Keely Smith - Spotlight on Keely Smith (Great Ladies of Song)

Great Album

Keely Smith is one of the "greats". This album has many wonderful songs and Keely does them all justice. Superb !!!! September 17, 2008

A great starter from a great singer!!!

I have played this CD until it's worn out. Her voice is beautiful and still is. I recommend this CD if your just starting out listening to her music. ENJOY!!!! April 21, 2008

Heard about her on Public Radio and from a friend

I remember a few singers from when I was a little girl, but did not remember Keely. I was discussing how much I liked other singers from my parent's day with a friend and my friend mentioned how she loved Louis Prima and Keely Smith. Coincidently I had just heard something about Ms. Smith on Public Radio. I looked her up on Amazon and noticed that Keely had a CD with one of my favorite songs on it, so I listened to the samples. To tell the truth if I couldn't listen to the samples, I would not have taken a chance, but I could hear her beautiful voice and that made me buy. Believe me, it was worth it. I don't think we have any singers today who sound as good as she does. March 10, 2008

Keely sold her songs without even trying--and that's no small feat !!!

Spotlight On Keely Smith from the "Great Ladies Of Song" collection has a terrific display of hits by the incomparable Keely Smith. Keely sings very well and when you listen to her sing you have to wonder why she's not remembered as well as she should be. At any rate, this CD is a great addition to your collection and I highly recommend it. The quality of the sound is excellent.

There are several highlights of this album. "You Go To My Head" features Keely singing sweetly; as she swings slowly and romantically she never misses a beat. Keely delivers this with such style that she truly puts her own stamp on this number with her fine interpretation. "Stardust" continues the same singularly beautiful style; and Keely's excellent diction bolsters her performance. The piano arrangement for "Stardust" impresses me very much as well. Moreover, listen for a stunning rendition of "Stormy Weather." The big band flavor with its brass works wonders and Keely delivers this to perfection.

"It's Been A Long, Long Time" features Keely singing a more upbeat number and this number swings brightly with a big band feel that couldn't be better! "I'll Get By (As Long As I Have You)" features Keely singing a more pensive love ballad with a wonderful arrangement; I predict that you will enjoy "I'll Get By (As Long As I Have You)."

"On The Sunny Side Of The Street" gets the royal treatment from Keely; she sings this ballad with such joy in her voice that you know she sings this one with all her heart and soul. The CD ends very strong with Keely performing "I Wish You Love." Awesome!

Keely Smith is an undervalued songbird whose talents remain strong even today. I highly recommend this for Keely's fans (obviously); and people who enjoy female lounge singers will cherish this album for quite some while to come.
December 12, 2007

The most perfect singer of them all?

Although this collection has largely been eclipsed by the new "Essential" Capitol album, it does include a few jewels not on the recent release and is moreover a better example of the "undiluted" Keely--no duets with Prima or Sinatra, no Sam Butera and the Witnesses crowding out Nelson Riddle's sublime arrangements. One of the numbers on this collection and not on the new one is Jerome Kern's "Sweet and Lovely." Unlike Monk and other jazz musicians, I've never particularly cared for the tune--until hearing Keely do it. The woman is simply unreal. Where did she get a voice like that? What right does she have to sing that well? Other vocalists spend fortunes on vocal lessons to produce a few pleasant-sounding notes; Keely breathes in the smoke of the Sahara Lounge night after night, tries to sing over the din of a burlesque band (successfully), and keeps her cool while working with a headliner with the stage persona of a manic Neanderthal man--and she ends up with not only the voice but the technique of a singer without peer. Listen to the evenness of the vibrato, the contoured phrasing, the effortless tones supported by undetectable but firm and unfaltering breath support, the clear and pellucid soprano register that literally "floats" on a stream of uninterrupted melody, the varied articulations, enabling her to "bite" with the words when necessary even while maintaining that pure soprano. She's dead on pitch, she's consistent throughout the entire register (no falsetto "breaks"), she catches the dramatic expressiveness of a lyric's meanings, her diction doesn't risk the listener's missing a single word.

So why do the names of Rosemary, Doris, Peggy, Dinah, Kay, Patti, Anita, June and all the rest get mentioned ahead of Keely in any discussion of female singers? Because she says "ma" instead of "my"? "Hort" instead of "heart"? Or because she's just too consistently perfect not to be taken for granted? Moreover, with practically any other female singer there's a 20-year window (max) during which they must be heard to be fully appreciated, after which the breath starts to fail, the voice starts to wobble, the strain becomes unmistakable. Ella, Sarah, Carmen--true of all of them, but not of Keely. Heck, you can recommend Keely Smith recordings from the present millenium, made 50 years after this Spotlight collection, and not go wrong. Perhaps, and this is a big perhaps, she was a bit too quick to separate her life from her art. If we felt we got to know a little more of the person behind that deadpan Buster Keaton face with the perfect angelic voice, we'd be less likely to overlook her undeniable supremacy.

[As I write this, I see that the price of a new copy is under eight bucks. 20 tracks, and if you have Amazon Prime, it's even more of a screaming, irresistible bargain. If you choose not to pollute the environment with another jewel case and paper inserts, spend 20 bucks and download the tracks to your iPod. It's still a good deal--Nelson Riddle, Billy May and Keely. What more could you want?] October 3, 2007

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