Customer Reviews

Very Best of

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

 

 

Steve Lawrence recorded for many labels throughout his career,
having hit singles on several of them.

This compilation from Taragon represents some of his best tracks
for the ABC-Paramount label, for which he recorded in 1959 and
1960.

Most of the selections utilize double tracking and echo,
popular techniques for singles back then.
Two of them, "Footsteps" and "Pretty Blue Eyes" were giant hits.
The remaining songs have that Top 40 sound in a similar vein.

"Loving is a Way of Living" writen by Burt Bacharach/Hal David
"Come Back Silly Girl" written by Barry Mann, and "Why, Why, Why"
written by Teddy Randazzo, are other favorites that might have been radio hits
if they had been given enough airplay.
But for reasons unknown to me, they fell through the cracks.

"You Don't Know" is a beautiful romantic ballad certain to
please those who like Steve's inimitable crooner style.

By far, not the best work of his career, but definitely an
enjoyable collection.

Recommended.

Songs on this CD were recorded from 1959 to 1960 (according to the CD insert). Steve seems to have been at a transition period here. About four of the songs are in the pop rock category, like "Pretty Blue Eyes" and "Footsteps". The other songs are more like your mom and dad would listen to. Steve eventually sang more for the adult crowd when he teamed up with Eydie Gorme. Sound quality is excellent. All songs are in true stereo. The following statement is contained in the CD insert: "This compilation was made from the best original stereo 2-track master tapes available at MCA Records. Documentation shows that the multi-track session tapes were destroyed in the 1970's". Final note: noticeably missing on this CD (in my opinion) is "Poor Little Rich Girl", a great pop rock song from this same time frame.

I have in my old 45's collection several of Steve Lawrence's ABC-Paramount singles including "Footsteps", "Loving Is A Way Of Living", and "Why, Why Why". They are in terrible shape and barely playable, so I have been looking for years for a CD release with Steve's ABC-Paramount singles. This CD is fantastic! The 2-track stereo mix is crystal clear and sounds great with Steve's voice right in the middle. Why these tracks are so hard to find on CD I don't know. I hope it isn't because Steve is embarrassed by these songs from his early career, because these are great tracks. I also don't understand why only a couple of these tracks ever made the top 40. Maybe the record company did a lousy job of marketing them! I am still looking for a CD release of Steve's early sixties singles that were released on Columbia, such as Go Away Little Girl, Poor Little Rich Girl, and Don't Be Afraid Little Darlin'. Please, somebody release them!

I own this record in vinyl and did not feel it was his best.
I liked his "I Hear a Rhapsody" but it does not compare with a
vinyl that I have titled "The Best of Steve Lawrence" with songs like "Portrait of My Love" and "My Clare De Lune" and others.
This was also put out by United Artist.

I wish that you would put this out in a CD eventially and it would be the cd that I would give it 5 stars and surely would buy it.

Where is his hit song..Go Away Little Girl...of all the songs he has recorded..this is the one that should have been included in one of his albums...

I know that this CD is missing "Portrait of My Love" and few other good tracks but to rate this a 1 or 2 seems over the top. It's a good cd that has some of his early hits like Footsteps and Pretty Blue Eyes. This is the only place you'll likely find Come Back, Silly Girl and his rendition of I Hear a Rhapsody is very good. So while incomplete, it's still very good.

Thankfully I now have found a best of that truly has all of his and Eydie's hits on it, all on one disc. This Taragon disc has no value for the money.

The problem with this is Steve Lawrence's hits are his worst songs, his hits are very forgetteable, however it is the standards with jazz big band arrangements or lush string arrangements that sound the best with Lawrences style. The stinkeroos on this CD are "Pretty Brown Eyes" "Loving Is A Way Of Living" and others in the just plain bad supersquare Andy Williams/Johnny Mathis muzak style. If you compare those tacky hits with the standards like "I Hear A Rhapsody" "There'll be Some Changes Made" "Somebody Else Is Taking My Place" you will hear a hip singer more influenced by Frank Sinatra. This CD has it's good and bad moments.