Customer Reviews

Mabel Mercer Sings Cole Porter

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I am crazy about this album. I didn't know Mabel Mercer until I heard a song on the radio recently and bought this album (which does not contain the song that led me to her in the first place). The delivery is so simple - you might almost imagine at times that it's hardly sung at all - but listen a few times and it gets right under your skin. And what colour and inflection on the words (which are always crystal-clear). The heart-break on the final 'goodbye' in Every Time We Say Goodbye; the infectious leaping joy on the words 'gossamer wings' in Just One of those Things which makes you just grin and hug yourself. Every song (and they are marvellous songs) contains moments like these. Why oh why are there so few of her albums re-released? Perhaps since it is her centenary this year they'll do some more. Let's hope so.

If you were too young to hear Mabel Mercer sing in an intimate nightclub setting--she was performing until the early l980's (her early 70's)--this is the only CD (shame on you, Atlantic) available of this unique artist. Mabel was singing Cole Porter songs when they were new in the l930's, and Mr. Porter considered her-- along with Bobby Short--to be the best interpretors of his music. Frank Sinatra openly admitted learning much about musical phrasing from this very special artist. Each song is almost spoken rather than sung, and listen to "Experiment" to understand how each becomes what Porter intended--a wise, witty lesson in life for the sophisticated student of love's strange way of levelling the playing field for even the smartest and most over-privileged among us.

I'm surprised that there are so few Mabel Mercer recordings out there. Frank Sinatra called Mabel Mercer nothing less than, "the greatest cabaret singer of all time." Her sensual, intelligent, unique, and somewhat "spoken" style of singing is perfect for interpreting lyrically clever or involved songs, as were most of Porter's songs. (And some of the BEST of Porter's stuff is on this CD.) At the time of this recording Mercer was already quite old and, frankly, past her prime. BUT HER MAGIC IS STILL EVIDENT--VERY! Any Porter or Mercer fan must have this great CD.

I never got to hear Mabel Mercer live, but I did collect alot of her records-having been introduced to them in grad school by, what I was sure was, a real sophisticate! Mercer and Porter are a perfect combo. The sad thing is that this is the only CD issued of Mercer's many, many LP recordings.

Mabel Mercer (1900-1984) is a remarkable singer, an English-born artist who has achieved legend status. She sings her songs with great subtlety and style, managing to infuse everything she sings with an almost uncanny sensibility of what the writer was trying to express. Her vocal powers are limited, but that is not the point; Miss Mercer is telling us a story when she sings, not trying to impress us with vocal pyrotechnics. Every song she performs on this CD is given her special treatment, dignified, witty and heartfelt. Not that the songs deserve less than this, for they are some of Cole Porter's finest. Mabel Mercer did sterling work during her lifetime, constantly singing great (and often obscure) songs from the pens of America's finest writers, even when most singers would settle for more commercial material. Miss Mercer's delivery of the little-known "Where, Oh Where?" is a delight, and she includes all the choruses of "It's De-Lovely". A superb album, full of grace, style and warmth.

"Mabel Mercer Sings Cole Porter," is one of the few available classic records from the catalog of the English-born, mid-20th century cabaret performer. Most of Porter's songs here are well-known; they come from ten of his shows; and all illustrate Mercer's still-great artistry, even as she aged, with a deserving song: the flexibility of her voice, her ability to present the emotional truth of it; her intonation, her phrasing. Mind you, some contemporary listeners may find her piano accompaniment, as provided by Cy Walter and Stan Freeman, to be a bit much, but it really does not detract from her presentation.

The disk opens on"It's Delovely," originally done on Broadway as a duet by Ethel Merman and Bob Hope, that is still delightful, delicious and delovely. "Every Time We Say Goodbye," captures the heart break implicit in the song. "Experiment" was introduced by Gertrude Lawrence in London in 1933; it's not well-known, but is quite fetching as Mercer does it. On "Where Oh Where," the diva delivers the yearning of the song. "It's All Right With Me" is deservedly famous, and Mercer makes a sexy, playful joy of it, as she does with "Ace in the Hole." "After You," "So In Love," "Looking At You," and "When Love Comes Your Way:" Porter has never sounded so tender. "Just One of those Things" and "From This Moment On," are Porter at his playful peak, again, and Mercer can still deliver them hot, hot, hot. However, I've long had problems with "I Am Ashamed that Women Are So Simple," from "Kiss Me Kate." Even in context, especially in context, it is distressingly sexist, and, although I try hard not to be politically correct, I just can't help resenting the beautiful, gossamer treatment Mercer gives it.

Be that as it may, there are very few records - not much more than a dozen -- that I love enough so as to have bought them on vinyl, on audio cassette, and on compact disk, and this is one of them. Porter's sophisticated, yet emotional songs, delivered by a singer every bit as sophisticated, and capable of handling emotion, are just "Wunderbar,"to quote another Porter tune from "Kiss Me Kate."