Customer Reviews

Natural Woman / Is That All There Is

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4 star:		(1)
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Opera has its Caruso, Callas, and Paroratti. The Great American Songbook has its Sinatra, Crosby, and Peggy Lee. Long after the flavor-of-the-week divas have joined the ranks of the forgotten one-hit wonders, these singers will continue to be celebrated. This two-for-the-price-of one collection brings together the material Ms. Lee recorded at the end of her career with Capitol. There is a lot of great material here, as well as some songs you may never care to hear for a second time. My favorite tracks are the ones that come from the critcally acclaimed album, "Is That All There Is?" I have nearly every Peggy Lee CD available; so I am more than pleased to add this production to my collection. If you are just starting to become familiar with Peggy Lee you might want to invest in one of her multi-disc compilations, preferably from her Capitol years. But if you are a Peggy Lee fan, then this current album is essential.

Peggy mixes contemporary material with older songs on these two album, but whatever she sings, she does it her way brilliantly.

The first album, Natural woman, contains covers of All of a sudden my heart sings (Kathryn Grayson - from the movie Anchors aweigh), Don't smoke in bed (Billie Holiday), Can I change my mind (Tyrone Davis), Dock of the bay (Otis Redding), You make me feel like a natural woman (Aretha Franklin), Everyday people (Sly and the family Stone), Please send me someone to love (Percy Mayfield), Spinning wheel (Blood sweat and tears) and I think it's gonna rain today (Randy Newman). May of these are classic songs but Peggy's often-different interpretations bring a freshness to them.

Peggy also contributed a song of her own, Lean on me, which you must not confuse with the famous Bill Withers song of the same title. The only other song here, Living is dying without you, is also excellent though I'm not sure who first recorded it.

The second album, Is that all there is, yielded an unexpected American hit for Peggy. It deserved to be a big hit, of course, but Peggy had long since ceased to be a major force on the singles charts so this one came as a huge surprise. Maybe the song connected with the young people of the day in a way that Peggy's other singles didn't.

Possibly the success of the single created pressure for a quick album release - if so, this would explain the inclusion of songs that Peggy had recorded previously, such as I'm a woman, Something stupid and Don't smoke in bed, though at least some of them are re-recordings. Nevertheless, this is also a fine album. It includes covers of Love story (Randy Newman), Me and my shadow (Whispering Jack Smith), My old flame (Guy Lombardo), Brother love's travelling salvation show (Neil Diamond), Something (George Harrison) and Johnny (a gender-adapted version of the Randy Newman song, Linda).

While these are not the strongest albums ever recorded by Peggy Lee, they are both of an extremely high quality. Collecting all of Peggy's albums can be an expensive business assuming you can actually find them all, but this twofer is well worth the price.

This CD gives us all the tracks from two of Peggy Lee's record albums entitled A Natural Woman and Is That All There Is? Some people may not consider these two albums to be the very best of Peggy Lee; but I think she performs on this two-fer CD with much style, emotion and soul. This is one CD Peggy Lee fans can't afford to reject.

The CD starts with "(All Of A Sudden) My Heart Sings;" Peggy still sounds great even though this was recorded in 1969. Peggy's excellent diction bolsters her performance and I am very impressed with this somewhat jazzy number. "Can I Change My Mind?" features Peggy swinging ever so sweetly as she sings out this number about a woman and her love. Listen also for a stupendous cover of Aretha Franklin's ballad "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman." Peggy sings this with a seductive voice that just can't be beat; and she makes this all her own with her singularly beautiful interpretation of "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman."

"Spinning Wheel" proves that Peggy can handle a song written much more recently than many of the other songs she ever sang; and I think you will like Peggy singing "Spinning Wheel."

Of course, "Is That All There Is?" was an unexpected huge hit for Peggy; I agree with the reviewer who writes that perhaps this became a big hit for Peggy because younger people liked it. "Love Story" features Peggy's vocals squarely in the spotlight and the arrangement is strong and rather beautiful.

"Me And My Shadow" is an older number revisited by Peggy with a lovely piano arrangement to give this tune an ever so slightly jazzy fell to it. I also really like "I'm A Woman;" Peggy sings this with a seductive voice that remains practically irresistible to this day.

"Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show" is another more recent number that Peggy sings like the pro that she always was; and "Something" is another excellent cover Peggy bats straight out of the ballpark. She did this Beatles song very well. The album ends with the peppy rendition of "You Must Have Been A Beautiful Baby;" Peggy sings this with heart and soul--and this playful tune is a perfect ending to this CD.

The artwork reproduces the original artwork from the record album covers; and it is very nicely done.

Overall, Peggy Lee proves with these two albums here on one CD that she couldn't be counted out of the running as late as 1969. Her voice remains strong and clear as a bell; she was very entertaining and a born natural. I highly recommend this two-fer CD for Peggy's fans.

I bought this CD because I had heard "Don't Smoke In Bed" and "My Old Flame" as a kid. After thirty years those songs stayed with me. That's what a real singer can do: take a song and make you feel it. It's a combination of inflection, pitch, word shape, and that something that no one can name, but you know when it's there.
"Is that all there is?" is a classic that no one will ever sing the way that Peggy Lee sings it. She owns that song. Other works on this two-fer collection don't shine the way that you would hope. Peggy Lee always is a class act but some of the songs just don't have magic. They aren't bad, but they don't make you stop what you are doing, or resonate with your soul the way that others do. This is definitely a disc that is worth owning for the "magic" moments. Peggy Lee is still a standard that other singers will be measured against, and for the most part, not measure up to her league.

It was great two wonderful albums were cut on one CD, but track 23 is defective and locks up my player. The supplier needs to replace these copies.