I Got Lost in His Arms - Roberta Sherwood, Berlin, Irving
I Hadn't Anyone Till You - Roberta Sherwood, Noble, Ray
I Miss You Most of All - Roberta Sherwood, McCarthy, Joe
Gee But I Hate to Go Home Alone - Roberta Sherwood, Goodwin, Joe
In a Strange Pair of Arms - Roberta Sherwood, Kennedy, Jimmy
Cry Me a River - Roberta Sherwood, Hamilton, Arthur
Lazy River - Roberta Sherwood, Arodin, Sidney
All Alone/Always - Roberta Sherwood, Berlin, Irving
Take Your Shoes off, Baby (And Start Runnin' Through My Mind) - Roberta Sherwood, Austin, Gene
The Glory of Love - Roberta Sherwood, Hill, Billy
I Used to Love You (But It's All Over Now) - Roberta Sherwood, Brown, Lew
This Train - Roberta Sherwood, Tharpe, Sister Rose
You Don't Have to Be a Baby to Cry - Roberta Sherwood, Merrill, Bob [Songw
You're Nobody 'Til Somebody Loves You - Roberta Sherwood, Cavanaugh, J.
Tears Don't Care Who Cries Them - Roberta Sherwood, Tobias, C.
Under a Blanket of Blue - Roberta Sherwood, Livingston, J.
I Remember You - Roberta Sherwood, Mercer, J.
Marianina - Roberta Sherwood,
A Woman Ages Quicker Than a Man - Roberta Sherwood, Borne, Hal
I Cried for You - Roberta Sherwood, Arnheim, G.
I Know Now - Roberta Sherwood, Dubin, Al
Autumn Leaves - Roberta Sherwood, Kosma, J.
I'm Sorry I Made You Cry - Roberta Sherwood, Clesi, Jeannine
After You've Gone - Roberta Sherwood, Creamer, H.
My Heart Is a Chapel - Roberta Sherwood, Carroll, Ray
Should I Try Again - Roberta Sherwood, Arnold, Mary
Mary Lou - Roberta Sherwood, Lyman, A.
She Wasn?t Young, Glamorous and Didn?t have a Beautiful Voice - but in 1956, a Bespectacled Suburban Housewife Rose from Years of Obscurity to Become an Overnight Sensation as a Consummate Torch Singer and Nightclub Perfor... more »mer. Widowed at a Young Age, She Pursued Singing Jobs, Few and Far Between for a 40 Year Old. She Got a Job Singing at a Miami Beach Club. She Would Beat a Battered Old Cymbal with a Wire Brush, a Technique that Would Become One of her Most Revered Trademarks. She Wore a Sweater Over her Shoulders Because of the Air-conditioning and She Kept her Glasses on So She Wouldn?t Trip Walking to the Stage. Once There, that Magical Husky Voice and Dynamic Personality Became Mesmerizing. This Set features Sherwood's First Two Albums ("Introducing Roberta Sherwood" and "Show Stoppers") with the Addition of Three Bonus Tracks from Singles.« less
She Wasn?t Young, Glamorous and Didn?t have a Beautiful Voice - but in 1956, a Bespectacled Suburban Housewife Rose from Years of Obscurity to Become an Overnight Sensation as a Consummate Torch Singer and Nightclub Performer. Widowed at a Young Age, She Pursued Singing Jobs, Few and Far Between for a 40 Year Old. She Got a Job Singing at a Miami Beach Club. She Would Beat a Battered Old Cymbal with a Wire Brush, a Technique that Would Become One of her Most Revered Trademarks. She Wore a Sweater Over her Shoulders Because of the Air-conditioning and She Kept her Glasses on So She Wouldn?t Trip Walking to the Stage. Once There, that Magical Husky Voice and Dynamic Personality Became Mesmerizing. This Set features Sherwood's First Two Albums ("Introducing Roberta Sherwood" and "Show Stoppers") with the Addition of Three Bonus Tracks from Singles.
CD Reviews
FINALLY...SHE'S BACK!
Old Legend Lover | Central Indiana | 11/14/2007
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Roberta Sherwood holds a lofty spot in show business history, and her life story is almost as exciting as the songs she sang with so much emotion and feeling. Yet it has been FIFTY YEARS since these first Decca albums were recorded, and they are just now being transferred to CD. I shouldn't complain, I really don't mean to, as I am very, very grateful to Sepia Records for finally bringing back this legendary lady who has deserved a "musical rebirth" for so many years.
Roberta Sherwood was already a middle-aged mother of three sons (Don Jr., Jerry, and Bobby) when her husband, restauranteur Don Lanning Sr., discovered he was dying of cancer, and Roberta needed to go back to work to make sure her family was fed. She had been born into show business, the world of vaudeville, and had performed with her parents and siblings since she had been three years old. She had been glad to marry Lanning, start a family, and become a housewife in Miami. But those days now had to end, and Roberta only knew one profession...entertaining.
Cut now to December of 1956. Roberta had been lucky enough to land a job at a small, second-rate Miami Beach club called Murray Franklin's. A neighborhood crowd and sometimes other curious artists would stop by to see and hear this "unusual" singer. Matronly, wearing glasses and with a sweater thrown over her shoulders to ward off the air-conditioning, she started holding an old cymbal and smacking it with a drum brush to provide her own "drummer." Then came that fateful night. A probably half-sloshed Walter Winchell...the most powerful show business columnist in the world...happened to wander into the club. And he listened to Roberta sing "You're Nobody Till Somebody Loves You" with that husky, emotional voice...and he cried. The jaded, world-weary newspaper man who had seen them all rise, and fall, was so moved by her performance that he immediately devoted an entire column to Roberta Sherwood, "the singer with tears in her eyes and in her voice." Several other rave reviews followed, and now there were many celebrities and writers flocking to hear this "new sensation" Winchell was promoting.
Roberta Sherwood suddenly had bookings at the Copa and Ciro's and every one of the major night clubs in America. She recorded a rousing, gutsy version of Hoagy Carmichael's classic "Up a Lazy River," and her recording of that (included in this CD) soon became a classic itself, and a best-seller...and remained her theme song until the day she died in 1999 at the age of 86. She was grabbed by Ed Sullivan and Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey and Garry Moore and all the other top TV variety show hosts of that era. She made many albums for Decca (and I can only hope Sepia will eventually release CD's of all of them) and was known far and wide as a Torch Singer (though she could actually belt out Dixieland with the best of them, and turn into a gospel singer or an accomplished C&W artist at the drop of a...sweater.
Again, thank you Sepia for bringing this unique, extraordinary, inimitable song stylist back to all of us who loved her so much. She was a wonderful lady and a wonderful entertainer, and kept right on singing, long after the glory days of night clubs had passed, to the very end...bringing the same magic to "Cry Me a River," "A Woman Ages Quicker Than a Man," "The Glory of Love," "Tears Don't Care Who Cries Them," "Autumn Leaves," I Remember You," "You Don't Have to Be a Baby to Cry" and all the other old standards and memorable songs that appear on this CD release. Truly great entertainment never ages, is never dated...and never forgotten. Welcome back a Legend!"
ROBERTA'S CHARM OFFENSIVE!
A. POLLOCK | PLYMOUTH, DEVON United Kingdom | 09/25/2007
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Sepia's wonderful overview of Roberta Sherwood's 50's popular singing style gives a rare chance to sample the talent of a songstress who enjoyed the taste of celebrity after the age of forty by becoming a headlining torch singer, club entertainer, and occasional character actress in films and television. Hailing from a family with carnival connections, Roberta was once described by TIME magazine as "flashy, richly sentimental and as unsubtle as her crashing cymbal and as unpretentious as her $49.50 dress" This description amply covers my opinion concerning a singer who frequently wore her heart on her sleeve with songs like AUTUMN LEAVES, I GOT LOST IN HIS ARMS, UNDER A BLANKET OF BLUE and even CRY ME A RIVER which are all amongst a diverse selection from two mid-50's albums INTRODUCING ROBERTA SHERWOOD and SHOWSTOPPERS. Other tracks showcasing her unique vocal essence include AFTER YOU'VE GONE, I REMEMBER YOU, the gospel-inspired THIS TRAIN and MY HEART IS A CHAPEL (one of three bonus tracks) and repertoire hits LAZY RIVER, YOU'RE NOBODY `TIL SOMEBODY LOVES YOU which are emoted with husky sincerity, a touch of the blues (SHOULD I TRY AGAIN) and occasionally aiming for emotional heights only Johnnie Ray ever attempted to reach! With so little currently available by Roberta, this is a feast for lovers of female vocalists of the period with my firm recommendation to sample her appealing direct vocal style."
Years of searching rewarded
I. C. Licker | Redding, CA USA | 07/09/2008
(5 out of 5 stars)
"I have been a fan of Roberta Sherwood's unique voice and style for years. My vinyl albums are so noisy they're unplayable but apparently no one had released anything of hers on CD. This release is excellent: great sound and choice of cuts including two and possibly three of her albums. Excellent liner notes too. Sherwood is jazzy and bluesy; has a great vocal range and an unmistakable vocal quality. Her rendition of "Cry Me a River" is classic."
A True Gem!!
HP Cohen | 11/03/2008
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Roberta Sherwood--a true gem!! I recall seeing her in performance in Los Angeles shortly after her first Decca recording was released. This was an era of glamour; gorgeous ladies and handsome men smartly dressed was the rule of the day. The ladies of the era were beautifully put together and made up, wearing glamourous gowns and beautiful hair styles. When you went to a club in those days there was the clinking of ice cubes and a very smokey and elegant room. The band would start and some gorgeous creature would stand there in the glaring spotlight and the audience would loudly applaud.
In the case of Roberta Sherwood, the band started to play "Lazy River" strains, the room darkened, there was a spot on an older lady, certainly not glamourous, clad in a simple dress and wearing glasses and a sweater over her shoulders and carrying a cymbal. She began singing and from the moment she opened her mouth until she finished her act the crowd was mesmerized.
And now many years after that eventful night finally there is a CD bringing so many of those fabulous songs of Miss Sherwood to the 21st century. She was a tremendous presence. She had a most unique sound. All of it is captured in this terrific CD. Each track provides the simple elegance of this wonderous performer. Try "Cry Me A River" on for size. The gorgeous Julie London had a fabulous hit recording of the song, but Miss Sherwood was able to make it her own as well. "All Alone/Always" is another gem, as is "The Glory of Love" and almost every cut on the CD.
I would hope that those who have never heard of her or have ever heard her would give a listen to one of the most incredible talents of the fifties/sixties. And I would also hope that more of Roberta Sherwood's work will become available soon on CD.
"
At last...Sherwood on CD!!!
alias | 12/02/2007
(5 out of 5 stars)
"For those of us waiting for a cd of songs by this artist, this selection was worth the wait. Ms Sherwood was a superb artist who was one of a kind. Sit back and enjoy."
Track Listings (27) - Disc #1