner notes accompanying this 1999 release by DRG Records of New York, written by Wayne Brasler, Joni was once known around the MGM recording studios as "Her MGM-inence." At least until another young lady named Connie Francis appeared on the scene anyway.

My reason for grabbing this one when it appeared on the shelves was to finally get a copy of her hit vocal version of the Floyd Cramer instrumental Last Date which was retitled My Last Date (With You) for the late 1960 release. That, in fact, was her last charted single, reaching # 38 on the Billboard Hot 100 in January 1961 b/w the old standard I Can't Give You Anything But Love [not included]. Up to that point it wasn't easy to find in CD format.

Tracks 2 and 14, according to the notes, were both "recorded in Nashville using double-tracked harmony vocals for a country album, and one of them, You Are My Sunshine, was also released as a single. Although it never charted, it did find "a lot of favor with jukebox audiences." Track 3 was previously unreleased, while the remainder were either album cuts and/or failed single releases. Their history is explained in the liner notes.

One impression you get at once from this album was that her voice, at the time of the recordings [early 1960s], had lost none of that engaging quality that so endeared her to millions of fans from the time of her first hit, Why Don't You Believe Me, back in 1952 when she was just 22 years old.

Still only 30 at the time of her last hit, you have to think that her sudden disappearance from the charts had to be based on a personal choice rather than a question of the hits drying up. Something else you realize as well is that she could have made an easy transition to Country had that been her wish.

Just a delightful little compilation which comes highly recommended.

Wish this disc had more of her hits, the "A Portrait Of" collection is excellent quality and has more titles, bigger hits.