Liza Minnelli - Finest
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CD Details
Artist: Liza MinnelliEdition: Music CD
Audio: English (Unknown)
Format: Import, Original recording remastered
CD Release Date: 2009-08-18
Music Label: Emd Int'l
Soundtracks:
Music CD 1
- It's Just a Matter of Time
- If I Were In Your Shoes
- Meantime
- Try To Remember
- I'm All I've Got
- Maybe Soon
- Maybe This Time
- Don't Ever Leave Me
- The Travelin' Life
- Together Wherever We Go
- Blue Moon
- I Knew Him When
- Wait till You See Him
- My Shining Hour
- I Like the Likes of You
- It Amazes Me
- Looking At You
- I Never Have Seen Snow
- Plenty of Time
- For Every Man There's a Woman
- Lorelei
- Shouldn't There Be Lightning?
- Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out
- There is a Time (Le Temps)
- I Who Have Nothing
- M'lord
- Watch What Happens
- One of Those Songs
- The Days of the Waltz
- Ay Marieke
- Love At Last You Have Found Me
- I'll Build a Stairway To Paradise
- See the Old Man
- The Parisians
- Imprevu [Original 45 R.P.M. Single Mono Version] [Version]
- Did I Hurt Your Feelings? [Original 45 R.P.M. Single Mono Version] [Ver
- Hello Dolly
- If I Were In Your Shoes [#]
- Maybe This Time [#]
- How Could You Believe Me When I Said I Love You When You Know I've Been
- The Man I Love
- But the World Goes 'Round
- New York, New York
Music reviews of Finest
Music Review: Liza Minelli's Finest. So far.
Rating: 5 Stars
Umm. There are forty-three songs here. I don't know if you noticed that, but if not, you should be aware. Forty-three. Many of them quite belty and swathed in brass. This Capitol Years collection includes three early albums, a couple of loose singles, a smattering of London Palladium live cuts with Mom, and a few tracks from the New York, New York soundtrack. All nicely remastered.
Logic would dictate this should be enough Liza to take down a draught horse. Certainly enough to put regular sized mammals like you or me out for good.
But it ain't. Nope. I just checked. I still got a pulse. Here's why it's not too much Liza--and why it, in fact, ain't nearly enough Liza:
There are (is? are?) at least three of Liza here. Maybe three and a half.
Will Friedwald pretty well nails it in his excellent liner notes when he describes the first two albums (from 1964 and 1965 and comprising Disc One) as Capitol's effort to "Barbra her up." To be fair, they also Garland her up and, on at least one occasion, Merman her up. Which is a little creepy, but it just goes to show you her sheer range of ability. At 18 or 19 years of age, maybe Liza didn't realize she didn't have to be such a good sport. But she was, gamely cruising through the arrangements--some of them truly goofy, some terrific, mostly just fine. (In a gloriously overwrought arrangement of "Together Wherever We Go," she actually channels Barbra and Judy both. Which almost makes you not notice the--I swear I'm not lying--kettle drums punctuating the melodramatic denouement.)
"Blue Moon" stands out on Disc One as the track you know you're going to make someone listen to over and over again. With its faux-rock arrangement, you immediately think it's the cheesiest thing ever. Yet Liza plays it so straight and performs it so well that you realize it's actually kinda breathtaking in a making-Rogers-and-Hart-turn-over-in-their-graves sort of way. It occupies that rarified space just a hair east of camp, which somehow puts it in an entirely different category. (Friedwald was on the money here, comparing it to something out of Bye Bye Birdie!.)
Liza's delivery is warm, nuanced, and full of range. All the stuff you think of when you think of her at her best. Sure, a few of the songs are throw-aways compared to her real killer numbers. But in case I hadn't made this clear: There forty-three songs here. We needn't quibble about a few relatively forgettable ones early on. Stand-outs like "Lorelei," "I Never Have Seen Snow," and "Try to Remember" more than make up for them as we sift through this embarrassment of riches.
Disc Two gives us hardcore Liza. The 1966 album is not louder, not brassier, maybe not even technically better than the two albums on Disc One. But it is so much more Liza. And it's more ambitious, for sure. Only 20 years old, and she's navigating Jacque Brel material like a sherpa. The familiar Liza sound is unveiled here. Cuts like "M'Lord" and "One of Those Songs" amount to an archeological dig: Here we have a square of earth yielding fossils that reveal the very location where Liza evolved into the larger than life Liza with a Z we now know. [Liza with a 'Z' - Concert for Television (Collector's Edition)] It is the font from which Kander and Ebb were be-spewed into the universe. Really. This is the primordial soup from which "Ring Them Bells" was ladled up. You can't call yourself a serious student of Li-zology without listening to this. If you're not going to listen to it, then you're just going to need to turn in your worn LP of Flora The Red Menace: The Original Broadway Cast Recording (1965).
The two frenchified singles that follow are such fun sixties pop standards, one can't help but wish it were playing on the fine hi-fi radio of one's Corvair convertible, the wind setting one's chiffon scarf aflutter.
We also get a snootful of Liza #3: Live and managing to match kinetic energy with Judy.
Contrast the 1964 cut of "Maybe This Time" (Disc One) with the London Palladium live version she grew into a year or so later (Disc Two). You'll get an idea of what she could tap into that had assorted academies throwing Oscars and Emmies at her like loose flowers shortly thereafter. The Palladium version of "Maybe This Time" is previously unreleased. And let me tell you: If you think that song has ever moved you before--until you have heard this one, you have only been seeing the shadows, pal.
The 1977 tracks from New York, New York showcase Liza in that apex before addiction got the best of her. Although they're solid studio recordings, her range is getting tighter, her emotions less nuanced. Even so, "The World Goes Round" delivers the kind of teeth-rattling intensity that keeps pulling you back to Liza no matter how many off-years she's had. Truly--throughout listening to this whole release, it kept occurring to me what a compelling anti-drug message it is: the knowledge of how drugs and alcohol pretty well wrecked her talent for a good decade.
All the more reason to own these recordings that celebrate her voice during some of her brightest moments.
Is it actually Liza at her Finest, as the CD title suggests? I dunno. A few months ago, both her voice and attitude seemed more together than any time in my adult life. As I understand she's recording some new stuff now, I want to bet that Liza Minnelli's finest work is still ahead of her. Until then, we have a bunch of really strong tracks (There are forty-freaking-three of them, you understand) to tide us over.
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Description of Finest
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