ARTIST: Keely Smith
TITLE: The Essential Capitol Collection
LABEL: Capitol Records
GENRE: Swing
BITRATE: 161kbps avg
PLAYTIME: 1h 18m total
RELEASE DATE: 2007-07-17
RIP DATE: 2007-07-03
Track List
----------
1. It's Been A Long Time 3:27
2. Stormy Weather (Keeps Rainin' 2:05
All The Time)
3. That Old Black Magic (w/Louis 2:57
Prima)
4. Someone To Watch Over Me 3:11
5. I Can't Get Started 2:37
6. There'll Never Be Another You 2:41
7. Stardust 2:58
8. How Are Ya? Fixed On Love? 3:13
(w/Frank Sinatra)
9. On The Sunny Side Of The Street 2:27
10. Nothing's Too Good For My Baby 2:50
(w/Louis Prima)
11. All The Way 2:36
12. Don't Take Your Love Away From 3:02
Me
13. You Go To My Head 3:17
14. I Wish You Love 2:52
15. The Man I Love 1:54
16. S'posin 3:01
17. The Whippoorwill 2:16
18. The Birth Of The Blues 3:28
19. All The Things You Are 2:25
20. What Is This Thing Called Love? 3:31
21. Fools Rush In 2:50
22. Autumn Leaves 2:33
23. When Your Lover Has Gone 3:13
24. Nothing In Common (w/Frank 3:06
Sinatra)
25. Imagination 2:55
26. The Song Is You 3:09
27. When Day Is Done 3:50
Release Notes:
On July 17, Capitol/EMI will release new single-disc hits collections for Louis
Prima and Keely Smith on CD and digitally, featuring the best solo and
collaborative work of the formerly married big band and swing music icons.
Jump, Jive An' Wail: The Essential Louis Prima gathers 26 of the late Grammy
winner's classics, including "I Wan'na Be Like You (The Monkey Song)," which
makes its first-ever appearance on a Prima compilation, "Jump, Jive An' Wail,
"Just A Gigolo/I Ain't Got Nobody," "Buona Sera," and "Just One Of Those
Things." Known as the "King of the Swingers," Grammy Award winning Louis Prima
swung his way to icon status thanks to an infectious sound whose appeal
translated across generations.
Keely Smith: The Essential Capitol Collection features 27 of Smith's best
recordings, including a previously unreleased live version of "When Day Is Done"
from the Sahara with an intro by Prima, and two classic duets with Frank
Sinatra. This ultimate single-disc collection also includes many of her most
sought-after solo recordings with orchestral direction by Nelson Riddle and
Billy May.
Discovered in New Orleans in 1934 by bandleader Guy Lombardo, Louis Prima's
breakthrough year was 1935, when he garnered rave reviews at The Famous Door in
New York, packing the club with his down-homey slant on jazz and his hilarious -
and somewhat suggestive - approach to the art of singing. Prima moved to
Hollywood later that year, and before long, he was a bi-coastal sensation
co-starring with Bing Crosby in Paramount's Rhythm On The Range. He began
crisscrossing the country with a big band, playing the same venues as the
Dorseys, the Millers, and the Goodmans.
By the early '50s the big band era had cooled. Prima survived by paring down
his group and hitting the road on one-nighters. His ace-in-the-hole was his new
girl singer, a 16 year old christened Dorothy Jacqueline Keely who joined his
act as Keely Smith.
Prima and Smith performed a dizzying five shows a night at the Sahara Hotel's
Casbar Lounge in Las Vegas, beginning at midnight and ending at 6am. They
married, and for the rest of the '50s reigned supreme on The Strip. Prima moved
the show to the main room at the Sands for a reported three million dollars.
Recording contracts at Capitol Records followed, where they made the most famous
recordings of their careers, many recorded live by Capitol's state-of-the-art
remote facilities.
Perhaps Louis Prima's most durable recording - due to the sheer number of
generations it has transcended - is his jaunty take on "I Wan'na Be Like You
(The Monkey Song)." His musical legacy, solidified by the brilliant work he did
at Capitol, is radiantly captured on this consummate collection. Prima's vital
influence on the swing genre continues to this day.
Less than a week after Prima's group cut its first Capitol recordings, Smith was
recording solo with none other than arranger extraordinaire Nelson Riddle. "I
Wish You Love" became the title track of her debut LP and was nominated for a
1958 Grammy in the Best Female Vocal category. She lost out to one of her
idols, Ella Fitzgerald, but she and Prima won the award that year for Best Vocal
Group for their landmark recording of "That Old Black Magic." As part of
Prima's entourage, Smith was Louis' 'straight-man' supreme, flinging zingers and
musical counterpoints to his shouts and verbal anarchy. On her own, she was a
high priestess of the art of pop singing.
Besides the I Wish You Love collection, Smith made two other superb solo albums
for Capitol, Politely with the masterful Billy May and Swinging Pretty, her
second collaboration with Nelson Riddle. She added to her recording legacy with
a group of first-rate albums for Dot and Reprise throughout the 1960s, before
devoting the rest of the century to rearing her children. With the new
millennium, she began recording again for Concord Jazz, releasing a series of
highly regarded albums.