Liza can hot-cha! and jazz hands! all she wants - and we'll always love her for it - but let's be honest, mama did it best.
Mama's also the gift that keeps on giving. The last five years or so have brought forth a surprising amount of expensively remastered Judy CDs, some with tunes never before released. It can be a shock to her longtime fans, like me, to hear familiar tracks polished to gleaming, audiophonic perfection - but what a thrill.
This latest release brings together her "greatest love songs" from a variety of sources: previously released LPs, rare radio recordings, live recordings and one track pulled from a pre-production track for 1946's "Till The Clouds Roll By." For you Judy-stans out there - and, gurl, don't try to hide, I see you - this is a must!
Let's hop from "Dorothy" to another. The other day I was blindly speed-scrolling through my iTunes list as if it were a Lotto wheel - and ka-bam, it landed on a winner. I hadn't listened to Stephanie Mills in a long while, and all I can say is, "Yes and double-yes!" I'd hit the jackpot.
Wildly popular in the 70s and 80s, Stephanie first conquered B'way, making her debut as "Dorothy" in the original cast of "The Wiz," then became a top-charting R&B singer - writing or cowriting many of her hits and scoring several Grammy and AMA awards along the way. Of course she has countless TV appearances as either a singer, an actress or both, to her credit. In other words, she's a multi-talent who can do everything.
If you've never delved deep into Stephanie before, you may be surprised by the vastness of her skills. Yes, the R&B hits are here - like "I Feel Good All Over" and "Two Hearts" with Teddy Pendergrass and more - but the more you listen, the more you realize how elastic her vocals are, bringing in elements of jazz, gospel, blues, funk and Broadway belting; she uses everything she knows and everything she feels to put a song across. Also surprising? How modern nearly every tune on this collection sounds - and that's her. That's her timeless gift.
Meanwhile, Brenda's hair is the lewk:
Did you know? She retired from showbiz...at age 22. Whaaaaat? More on that in a sec. Like Stephanie, Brenda is multitalented. As a youngster, she played the piano, the flute, the violin, and later, wrote or cowrote many of her hit songs (because she's just that amazing).
In her gorgeous debut LP, she kills with her silky-smooth, gospel-tinged vocals. She said she left Motown for the church, but - yes, you guessed it - it was all about money, or rather, all the money cruelly picked from her pocketbook by Motown. But you can't keep Brenda down. She returned to performing and recording in the 1990s. "Every Little Bit Hurts" is where it all started.
January is so annoying, din't you think? If it's not snowing, it's raining; the sun seems to have disappeared up its own ass (some stunt!). It's times like these that the Secret Song File indulges in copious amounts of coffee (how you bitches in London get by with only tea, I'll never know) and music with enough silliness and pep to clear the gloom.
So she picked up the latest compilation CD by a certain pop singer who's both "little" (*cough*hint*) and this (*cough*hint*obvious*). My Cuban Luvuh says no one will ever get that hint because she's not mainstream, and that may be, so you'll just have to DL and see. Some things are worth it.
But the question is, are you worth it?
Tickle your fancy in the comments, if you like!
