EYDIE GORME – DON’T GO TO STRANGERS / SOFTLY AS I LEAVE YOU

A great double-header – especially since both albums are top-shelf! Don't Go To Strangers is a 60s classic from Eydie Gorme – and a set that showed the world that she had a lot more to offer than just some peppy duets with Steve Lawrence! Sure, Eydie had sung on her own before – and often did a pretty darn great job – but this album really takes off with a new sort of maturity – one that comes through in the title, and in Gorme's all-adult readings of the tunes – with a poise, care, and class that we're not sure we'd heard on records from her before. Don Costa handles the arrangements superbly – and titles include "What Did I Have That I Don't Have", "If He Walked Into My Life", "Don't Go To Strangers", "How Did He Look", "When He Leaves You", and "Tell Him I Said Hello".

Softly As I Leave You is great second-period work from Eydie Gorme – one of the wonderfully mature 60s albums when she was really developing herself as a singer! The album's got a careful sort of poise – emotive, but never overdone – and arranged to perfection by Don Costa, in ways that are even more sensitive to Eydie's strengths than his previous work with the singer. Titles include "Every Time We Say Goodbye", "What's Good About Goodbye", "Guess I Should Have Loved Him More", "Softly As I Leave You", and "All Alone". ~ Dusty Groove