Artist: Peggy Lee
Album: The Man I Love / If You Go
Genre: Vocal Jazz
Label: EMI
Released: 1997
Quality: FLAC (tracks+.cue)
Tracklist:
- The Man I Love (1957)
- The Man I Love (3:47)
- Please Be Kind (4:14)
- Happiness Is A Thing Called Joe (4:06)
- Just One Way To Say I Love You (2:54)
- That's All (2:56)
- Something Wonderful (3:16)
- He's My Guy (4:14)
- Then I'll Be Tired Of You (2:31)
- My Heart Stood Still (2:47)
- If I Should Lose You (2:25)
- There Is No Greater Love (3:40)
- The Folks Who Live On The Hill (3:41)
If You Go (1961) - As Time Goes By (2:53)
- If You Go (2:43)
- Oh Love Hast Thou Forsaken Me (2:37)
- Say It Isn't So (2:58)
- I Wish I Didn't Love You So (2:49)
- Maybe It's Because (I Love You Too Much) (2:04)
- I'm Gonna Laugh You Out Of My Life (2:49)
- I Get Along Without You Very Well (2:50)
- (I Love Your) Gypsy Heart (2:30)
- When I Was A Child (3:16)
- Here's That Rainy Day (2:50)
- Smile (2:22)
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The Man I Love (1957): Around the same time that Peggy Lee decamped her longtime label home, Capitol Records, for what turned out to be a five-year sojourn at Decca Records in 1952, an apparently washed-up Frank Sinatra signed with Capitol. In 1957, when Lee returned to Capitol, Sinatra had re-established himself as a major recording artist. Meanwhile, the recording world had changed with the emergence of the 12-inch LP as an industry standard. The Man I Love, Lee's first recording for Capitol in the format after re-signing, matched her with the company's flagship artist, Sinatra, who was credited as the album's conductor, his name printed on the front cover in the same size as Lee's. A year earlier, Sinatra had conducted his Tone Poems of Color album for Capitol, and though the singer did not read music and relied on arranger Nelson Riddle, he again proved himself able to make his intentions clear in working with Lee. The Man I Love is a concept album in the manner pioneered by Sinatra at Capitol, a group of 12 songs chosen to express a single theme. That theme, as the title suggests, is a woman's unwavering devotion to a man, as expressed in songs often composed by gilt-edged songwriters (Gershwin, Arlen, Rodgers, Kern, etc.) and taken from Broadway shows. That devotion is not starry eyed, however; in several songs, Lee acknowledges the flaws in her paramour (e.g., "Something Wonderful"), but then explains them away and reconfirms her commitment. In fact, toward the end she worries what she would do "If I Should Lose You" before declaring "There Is No Greater Love" and finally idealizing the long-term relationship in the closing song, "The Folks Who Live on the Hill." It wouldn't be surprising to find that Sinatra directed Lee to sing like one of his favorite singers, Billie Holiday, since she often does, laying back in understated vocal performances to reinforce the near-victimhood of the woman depicted in the songs. Riddle supports these interpretations with lush string charts that hint of dark feelings. The result is a superb pairing of singer, conductor, and arranger on an album that re-conceives Lee as a Capitol recording artist in the Sinatra concept album mold.
review by William Ruhlmann
If You Go (1961): In form, Peggy Lee's fall 1961 studio LP If You Go is a concept album in which the theme, as suggested by the title, is love that doesn't work out. Over the course of 12 songs, the singer begins as a romantic philosopher ("As Time Goes By"), then immediately begins to worry that her love affair may be in trouble ("If You Go"). Soon, her fears are confirmed ("Say It Isn't So"). By the start of the second half, she is trying to accommodate herself to separation ("I'm Gonna Laugh You Out of My Life"), but by the end she has acknowledged the pain ("Here's That Rainy Day") and returned to philosophy with her hard-won wisdom about romance ("Smile"). It sounds like a formula for sad, string-filled arrangements from, say, Gordon Jenkins or Axel Stordahl, but the man writing the charts here is Quincy Jones, and he is only occasionally interested in underscoring the heartbreak with suitably sad music. He does write for strings and horns on such songs as "I Wish I Didn't Love You So" and "I'm Gonna Laugh You Out of My Life," but just as often he pairs Lee with a small exotic group with prominent flute lines, a guitar playing arpeggios, and syncopated Latin percussion played in easy rhythms. That's how he accompanies "If You Go," "Maybe It's Because (I Love You Too Much)," and "I Get Along Without You Very Well," for instance. The effect is of a heartbroken woman who may be drowning her sorrows in a bar in Brazil instead of walking in the rain. Lee responds to the music with a world-weary tone, but an occasional swing in her step, as if this is not her first romance, nor her first one to go wrong.
review by William Ruhlmann