Customer Reviews

I'm a Woman / Norma Deloris Egstrom From Jamestown North Dakota

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

 

 

After Peggy's long bout with Capitol she performed a grand finale of superb jazz oriented tunes backed what sounds like a beautiful orehestra.Her version Song For You is unsurpassed even by McRae or R Charles;the violins & orchestral backing & what sounds like a musical piano metronome behind while she sings in her whistful-mellow way will blow you away. The song Razor is a sequel to her hit Fever is fantastic.There is absolutely not one cut bad on it.Just sit back listen & absorb the rich music.I can remember wearing out the record. Get this;you will not be sorry.

"Norma Deloris Egstrom..." was one of Peggy's best albums, hands-down.
A beautifully produced, well-sung collection of songs that while
very pop-oriented (for the time) fit Peggy like a glove. BUT,
several of the songs on this reissue CD are NOT the original
versions. They are alternate takes, that while good, pale
in comparison to the ones on the original LP. Whether the CD's
producers didn't realize this, or could not find the originals,
or didn't care, this is a rather large disappointment to anyone
who enjoyed the REAL "Norma, etc." album back in 1972.

As a sixties teen who loved rhythm and blues and the great American classic singers, Peggy Lee always stood out as one of the ultimate greats and this awesome two-fer Import is THE masterpiece all of us baby-boomer fans have been waiting for with "Norma Deloris Egstrom from Jamestown, North Dakota" being the "finally" released on CD treasure...and why it took so long remains a mystery but it is clear that nobody at the Capitol Tower in the US has a clue what went on with Peggy Lee or Nancy Wilson in the musically bankrupt seventies but thank heavens for the Capitol Records EMI Import division or else this release probably would have not happened in our lifetime!!!!
Peggy Lee is at her jazzy and sultry best throughout "I'm A Woman" purring out classic greats such as "Mack The Knife", "A Taste Of Honey" and her standard "I'm A Woman" which is still being sung by young jazz singing hopefuls in clubs across the country but none quite as effective as the definitive and very sensual version found here in this magnificent set. This compelling and engaging collection is truly a lost classic that is now thankfully available for all to savor and enjoy.
Next is the magnificent lost masterpiece "Norma Deloras" and from the great opener "Love Song" composed by Leslie Duncan, it is clear that Peggy Lee is going to take all of these great contemporary standards and make them completely her own...this sultry and engrossing version is amazingly great! "Razor (Love Me As I Am) is a hypnotic Lee masterful vocal that should have been a huge hit such as "Fever" but by the pathetically tired musical seventies this sublime version was far too great for the airwaves but remains one of Peggy's all-time seductive best performances..."When I Found You" was a big success with fans and a stirring highlight in her great seventies concerts...this wonderfully romantic song Peggy belts to great effect becomming a real stunning DIVA turn. Hauntingly brilliant is a gorgeous version of "A Song For You" show Peggy Lee made the transition from classic composers to contemporary with great success while a dramatic unreleased "It Changes" is another sublime story telling song that echo's Peggy's Grammy winning "Is That All There Is?".
A melancholy "It Takes Too Long To Learn To Live Alone" is a tender and deeply soulful song that is a slightly different version from the original release..."Superstar" shows that Peggy went deep inside of contemporary standards and made them her own and this definitive version is a fine example.
"Just For A Thrill" sets the mood for chilled Dom Perigom being another Peggy Lee classic and one of her all time finest...another wonderous performance is contained in the exhuberant and romantic "Someone Who Cares" which has fascinating tempo changes and a strong yet sensitive vocal from Peggy that also shows off her fine technique.
Two golden classics close this priceless set and never has either sounded quite so gorgeous..."The More I See You" is tender and sublime as is the sentimental and incredibly moving "I'll Be Seeing You" which perfectly end one of the very finest collections from one of the greatest singers of the 20th Century who is at her very best throughout this wonderous and sublime collection...BRAVO to Miss Peggy Lee and we love and miss you...for anyone who loves a great singer in peak form do not miss this tremendous Peggy Lee classic that is truly a timeless masterpiece...one of the greatest ever!!!

Both of the albums included here are superb. I prefer Norma Deloris Egstrom from Jamestown North Dakota - it's the later of the two.
While Peggy Lee's singing can never be faulted, sometimes her recordings from the 60's - 70's can sound dated, kitsch and brash. That is not the case here. Practically every cut is a dream, and the orchestrations do not overwhelm with "local color" and novelty. I also want to point out that the B&W cover photgraph of Norma Deloris Egstrom is a stunner. This one's a keeper. The song Razor is sublime. Enjoy.

The first album here shows Peggy at the peak of her popularity in the early sixties, performing a mix of soft, romantic songs and sultry blues songs, though the dividing line between the two is not always clear-cut. The title track was a major American hit for Peggy but the strength of the album is such that it doesn't really stand out. There are many other fine songs here including The alley cat song, I'm walking, Come rain or come shine and a very impressive interpretation of Mack the knife. You're sick of that song? Listen to Peggy's version - it makes it fresh and exciting. Further classics include I'll get by, I left my heart in San Francisco (another brilliant interpretation) and A taste of honey.

The second album may be an end-of-contract release as it first appeared in 1972, the year in which Peggy left Capitol for the second and last time. Don't let that put you off - while it is not one of Peggy's strongest albums, it is well worth hearing nevertheless. This mellow, romantic album begins with Love song, which was also recorded by Olivia Newton-John. Other contemporary songs include A song for you and Superstar, both written by Leon Russell and recorded by the Carpenters. Older songs are represented by The more I see you and I'll be seeing you. A previously unreleased track, It changes, is added to the album for this release.

This twofer is worth buying for the first album alone, but I suspect that many Peggy Lee fans will (like me) enjoy both albums here.

A few years back I found a vinyl copy of NORMA DELORES EGSTROM FROM JAMESTOWN NORTH DAKOTA at a flea market in Albuquerque, N.M. Having loved Peggy Lee all of my life, but never having heard this particular album, I bought it for a buck or so. (I first paid really close attention to Peggy Lee when I was around twelve years old, at an alcoholic neighbor lady's house on my block, where I did chores for pocket change. This overly generous lady, who resembled Phyllis Diller, would drink gin out of a tall paper cup all day long with the drapes closed, and she would let me paw through her LP collection, where I discovered LATIN ALA LEE. In the following weeks, I would play that scratchy record over and over on my besotted host's console stereo). By the time I first heard NORMA DELORES EGSTROM..., I was in my mid-forties (this was around 1997), and was now thoroughly acquainted with most of Ms. Lee's catalog. I put the album on my turntable for the first time with some trepidation, as this great singer's first few post-Capitol albums in the seventies were, to say the least, not among her best efforts. Boy was I surprised! How had this excellent album eluded me for all of those years? Here was a mix of contemporary material mixed with old chestnuts that was handled with the flare of Peggy Lee in her prime, and I could not have been more pleased. The ragged edges and shortness of breath that were beginning to show up in Lee's voice around this time only added to the charm of these performances, and one tune, Leslie Duncan's "Love Song" moved me to tears. "When I Found You" was another standout on this set, gently rocking and confirming once more that Peggy Lee could sing just about anything with class and style. For those who still doubt, pick this "twofer" up and marvel at how Lee handles songs of the younger generation at that time, "Superstar" and "A Song For You." If they weren't already, Peg helped them become new standards. The version of the established standard, "I'll Be Seeing You," on this CD, is now among my very favorite Peggy Lee performances.

Now there's not much I can add to what other reviewers have written here about I'M A WOMAN, an album I've been waiting for years to come out on CD. Peggy's sly, swingin' rendition of "There Ain't No Sweet Man (That's Worth The Salt Of My Tears)" is alone worth the price of admission, but every song here is perfectly sung. One can just see the twinkle in Peggy's eye (and the tongue in her cheek) as she tosses off "Mack The Knife" in a half-whisper at breakneck speed. The sound effects make it fresh and funny, while somehow only enhancing the song's sinister undertones. "A Taste Of Honey" is gorgeous, and "Alley Cat Song" is one of Lee's great signature tunes, along with the title track. Although Rick Nelson's version of "I'm Walkin'" is not threatened by Ms. Lee's take, she makes it shine in her own, effortless way.

Taken together, these two records are a solid set, but are quite different; each could easily stand on its own. One note of caution: as mentioned by others, some of the tracks on NORMA DELORES EGSTROM... are not the same takes that were used on the LP version, and are not quite as polished (although certainly not bad). My guess is that the original masters were lost or were damaged. I was vaguely disappointed, and would have deducted half a star, but Amazon doesn't provide that option to customers, so the five-star rating stands, as these albums should be bought and heard by fans and newbies alike. They're great!

Purchased because of the singer, the songs, and the conversion to the compact disc format, I found myself comparing the recording to my age-old long playing record Jamestown. I wondered if Capitol Studios messrs Norberg and Godfrey actually heard the original. The audio quality of the LP far exceeds that of this CD. I wondered what had happened to the "air" around the instruments, and in some parts, some instruments. This is not a diatribe against the CD format, I have many recordings whereby I cannot discern any differenec between the equivalent original LP and the re-issued CD. This is a disappointing recording re-issue of this great singer, accompanied by excellent orchestral arrangements..

Peggy Lee.........
Wow!.......
Has there EVER been another entertainer like her???

Kate Smith? (nah)
Jo Stafford? (again, nah)
Kay Starr? (sorry, nah, again)
on, and on...
until we hit upon "Ella", "Sarah", and "Nancy", but, they are a completely different type of singer(s), so, the answer, here, must be a very firm "NO" there never was another like her...period!

Peggy could simply walk out onto the stage, and take "possession" of anything she cared to sing, at any particular given moment...everything instantly and completely became "hers"...and that's a fact!

Capital, in general, is to be greatly commended for their excellent, and quite inclusive, "two-for" sets of Peggy's albums. Except, most unfortunately, for this one. Long I had waited for "Norma Dolores Egstrom From Jamestown South Dakota" to be released, finally, on cd. And, knowing about this release for months and months ahead, I had pre-ordered it, and just "waited" for its release a couple years back.

Imagine my great dissapointment when I received it and put it on to play, and found out that the songs released here are NOT all the original masters used for the LP album!!! I was heartbroken. But, hopefully, perhaps, we may see the original released, finally, so that those of us who remember the original release can once again listen to it as it was meant to be heard.

I do not understand why this sort of thing is done...but this is not the first time...I have many re-released albums that have "alternate" takes substituted for the originally released songs....WHY do these people DO THIS???? It's like "cheating" the public that are clamoring for the album "just as they remember it"...WHY would anyone change it???

Anyway, I'll stop my whining here, and say that I will be satisfied with this release until the "ORIGINAL" finally gets released (I hope). At least the songs are there, even though different takes of some of them. The choice is "this" or "none", so I'll take "this" until "Norma Dolores Egstrom from Jamestown South Dakota" in it's original form surfaces.

Please note that this is not really a "Negative" review, it is just that I remember the original album so DISTINCTLY (it was one of my favorites, and, (luckily), I have since located a brand new, unopened LP, and am planning on getting it transferred to cd).

"I'm A Woman" IS released just as the original was, so no problem there, folks. Regardless of the "switcheroos" on "NDEFJSD", by all means, folks, do not hesitate to add this set to your Peggy Lee collection(s), and by all means, DO ENJOY...many hours of great listening! ~operabruin

The first half of this twofer, from 1963, is yet another terrific collection of Lee's signature mix of jazz and R&B vocals. Just about every one of them is a keeper, although "I'm Walkin'" sounds a little forced. (After the lightning-in-a-bottle brilliance of "Fever," she probably should have quit while she was ahead on the rock and roll covers.) Also, "I'm A Woman" tries to fit a few too many words into too little space, but then who could resist a line like "I can make a dress out of a feedbag/And I can make a man out of you"? I have no complaints at all about the other ten songs; they're all wonderful.

Now, about the second album (whose title, of course, is Lee's real name), I must confess my first reaction was one of morbid curiosity. The release date (1972) and that picture of her looking like Barbra Streisand had me thinking it might be a disastrous effort at contemporary pop. Well, it is contemporary pop, but it turns out that she was pretty good at that too. It definitely shows its vintage, with most of the songs featuring mellow acoustic guitars, electric pianos, and sensitive-guy lyrics. But if you like that style and Lee's voice, they do go together surprisingly well. (The only real dud is the previously unreleased "It Changes," which really should have stayed unreleased!) The slightly countryish "Love Song" and dramatic "Razor" are miles from her usual style, but they sound great. Some of my other favorites are "It Takes Too Long To Learn To Live Alone," one of those painfully-'70s tales of suburban loneliness, and the better than you'd expect cover of the Carpenters' "Superstar." (Think about it, that bombastic chorus is perfect for an ex-big band singer.) And just to remind us that it's still the same Peggy Lee, the closing "I'll Be Seeing You" is just as stunning as you'd expect.