Search - Doris Day :: Love Album

AN ALBUM TO "LOVE"

Paul Brogan | Portsmouth, NH United States | 03/02/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The first domestic release of this album, recorded by Miss Day in 1967, right before she commenced production on the 1968 MGM comedy, "Where Were You When the Lights Went Out?" is cause for celebration. Intended as the beginning of a new phase of her recording career after decades of recording for Columbia where she was, for a while, their top-selling female artist, it is a collection that truly befits its title as "The Love Album".

Romantic, dreamy, tender, special and those are barely a handful of adjectives that could be used to describe this exquisite collection given the special Doris Day touch.

She reportedly selected the titles herself and they represent a most interesting spectrum of songs from the 1920's through the 50's and 60's.

In today's music world and actually for the past decade or two, much of the human quality of a voice has been lost in an array of engineering tricks used to enhance or disguise vocal flaws in singers. Yes, sometimes you can be impressed and/or dazzled but what has been lost in too many instances is the real beauty of the voice. There is not any of that on "The Love Album". Close your eyes while listening to Miss Day sing and listen to her legendary phrasing, diction, brilliant control and expression when imparting a lyric. It is dazzling and the intimacy she brings to these songs will make you believe she is sitting there singing only to you.

The songs include a superlative "For All We Know", "Are You Lonesome Tonight" and "Sleep Lagoon" among others. Miss Day's take on "Life is Just a Bowl of Cherries" is worlds away from the usual faster-paced version and she turns it into a romantic gem with her interpretation. Other lesser known titles such as "Snuggled on Your Shoulder" and "All Alone" are given similar treatments and the medley of "If I Had My Life to Live Over" and "Let me Call You Sweetheart" is similar in arrangement to the duet Miss Day and Perry Como would do several years later of the same tunes on her blockbuster 1971 CBS Musical Special. Speaking of that special, three of the songs sung by Miss Day on that special are included in this collection.

Her rendition of Joni Mitchell's "Both Sides Now" clearly indicates her affinity for more modern music and the realization that had she chosen to continue recording in the 1970's, she'd have had a very successful career. The other two songs from that special are two new versions of classic Day hits - "Sentimental Journey" and "It's Magic" from her first film. The recordings prove that Miss Day's "pipes" as Variety noted at the time, retained all of their quality.

"The Love Album" is a must have for lovers of great music sung by a great artist."

A beautiful display of a great talent

Bruce R. Gilson | Wheaton, MD United States | 02/18/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This CD contains 14 recordings, 11 of which constituted an album that Doris Day made in the late 1960s which was hidden from the public until the 1990s, and the remaining 3 being airchecks from a TV special she did in 1971. I enjoyed every track (no surprise, since I am a great fan of Doris' singing voice!) but this album really needs to be considered as two collections.



The first 11 tracks are basically a lot of old standards (though 2 or 3 were not familiar to me!) which were chosen by Doris Day to record, not chosen for her by an A&R man like Mitch Miller. Listening to them, I was impressed by her clear picture of the type of song she could best do, as these new (to me) versions of the familiar songs were, by and large, the best versions I've ever heard of the songs. She sings them at a slower tempo than I'm used to, and sings verses that I've often never heard before, and it all works well. In a sense, I've waited 40 years to buy this album and it's certainly worth the wait.



The other 3, the airchecks, include the only "modern" song in the collection, Joni Mitchell's "Both Sides Now," as well as remakes of two of Doris Day's earliest hits from the 1940s. They are done in a style rather different from the first 11, more up-tempo, with a big chorus and orchestra backing her, but I still enjoyed them and think the combination shows the great versatility that Doris Day possessed as a singer.



If you like Doris Day, or if you like old standards done well, buy this CD!"

2006 Re-issue of Doris's 29th Studio Album "The Love Album"

Mr. K | UK | 02/07/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"After parting company with long-time label Columbia it would take something very special to lure Doris back into the recording studio. That something would be an album themed around some of her all-time favourite ballads and quite significantly a project that turned out to be her final as a recording artiste!



Doris set to work on sessions for "The Love Album" between May 25 and June 9 in 1967. Her vocals were combined with a dreamy backdrop of lush orchestration that came courtesy of conductor Sidney H. Feller and producer Don Genson (he of course later worked on her TV sitcom as an executive producer). Although an intended album for the time this was not to be. Instead subsequent events, that included the loss of her husband, overshadowed the project. The Love Album or the "Lost" album as it is often referred to simply vanished into obscurity...That was until the summer of 1993, when Doris's son Terry Melcher came across the original master tapes. Then, in 1994, this album finally received its first world release in the United Kingdom.



The 2006 re-issue now boasts "never-before-released" recordings that were made for Doris's 1970s TV specials. An added bonus that will enchant and allure collectors across the world!"