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Something Wonderful (Carmen McRae album)

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Something Wonderful
Studio album by
Carmen McRae
Released1963 (1963)
RecordedJune 11 and July 22, 1962[1]
Genre
Length35:50
LabelColumbia
ProducerBuddy Bregman
Carmen McRae chronology
Take Five Live
(1962) 		Something Wonderful
(1963) 		Live at Sugar Hill
(1963)

Something Wonderful is a studio album by American singer Carmen McRae, released in 1963 by Columbia Records. The album was conceived as a tribute to the various female lead singers in Broadway musicals.

Critical reception

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Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[2]
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music[3]

A Billboard reviewer wrote: "Now soft and tender, now bright and brassy but always her distinctive self, Carmen McRae salutes "Great Moments on Broadway" in this album, spotlighting show tunes made famous by Éthel Merman, Ella Logan, Mary Martin, et al. At no time is Carmen merely "imitative," and her 18 tunes–and 18 switches of mood–are her own. Fine wax."[4]

Music critic Will Friedwald noted that "tracks are frustratingly brief (as is the set as a whole); what's more, the Bregman charts are serviceable but uninspired. Still, McRae's singing doesn't disappoint, and any concept that gives her the chance to sing such excellent songs as "Long Before I Knew You"is to be enjoyed. Show buffs will take delight in hearing rare songs from flop productions with terrific scores: All-American, Nowhere to Go but Up, and, best of all, "How Does the Wine Taste?", which McRae sings with so much vivacity you can practically taste the wine yourself."[5]

Track listing

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  1. Salute to Ethel Merman: "Blow, Gabriel, Blow / All Through the Night / Anything Goes" (Cole Porter) – 4:47
    From Anything Goes (1934)
  2. Salute to Judy Holliday: "Long Before I Knew You / Just in Time" (Jule Styne, Betty Comden, Adolph Green) – 3:20
    From the musical Bells Are Ringing (1956)
  3. Salute to Pearl Bailey: "Come Rain or Come Shine" (Harold Arlen, Johnny Mercer) – 2:22
    From the musical St. Louis Woman (1946)
  4. Salute to Ella Logan: "If This Isn't Love / Look to the Rainbow / That Great Come and Get It Day" (Yip Harburg, Burton Lane) – 3:56
    From the musical Finian's Rainbow (1947)
  5. Salute to Mary Martin: "A Wonderful Guy" (Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein II) – 1:12
    From the musical South Pacific (1949)
  6. Salute to Jo Sullivan: "Don't Cry / I Like Ev'rybody / Warm All Over" (Frank Loesser) – 5:12
    From the musical The Most Happy Fella (1956)
  7. Salute to Dolores Gray: "Give a Little, Get a Little / There Never Was a Baby Like My Baby" (Jule Styne, Betty Comden, Adolph Green) – 3:42
    From the musical Two on the Aisle (1951)
  8. Salute to Gertrude Lawrence: "Getting to Know You / Hello Young Lovers / Something Wonderful" (Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein II) – 3:54
    From the musical The King and I (1951)

References

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  1. ^ "Carmen McRae - The 1960's". Jazz Discography. August 22, 2006. Retrieved August 25, 2024.
  2. ^ "Carmen McRae - Something Wonderful Album Reviews, Songs & More". AllMusic. Retrieved August 25, 2024.
  3. ^ Larkin, Colin (2011). "McRae, Carmen". The Encyclopedia of Popular Music. Omnibus Press. ISBN 978-1561592371.
  4. ^ "Album Reviews". Billboard. Vol. 75, no. 9. March 2, 1963. p. 31. ISSN 0006-2510.
  5. ^ Friedwald, Will (2010). "Carmen McRae". A Biographical Guide to the Great Jazz and Pop Singers. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. p. 322. ISBN 9780307379894.
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