Customer Reviews

Songs I Heard

5 star:		(38)
4 star:		(20)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

If you are a Harry Connick Jr. fan, you're really going to enjoy this CD. The first time I heard Supercalafra...it was on the "Regis and Kelly" show. My first impression was "what is he doing?" "why this song?" but as I reviewed the other cuts from the CD I loved it! Mary Poppins, The Wizard of Oz, and The Sound of Music were my three favorite childhood movies.
Harry Connick still keeps his smooth and very suave jazz style going strong on this CD. The best part is they are all songs we grew up with and they are songs that are "ageless". These are songs your little ones will sing and bounce to. Very perky and upbeat. A real toetapper. Way to go Harry!
I am one of his biggest fans. Please go out and buy it you won't be disappointed.
Sincerely yours,
Korki in Toledo, OH : )

I've been a Harry fan for quite a while, and when I heard of this CD I was very excited. When I saw it in stores I couldn't wait to get it! I finally picked it up two days ago and have been listen to it over and over ever since! It's truly wonderful and I'm amazed at how he obviously has very similar taste in favorite musicals as I do. These are some all time faves of mine. On this recording he performs songs from Annie, Mary Poppins, The Wizard of Oz, Sound of Music and Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. He puts his own spin on all the songs, and this is a CD every musical fan, Harry fan, or big band fan must have! The highlight is probably his rendition of The Jitterbug, which was REALLY perfect for this format! Do yourself a favor and rush out and get this! I haven't even got his "30" CD yet, I had to get this one first! I only hope he does a follow up to this CD featuring other musicals! And while you're buying this CD, be sure to pick up Harry's When My Heart Finds Christmas, as it is simply the best Christmas CD ever made!

Ok, I was a little skeptical of a jazz cd with the "oompa loompa" song on it, but if nothing else I thought my kids would like it. This cd is great! I love it. What a cool idea, to take songs that we used to hear in movies and sing when we were kids, and set them to great music. It brings back so many memories hearing all these songs again, but done in a way that is not childish sounding. My kids are two and four and they love this music. Adults will love this music, I am going to play it at our next coctail party. Harry Connick, Jr. is wonderful. He has the smoothest voice. I had several of his cd's before this one, but I am now a Harry fan.

I was very apprehensive when I saw the tracks on this album. I have always loved Harry Connick, Jr, but I was afraid he might be venturing a little bit too much into Frank Sinatra's well-worn territory. After listening to the first few minutes of the cd, however, I knew it was different. It captures the essence, the feelings he had when listening to these songs as a child. This is the first CD in a long time that I've listened to, start to finish, while doing nothing else. I just sat and listened, and loved it all.

I'm not a HCJ fan, this is the only CD of his I own. I've been to two of his concerts, because he puts on a fantastic show; his arrangements of the standards are usually outstanding and the musicians are fantastic. But I'm extremely impressed by his move to do a CD of tunes from classic kiddie movies. Bobby Darin did this when the original Dr. Doolittle came out. The critics thought it was a major gaffe, the studio didn't think his style suited the songs, and no one could understand why he'd want to do this when he was so successful with "grown-up" songs. They didn't get it. He simply wanted to do it and figured to hell with the critics! That seems to be the attitude HCJ is taking, and I LOVE it! The songs are fun and fused with the New Orleans jazz that Harry mainstreams so well. The music doesn't have the depth and draw to make it a regular in my player, but it will be a CD that will suit my mood when I just want to kick back and forget that I'm supposed to act like an adult and take things seriously.

If you're interested, check out Darin's "Swinging the Standards" CD for "Talk to the Animals" and "After Today" from DR. DOOLITTLE.

Harry's musical genius shines again! Every track is a wonderful surprise, taking songs from shows we remember as kids and "kicking them up a notch" with New Orleans jazz and FABULOUS musicians (all our favorites: Lucien, Leroy, Goold, Schumacher and all the others I don't have space to list).

This is just a really fun CD that my 15-month-old and my 10-year-old enjoy just as much as their parents do!

This is classic Harry Connick Jr. I can't really pick a favorite song on the disc, they're all wonderful. Each has a different song style, but they have that certain HCJr signature you can't replace. Imagination/Candyman is a stroke of genius. As is Golden Ticket/I want it now. It's all very easy to listen to, familiar, but presented in a fresh exciting big band package. If you've never heard any other Harry CD, try this one. You won't be disappointed!

I loved this album. I get the feeling that those who do not like this album do not have a good understanding and appreciation for jazz. This is a very much an album in the jazz vein, where it is appropriate to take familiar tunes and turn them on their head in a novel and musically interesting way. Contrary to what some of the above reviewers seem to think, Connick is not doing this simply to annoy. This is an approach that has a long-standing precendent. I particularly enjoyed the dixieland versions of "Spoonful of Sugar" and "Supercalifragil..". Let me say that these songs are some of my favorites, too, but I'm not blind to the fact that they are rather banal. Simply doing a straight cover of them would have been boring. On the other hand, transposing them into the dixieland idiom was an act of true artistic inspiration. The finished versions are unusual, yes, but fresh and perfectly natural. They SOUND like dixieland songs! Way to go, Harry! I'm betting that the above reviewers who disliked the album have not had any exposure to dixieland or other types of jazz. Those people should hold tight to the original versions. Actually the songs that bothered me were the one or two numbers that were not jazzed up enough, like "Stay Awake" and to some extent "Over the Rainbow". They are good arrangements, but they just seemed out of place. Still a wonderful album and alot of fun! It certainly has revived my interest in this singer.

1999's "Come by Me" reunited Harry Connick Jr. with his big band after too long a hiatus...and what a swinging album that was! This new release is one (. . .) of an album...with wonderful songs that I grew up with (and still appreciate) kicked up to notches unknown.

Each track is standout...from the New Orleans-flavor of Mary Poppins' "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" (pardon my spelling) to "Do Re Mi", which Harry swings to pieces!!! Check out his heartfelt rendering of "Over the Rainbow", "Oompaa Loompa" (just voice and piano), "The Jitterbug", and so on...

This is music that all kids (from 1 to 92) will enjoy, thanks to Harry's brilliant performances. Mr. Connick, you've made this kid-at-heart so very happy!!!

Although I don't think this album showcased all of Harry's greatest talents, I thoroughly enjoyed it. It is so fun to hear Harry's beautiful voice to the songs from some of my favorite childhood movies. My personal favorites were Eidelweiss and Oompah-Loompah. The best thing about the album was that I could sing along with him the first time I listened to it. I think Harry is enormously talented and I love his unique style of music. Even though he did do these songs differently than they were in the movies, he had obvious restraints. I enjoy his original songs better, but I still highly recommend this album. Harry fans will love it and anyone who likes these great musical movies will enjoy it too.