You can’t
get any more popular in American entertainment than Keely Smith was in the
early ‘60s. Having blown the doors out in Las Vegas, winning a Grammy, having
hit after hit and lighting up television screens playing straight “man” to
husband Louis Prima, she’d navigated the tricky waters of a professional and
personal divorce, striking out on her own and starting her own record label,
Keely Records, in partnership with close friend and mentor Frank Sinatra, under
the auspices of his Reprise label. A groundbreaking businesswoman, as well as
recording artist, Keely recorded 5 classic albums for Reprise. Because she’d
seen enough show business shenanigans to last a lifetime, a generation before
it became standard practice to do so, she retained the rights to her masters.
Those albums have NEVER come out legitimately on CD anywhere in the world. Now,
Real Gone Music, in concert with Keely & her family, is very proud to
announce that the label is going to answer the pleas of pop fans worldwide and
release ALL of Keely’s Reprise albums on CD for the first time in deluxe
packages featuring bonus tracks, rare photos, and new liner notes by Steve
Hoffman. Produced by Keely’s husband-to-be & Reprise hitmaker Jimmy Bowen,
1964’s The Intimate Keely Smith is, as the steamy cover and saucy title
suggest, a sexy, swinging affair and the quintessential Keely Smith recording
from her Reprise period. A concept album, the project was the long form
representation of her legendary “mood spot” concert segment, a staple of
Keely’s live shows. Key album tracks include a rendition of Sinatra’s “Time
After Time” and a version of Billie Holiday’s “God Bless the Child”…this album
presents Keely really taking wing as an artist. And the bonus tracks?
Well,
Keely’s strong rapport and long history with Frank Sinatra are well known. As
one of the foundational artists at Reprise, which was at full creative flower,
Keely was part of some really great projects outside of her own releases. With
the blessing of Frank Sinatra Enterprises, we’ve included her duet with Frank,
“Twin Soliloquies,” from the The Reprise Musical Repertory Theatre Presents
South Pacific album, plus rare the non-LP single of the King-Goffin-Spector
track “No One Ever Tells You,” arranged by Jack Nitszche and also produced by
Bowen.
Tracklisting:
1. Somebody
Loves Me
2. As Long
As He Needs Me
3. Blame It
on My Youth
4. He Needs
Me
5. Sinner or
Saint
6. It Had to
Be You
7. Time
After Time
8. Nancy/You
Are My Sunshine (medley)
9. God Bless
the Child
10. You'll
Never Know
11. The
Whippoorwill
12. No One
Ever Tells You
13. Twin
Soliloquies
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