Customer Reviews

One From The Heart (1982 Film)

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"One From The Heart," the soundtrack to Francis Ford Coppola's interesting but flawed first movie from Zoetrope is one of the best kept secrets in popular music. The pairing of Wait's scratchy growl with Gayle's sweet contralto is inspired. And the album contains some of Wait's most accessible and poignant lyrics. The duet, "Picking Up After You," one of the all-time best break-up songs, contains the classic line that only Tom Wait's could write. "I told you before/I'm not going to tell you again/You don't defrost the ice box with a ball point pen." The musicianship is stellar (Shelley Manne on drums! Jack Shelton on trumpet!) and features the cream of the crop of the LA jazz scene. The sound, typical of Wait's, is intentionally retro, almost lounge in spots. Highlights are "Old Boyfriends," "Little Boy Blue," and "One from the Heart," (Is that a siren? Or a saxaphone?") A tribute to lost love, regained love and oddly enough, the city of Las Vegas, "One From The Heart" is a classic.

This shockingly good album is one from Tom Waits' "authentic jazz" mode. It creates a heady mood all its own, which I can only imagine has little to do with the movie.
The band is swinging (in the Frank Sinatra sense) and the songwriting is top class (in the Cole Porter sense). "Old Boyfriends" and "Broken Bicycles" are two of the most brilliantly poignant combinations of words and music you'll ever hear.
Tom Waits' vocals are at their smoothest, and while Crystal Gayle does a good job, to my taste she does sometimes tend to "over-emote" a bit. A petty quibble, but I can't help greedily imagining if, say, Roberta Flack had done the female vocal parts...
Still, this one's pure class.

I've always been surprised that even the most rabid Tom Waits fans have never HEARD of this great album. It's soulful from beginning to end. The movie's definently a curio--but if you haven't seen the Laserdisc version, give it a chance. It's longer than the video version--and while it doesn't make the film GREAT, it certainly helps to understand the emotions of the characters better.

After having accidentally clicking on "One from the Heart" on cable one afternoon, I couldn't get the music and some of the lyrics out of my mind, so I ordered the soundtrack cd from Amazon. Only after I received it did I realize that some of my favorite musicians were backing up Crystal Gayle and Tom Waits. They include Jack Sheldon, trumpet, Pete Jolly, pIano, Teddy Edwards, tenor sax and Shelley Manne, drums plus a host of others on different tracks. The match of Waits' gravely sounding voice with Gayle's crystal clear presentation was pure genius. Much of this cd is pure jazz & blues. In addition, Waits penned some particularly appealing lyrics true to his own inimitable style. This guy is one of a kind.I enjoyed the movie, but didn't buy the video, just the soundtrack which rates in the top 10 of my cd collection.

I received this disc for Christmas, having dropped one too many hints for my wife to have escaped the deed. I'd heard the samples on Amazon.com and was impressed, being a recent Tom Waits fan. I was totally unprepared for how romantic and painfully elegant the music on the CD is. Whether or not you're a fan of Waits, this is a must-have CD. It's a great CD for setting a "real" romantic tone, complete with that gasoline edge of Tom's voice. While the accompaniment of a full orchestra makes the compositions quite lush in places, it's not the usual glossed-over Sinatra-tribute twiddle that seems so popular these days. It's just beautiful -- utterly and completely beautiful. Tom and Crystal Gayle are so tasty together, you'll be left wishing the two of them would somehow find their way back to wherever this whole event took place. I cannot recommend this disc enough. Tired of fads? Bored with tributes? Just want some really good music? This is it. Pour a yourself a whiskey, pull your lover close to you and press "play."

I remember seeing this film many, many years ago at the Adelaide Film Festival in Australia. I loved the film then and still own it on video. Even though the film bombed (it sent the studio broke) and received shocking reviews, the thing that remains is the music. I have been a long time Tom Waites fan and if you only buy one cd a year, BUY THIS ONE. It is incredible. You never tire of listening to it. It's beautiful music and a "must have" for any serious collector. The music is strong and very passionate. It makes a great gift for anybody.

I bought this on a whim and I am glad that I did. A friend of mine is crazy about Tom Waites and I like Crystal Gayle and standards. I heard about this cd through a jazz friendly site. This is very nice to listen to. Tom Waites is subdued and adds a bit of an edge to Crystal Gayle's pretty singing. Well worth the deal before it disappears if ever.

I wish I could find the movie. I heard it bombed, but I would still love to see it after listening to this.

A brilliant piece of work! The movie and the recording are so close in my mind and heart that I can't guess which inspired which. This album has become as a friend to me. Its haunting melodies have been with me through times of despair as well as times of great joy. The beauty and power of the music may not be immediately evident, but their memory lingers and endures. Have you ever loved something or someone more as time goes by? Give it a chance and you'll love this album in that way.

Over the years I have gone through different phases with Tom. Liked his piano, early stuff and then was blown away by Swordfishtrombones. Saw Frank's Wild Years in Chicago and was your basic big time Waits fan boy. Somewhere in there I saw One from the Heart and bought the record. I liked the movie, but the music, wow. Here Tom gets everything right and plays his strengths to near perfection. No bombastic guitar or joyful Waits noise, just beautiful songs with beautiful instrumentation. His voice is clear, the lyrics are heartbreaking and funny and sad, and did I mention beautiful? Crystal Gayle is fine singing opposite but any one of a number of female vocalists would have been ok. In fact Crystal might be the one weak spot, but nevermind.
Waits creates an atmosphere that reminds me of a cold, wet autumn depressing day until you start living on "chicken and wine," and then things start looking a bit better. And not sure why but this is a favorite to put on as holiday music, it's perfect.
So, of all of Waits' records, this is the one that I return to most often.

Yeah - you are not seeing things here: Tom Waits & Crystal Gayle. Together.

'One From the Heart' was a Francis Ford Coppola movie from 1982. A visually stunning movie, set in Vegas (or a complete set to mimic Vegas that almost bankrupt the man), the movie was a little flat.

The soundtrack. like the movie, was stunning as well. Unlike the movie, it doesn't really fall flat and I think it is with a few good reasons - two of them being Waits & Gayle.

The real reason it works? It is because you're not expecting it to. Gayle had never really ventured out of the country to adult contemporary crossover that of the late '70s. She certainly never sang songs like the stuff Waits had written - which he did for this movie.

In an odd way, Gayle's voice really fits for Waits' lyrics. I admittedly had prejudices against liking her because of her MOR stuff, but immediately I loved her on this disk (yes, I first owned it on vinyl). I'm sorry she never really did anything like this after the fact. Or I assume she did not. I never really followed her - before or after.

I am sure to make enemies with this, but I liken Waits to Dylan and Leonard Cohen: great writers, painful to listen to. I'd like to say Gayle made this more accessible, but as many people who never even knew it existed, the folks that followed these two artists were probably turned off by the very idea of the collaboration.

Waits does perform stuff on his own and a little of this is just instrumental which really does fit the tone of the movie and the town in which it takes place.

Highlights include the stuff Gayle is featured on, either by herself or dueting with Waits (let's face it, there is no harmonizing with the man): "Old Boyfriends", "Picking Up After You", "Is There Anyway Out of this Dream", "This One's From the Heart" and "Once Upon a Town".

For Waits purists, this probably isn't the disk for you. But I'm not one. "Pure" is hardly what anyone would use to describe me. And for what it's worth, this is still better than Scarlett Johansson singing an entire disk of Waits songs. I wish I were kidding on that last part, but it's out there.