Customer Reviews

Songs of the Beatles

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

If you're a radical Jazz vocal fan, forget it! If you search for a good reason to prove how can a big vocalist play its role perfectly and independently of material, this is a must!

I love Jazz, I love Jazz vocal but most of all I love Good Music and I love Sarah Vaughan. This the real good spirit on listening this album of inventive and pop swinging (yes, pop!) arrangements by the late great Marty Paich which wraps Vaughan's voice beautifully.

A wide variety of moods makes up this set. From romantic 'And I Love Her' and 'The Long and Winding Road' to the swingers 'Get Back' (a sensational opening just to tell you: - Stand up and move, baby!) and 'Come Together'. Also a Bossa Nova made out of 'Something' with the collaboration of Marcos Valle, the great Bossa Nova composer and singer who wrote and sang Portuguese lyrics along with Ms. Vaughan's English lines.

Ok. Material is Beatles'. Swinging Beatles, dig it?

This was recorded & produced in 77 & Atlantic sat on it until 81. Sarah figured why doesn't the greatest jazz voice in the world perform the most famed group's (Beatles)material in the world.For Sarah to get on Atlantic she had to sound commercial the way Atlantic wanted Sarah to sound.Atlantic did it with Ella,Peggy & exceptionally with Esther Phillips.Atlantic makes Anita Baker sound pop & one way because now days jazz is not all that marketable.I am a Vaughan fanatic & it is fun to hear Sass do rock & roll which she seldom does and her latin rythms on "I Love Her & Something".The songs are famous & they are fantastically revamped.Atlantic let Sarah do her own inimitatable standard way of singing the last three songs "Here There & Everywhere,Long & Winding Road,& Yesterday" in ballad form making beautiful voice exercises & interpretations hitting those soprano notes of these famous songs.One could consider this another one Sarah's songbook albums showing her absolute versatility.It's different & I love it.

It wasn't all that great. The best point of the whole thing was listening to the jazz like arrangements and interpreting what was possibly meant by this or that different voicing/ chord substition. A lot of songs take on a whole different meaning when they are reinterpreted (which explains why some people have bigger hits when playing other people's music), but these songs didn't take on all that different of a meaning from the original pieces.

The strongest track was "The Fool on The Hill."

This is worth a secondhand purchase price and not much more.

This is a generally laid-back album of Beatles covers. It defies classification - you could not define it as jazz, pop, disco, R+B or any other, but a mixture of all of them. It was recorded in the style typical of its time (1981), when synthesisers were fashionable. Whatever else may be said about it, this is not like any other album by Sassy, so her diehard fans may not like this, but I enjoy it for what it is.

The choice of songs is interesting, as Sassy has not confined herself to the obvious songs. You never give me your money and I want you (she's so heavy) are both from Abbey Road. The two most famous songs from that album, Something and Come together, are also included here, so I guess that Abbey road was Sassy's favorite Beatles album. Hey Jude is only included as a brief instrumental, so there are really only twelve tracks here.

I don't know who this was aimed at. Was it the eighties generation, who would like the synthesisers? Was it the sixties generation, who like the songs? Did they hope to keep Sassy's loyal fans as well as attracting different people to her music? I don't know. You must make up your own mind. I can well understand that some people might think of this as a one-star album, but as somebody with eclectic musical tastes, I have no hesitation in giving it five stars.

These arrangements of Beatles songs are really quite different from the originals. If you wanted to hear Sarah sing the orginals, you don't want the album -- then again, I'm not sure why you'd want to hear Sarah sing the originals since her voice wouldn't be appropriate.

As for these versions, which are something between r&b, soul, pop, and jazz and are quite creative in their own rights, Sarah does an appropriate job -- however, she has to sing down a notch to do it. In fact, on a couple of songs, she sounds like any old pop singer. Nevertheless, her musical sense is right on target, and her lyrical interpretation of otherwise not outstanding lyrics makes you overlook the words you're listening to. One disappointment; the tracklist shows Hey Jude as song 13, and it is sort of, but its just a shortened instrumental version of the song. I personally think Sarah could have done one heckuva rendition of this and that it might have been better suited for her than the other songs on the albumn. Strange she didn't sing it...but oh well. This is still an enjoyable album when you want a change. That is if you've been listening to Sarah all the time, but want a change, you can put this on, and hear a different Sarah.

Tragically wasted opportunity, to match the magnificence of Sarah Vaughan's voice, with the wealth of material available, in the Beatles catalogue. Song selection could have been better, the arrangements could NOT have been worse. Paitch misfires on all cylinders. Most of the arrangements sound like really bad attempts, to sound like Earth, Wind and Fire. This could have been really special. Too bad it turned into this mess. Has to be Sarah's worst.

I had never heard of this album before stumbling upon it on amazon. This is actually a very good CD. Sarah Vaughan and the altered arrangements actually work very well together, and the result is a funkier R&B sound than either Sarah or the Beatles have usually. I really dig this album. Give it a chance (check out the audio samples), a few friends I have shown it to really enjoyed it as well, even preferring a few of her versions to the originals! (sacrilege!)

Best tracks:

Get Back
And I Love Her
Eleanor Rigby
The Fool On The Hill
You Never Give Me Your Money
I Want You (She's So Heavy)
Blackbird

The idea is as simple as rewarding. Take one of the most distinguished voices in jazz, take some of the greatest hits of the greatest pop group (now and then) and put them in new (I would not dare to call them either modern or jazzy) arrangements - and you have a bestseller. It probably was (I don't know any concrete sales figures, though). However, that says little about the quality. This odd recording is not easy to rate. Sarah Vaughan's performance would well deserve five stars, but it is almost impossible to enjoy it due to the dull arrangements of Marty and David Paich, who filled almost every song up with a glue of synthisizer sounds and strings (particularily so in the case of "Yesterday"). The only exception - and the only reason to recommend to buy this record - is the brilliant Bossa Nova-style "Something". But generally, is a great disappointment - especially as it is not hard to imagine what great album this coud have become if Sarah had been accompanied by a piano trio or so (give the quality of both the singer and the songs).

Sarah Vaughan takes The Beatles to School here.the arrangements&Musicianship here are sharp.Her voice just handles these songs with ease&comfort.solid vocals all the way through.She is a Vocalists Vocalist.She had a Very Unique Style.

I received this album from a friend, and was expecting a nice refreshing take on the Beatles by one of the greatest Jazz singers that the 20th century ever heard. Instead, I discovered horrendously unfitting arrangements that neither suit Sarah's voice nor the Beatles' compositions. The dated ARP Synthesizer sounds for one are very distracting and kitschy, and so is the rest of the instrumentation throughout the album.
Creed Taylor used to make formula style albums in the late 60's and 70's under his CTI label, and sometimes the formula worked, and sometimes it didn't, but the majority of his albums were listenable. This album was produced by Marty Paich - who once recorded a fantastic series of arrangements to Jazz standards with Mel Torme. On this project, I would say that he is totally out of his area, and the result is very kitschy, and does not stand the test of time or good taste.