This is a music blog, so we honor the passing of the legendary Honor Blackman with a look back at the highlights from this, her only album. Considering her long, fantastic career, most obits didn't even bother to mention the record, but for the record, it's a good one.
Some find "celebrities who sing" awfully funny. Honor Blackman did...when she tried to duet with Patrick Macnee on the novelty song "Kinky Boots." You might recall that Macnee titled his autobiography "Blind In One Ear." That could've referred to his singing. Still, he managed to sort of "talk" his way through that tune, and "Avengers" fans were delighted.
It was in 1964, when Honor Blackman made the athletic leap from Cathy Gale to Pussy Galore that she was asked to cash in with a REAL record album. The idea wasn't novelty. It was to cover Rodgers and Hart, The Beatles (well, McCartney...HE wrote "World Without Love") and Aznavour. She acknowledged in the liner notes that she was not a professional singer, but figured what the fuck (I'm not quoting exactly) she'd give it a try.
And she did good. Most of the tracks are very entertaining for the right reasons.
No surprise that her most effective tracks were more spoken than sung, most notably a fierce and passionate reading of Charles Aznavour's venomously sulky "Tomorrow Is My Turn." With the words now becoming more the focus than the music, Blackman's actually far more effective than Nina Simone, (pardon the sacrilege).
Like an actress working in Broadway musicals rather than a professional singer working in nightclubs (Gwen Verdon, Angela Lansbury and Chita Rivera would all be in that latter category) on the numbers that do require she stay on key, Honor puts over the tunes with panache if not pitch-perfection. "To Keep My Love Alive" is a show tune from Rodgers and Hart, and since it involves MURDER, it's a perfect choice for Blackman. Less successful, but kind of cute, is her attempt at pop via "World Without Love." Then there's "C'est Droll," in which our gutsy lady attempts an over-emotional ballad sung in French!
It's all in the zip file, which should download easily for you. Years later, after the William Shatners of the world had turned celebrity-vocals into an art form, Honor was sometimes asked to return to the microphone for talk-singing, most notably in live performances of "The Star Who Fell From Grace." Meanwhile, that "Everything I've Got" album actually won a re-issue.
The title track, another cheerfully vicious femme-fatale number from Rodgers and Hart, had been covered by everyone from Blossom Dearie to Ella Fitzgerald, including Barbara Carroll, Betty Garrett (with Milton Berle!), Morgana King, Annie Ross, Nancy Walker (yes, the comic actress) and Meg Myles, among others, but again, top honors to Blackman.
Individual songs from it are also streaming on YouTube for your free listening pleasure. You DO know how to use an app or a download service to convert YouTube to MP3, and own 'em for your very own, don't you?
The four best songs from the album, zip-file style (see DOWNLOAD button top right corner of the website page):
HONOR BLACKMAN, no password, Paypal donation whine, no beg for "nice" comments, no use of a sleazy download service loaded with spyware
Zippyshare version, uploaded April 19th:
HONOR BLACKMAN SONGS
2 comments:
It won't download. Says you have to subscribe. I've tried 5 times and on 2 computers.
Thanks anyway.
Sorry about that. The Zippyshare file should work -- uploaded April 19th -- https://www35.zippyshare.com/v/cOHAX6JH/file.html
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