Two early 70s albums from Shirley Bassey – back to back
in a single set! Never Never Never is a warmly-crafted 70s album from the great Shirley Bassey – a set that continues that great move she was making at the end of the 60s – shaking off some of the bolder, brassier styles that famously got her going at the start, but which were maybe sounding a bit dated after the James Bond soundtracks got too much play! Instead, Bassey's opening up
in a nicely mature mode – maybe making the same sort of shift between soul and adult modes that Johnny Mathis was hitting during the same period – and working
with great UK maestros Johnny Harris and Arthur
Greenslade, both able to balance strings and soul on titles that include "Never Never Never", "Make The World A Little Younger", "No Regrets", "Going Going Gone", "Somehow", "I Won't Last A Day
Without
You", "The Old Fashioned Way", and "Someone Who Cares". On Good Bad But Beautiful, Shirley Bassey is at her mellow best – sounding very different than the brassy vocalist who first rose to international fame
with "Goldfinger" – yet
still able to work through all the rich aspects of her great vocal range! Arthur
Greenslade handles the backings, and the style is mature, and updated
in maybe the way that Frank Sinatra was hitting at the time – both
in the choice of songs, and
in the way that
Greenslade sets Shirley up for the best reading of the lyric. Titles include "I'll Be Your Audience", "Emotion", "Good Bad But Beautiful", "Jesse", "Run On & On & On", "Feel Like Makin
Love", and "I'll Be Your Audience".