Search - Pat Suzuki :: The Very Best Of Pat Suzuki (The RCA & Vik Recordings)

'Miss Pony Tail': BIG VOICE

Daniel Robuck | Campbell, CA | 12/27/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Pat Suzuki was an anomaly when she hit the Broadway stage in 'Flower Drum Song': a Japanese girl as big as an American dime, playing a Chinese girl with a voice as big as Ethel Merman's. Anyone who saw her live never forgot her. Finally RCA has reissued la Suzuki in an excellent range of material for the syncopated jazz of 'From This Moment On' to heartbreaking ballad softness in 'Poor Butterfly' and 'Moulin Rouge.' When Suzuki played sexy in a song like 'Lady Is A Tramp,' she sang it like she meant it. Gone are the days of singers like Suzuki, Rosemary Clooney, and Jo Stafford who enunciated, who sang even the consonants with meaning, singers who studied voice and technique, and told a story with every song. Maybe it was the fact that Suzuki was Asian that caused her career to meander into nothingness after 'Flower Drum' closed. If things had been different, and with a voice as beautiful, clear, and full of gusto as any singer could produce in her day, Pat Suzuki could have been as big as Steisand, Doris Day, Jo Stafford, or even the great Merman herself. Alas, for an Asian girl singer to take on the recording industry, and the segregatd white listening public, of the 1950's and 1960's was nearly impossible. Still, Suzuki carried on, always the star, always giving everything she had in every song she sang. How precious to have these few magnificent jewels in what should have been a lifetime career of excellence. Thank you RCA for bringing back such a talent as Pat Suzuki for one final remembrance of what great singing was about, and of a singer who deserved more."

How Great is She? How High the Moon!

A. Kim | San Diego, CA | 04/11/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"My first listening experience was the Broadway cast recording of Flower Drum Song - and I was bowled over by Pat Suzuki's incandescent "I Enjoy Being a Girl." It certainly whet my appetite for more - but I could find very little info about her anywhere, save for a few cursory mentions of her role as Linda Lowe and a couple of records from '58-60.Fast forward two years, and I find this gem of a compilation on Amazon. What can I say? In these twenty tracks, she demonstrates the vocal talent and versatility to be up there with the very best. The knock-out: her exquisite rendering of "How High the Moon," which can also be heard in the background of a comic scene in Wayne Wang's EAT A BOWL OF TEA. Accompanied only by piano and percussion, the song becomes one of quiet, almost melancholy, reflection. The effect is spellbinding.Other favorites: her jazzy, oftentimes humorous, "From this Moment On," "The Lady is a Tramp," "Just in Time," the achingly beautiful ballad "Poor Butterfly" and Song from "Moulin Rouge"/"Hi-Lili-Hi-Lo" medley. She makes every syllable of every song sparkle and come to life.A marvelous performer, a powerful voice that can be alternately sexy and soft, it's a shame Pat Suzuki never achieved the kind of fame she deserves. Get this one."

Amazing!

Jay Dickson | Portland, OR | 04/08/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Even if you've just encountered her from the original soundtrack to "Flower Drum Song," you know that Pat Suzuki is something of a phenomenon: an enthusiastic and exciting singer with an incredibly powerful voice. But that's not all there is to Pat Suzuki. Richard Rodgers was notoriously extremely strict with his singers, and never wanted them to interpret his pieces for the Broadway performances other than as exactly he had written them. Suzuki, however, is an exceptional musical interpreter, and on this album (collected from her four albums released in the late Sixties) she does marvelous things with standards--even her signature song "I Enjoy Being a Girl," which here she interprets in ways Rodgers presumably would never have wanted her to do on the Broadway stage when she introduced it in his show. There's lots of marvelous stuff here, and one of the real delights is how Suzuki can take a song you know she could punch out through her Ethel Merman-sized voice (like "How High the Moon" or "Something's Gotta give") but instead takes it mellow and relaxed. Her way with a ballad is surprising, and the highlight of the whole album may be her lovely rendition of "Lazy Afternoon." Thank goodness this amazing woman has returned to singing in recent years!"