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Mad about Dinah

Samuel Chell | Kenosha,, WI United States | 05/10/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"As a comparative latecomer to the American Songbook and its chief interpreters, I had little awareness of the Dinah Shore who had acquired celebrity status before her television program in the 1970s and and her much-publicized "romance" with Burt Reynolds. As a consequence, this collection came as a revelation. I ordered it simply because it contained a tune--"Mad About Him, Sad About Him, How Can I Be Glad Without Him Blues''--that I had been challenged to play numerous times (I'm a pianist) by a persistent customer. But the album contains definitive interpretations of some of the evergreens of American music--"I Can Dream Can't I," Kern's "Yesterdays," "It's All in the Game," "I'll Remember April," Legrand's "What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life," and Kern/Mercer's "Dearly Beloved"--in addition to the charming novelty song (actually a gentle shuffle rhythm) that was the object of my quest. Dinah is no Ella or Sarah. The strength of her singing is its transparency and understatedness. And unlike the low-key approach of a Peggy Lee, that understatedness doesn't include a subtext of sensuality and seduction. Dinah reminds me of Fred Astaire's approach to a song (he was indeed a pretty good singer). She makes herself virtually invisible, so all that's left is the beauty of the music and the charm of the lyric. She might be viewed as the consummate interpreter of music associated with an era when composers were still writing songs--"standards"--requiring good interpreters and careful listeners."