De-Lovely Music From The Moti

• De-Lovely
• It's De Lovely-The Authentic Cole Porter Collection
• Very Best Of Cole Porter
• Cocktails With Cole Proter
• Duets: An American Classic

For anyone else who wants some different interpretations, then this CD isn't bad. The renditions are not quite to the level of Annie Lennox (Everytime We Say Goodbye) or k.d lang (So In Love) from Red, Hot, and Blue. But there are some interesting things on this CD.

Vivian Green's "Love For Sale" is a high point. You might have to see the movie to really appreciate this version and it's context. But I was very impressed by her abilities.

Even those who don't like Alanis version of "Let's Do It", do have to admit that hers was probably closet to what one would hear on stage.

The emotional high point in the movie (for me anyway) was Kevin Kline and John Barrowman singing "Night and Day" I've rarely seen such electricity between 2 men on screen. Unfortunately without the visual, it's simply OK on the CD.

Now Ms. Crow's "Begin the Beguine" is probably the farthest departure from the original version. If you loved the original, you will hate this version. I, however, always hated the original. The slower version finally showed me what all the fuss was about.

Finally, Natalie Cole is probably one of the weakest performers that I've ever heard. Her high pitched squeeking should never pass as singing. If her last name was Smith, instead of Cole, she would be singing in some airport lounge somewhere.

So for purists, make it a pass (although the genuis of Cole Poter songs is that they can constantly be reintrepted and reinvented - if not, then they would never have lasted)

For people looking for a nice diversion, then spend the money.

Everyone should however see the movie to understand the context of these songs. It might change your opinions.

However, I liked most of the other songs. Some of the highlights were Sheryl Crow's song Begin the Beguine, Lemar's song What is This Thing Called Love and Vivienne Green's Love for Sale. I also liked a couple of the songs performed by Kevin Kline and Ashley Judd (In the Still of the Night and True Love). The song called Night and Day by John Barrowman was also very good. I think the best female performer on the CD was Natalie Cole singing Everytime We Say Good-bye. The best male performer would have been Mick Hucknall if he had been given the right song to sing. (For those of you who have never heard of Mick Hucknall he is the lead singer of Simply Red.) His song I Love You was well performed, but not very memorable, especially since he only sang 2 lines of it in the movie. The song he SHOULD have sung was Everytime We Say Good-bye. He has already recorded a fantastic version of that song on one of his own albums. Natalie Cole's rendition of that song is very nice, but anyone who has heard Mick Hucknall's version would agree that NO ONE can sing that song better than him!

I also don't understand why Rod Stewart wasn't asked to perform a song for this movie since he has recorded 3 albums of songs from that era. Maybe he was too busy.

Having said that, most of the songs in the film are not bad... and standouts include Natalie Cole and Diana Krall. The sad renditions are worst with Sheryl Crow TRYING to sing "Begin the Beguine" and Elvis Costello who butchers "Let's misbehave."

Get these tunes on CD from some great people who sang them in the past... like Sinatra, Torme, Clooney, Bennett and Vaughn.

I don't think that there is a perfect Cole Porter collection out there. They all seem to either leave out an important song or they allow someone to butcher one of his songs. However, either one of these is far better than the movie soundtrack which simply strays too far Cole Porter's original work.

• Styles > Jazz
• Styles > Jazz > Traditional Jazz & Ragtime
• Styles > Jazz > Vocal Jazz
• Styles > Pop > Vocal Pop
• Styles > Pop > Oldies
• Styles > Soundtracks
• Styles > Broadway & Vocalists

• Amazon.ca : De-Lovely Music From The Moti