Revisiting A&M Records No. 34
Claudine Longet: ‘Love Is Blue’ (April ’68, possibly earlier)
Say this much for that ingenue de chanson then equally known as Mrs. Andy Williams: back in the ‘60s she had exquisite taste. Or, at least, the men (entirely men) shaping her sound and style did, though I can’t fathom even such a lightweight artist agreeing to sing just anything placed before her.
Surely the process was collaborative, if undoubtedly unbalanced and filtered through a male gaze. Whoever deserves the greater quality-control credit — the slinky star with the softly seductive voice or the burgeoning producer (Tommy LiPuma) and arranger (Nick DeCaro) so skilled at swathing her in gentility lush like fur coats — the selections not only suited her, they were arguably cutting-edge in spring ‘68, when this LP went Top 30.
Her previous two A&M titles were bolstered by Beatles, Motown and Jobim tunes. This time, for her most inviting assortment thus far, she returns to that last master just once (to revive ‘Dindi’ aka ‘Jinji’) and instead spotlights several newer songwriters.
That includes Barry & Robin Gibb, whose ethereal ‘Holiday,’ only six months old, already shows spooky adaptability; emerging musical-theater maven Leslie Bricusse alongside Rodgers & Hammerstein; Randy Newman, whose early piece ‘Snow’ Longet may well have done definitively; and Roger Nichols, subject of No. 31 in this series, turning up here via one of the first fruits of his partnership with Paul Williams, ‘It’s Hard to Say Goodbye.’
All of it breezes by dreamily, from ‘Small Talk’ to ‘Happy Talk,’ from a properly Parisian rendition of Paul Mauriat’s then-omnipresent title track to a jaunty tacked-piano take on Marlene Dietrich’s signature song ‘Falling in Love Again (Can’t Help It).’
There’s something else she borrows from Marlene: the adorably hilarious impediment that turns try into twy, regrets into wegwets.
So wuhvwee, it’s twoo.