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Purrfect Collection of Eartha Kitt

James M. Flint | Northern Michigan | 10/20/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I first saw Eartha Kitt on "I Spy" in the mid-1960's and she was hot. But, Eartha Kitt ignites a flame that just won't be extinguished in this fine collection of tunes. Only thing missing is the background cling of a crystal goblet containing your best liquor. So put this collection in your CD player, sit back and relax dreaming of being in a caberet in Paris. Close your eyes and your almost there when you realize, "What a voice!!!""

The ***60s*** RECORDINGS From The Wonderful *EARTHA*

Alex Honda | Los Angeles, CA USA | 02/19/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"PURRFECT: THE EARTHA KITT COLLECTION is a digitally remastered CD that contains the 60s re-recordings of such standards as "I Want To Be Evil" and "Santa Baby." As another reviewer stated, these are the uptempo recordings and I adore these versions!



The tracks sound loud and clear as though Eartha was right in your house, and the CD was produced in 2000. Also included on this album is "Just An Old Fashioned Girl," "Mack The Knife," "My Heart Belongs To Daddy," and "C'Est Si Bon," among others.



I became familiar with Eartha's work from the album The Best of Eartha Kitt, which was produced in 1982 and featured the uptempo recordings. I still have that CD but wanted one that was remastered and PURRFECT... is perfect for that. I'm sure fans would love this CD and this is a great starter for those who would like to get a taste of this legendary performer.



RIP, Eartha! There will never be another one like her."

In fact, she was--perfect as well as purr-fect.

Samuel Chell | Kenosha,, WI United States | 02/23/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"She may not have had Piaf's musical instrument or the full, flowing facial geography (but what sculpture!) of a Garbo, or the irresistible, girl-next-door wholesome charm of a Garland or Doris Day, but she was the institution of cabaret personified not to mention the most fatally feline femme fatale of them at all--so much so that Orson Welles (like her, an American institution) looked upon her as an epic Circe, even casting her as the woman whose allure led to the Trojan War and to the fall of one of the world's great civilizations (undoubtedly a more convincing Helen than the one cast opposite Richard Burton ten years later). Yet cabaret superstars such as Marlene, Nina, Lena (the inferior Madonna was too exalted to emerge from her panoply of costumes, effects, and microphones long enough to "lower herself" to be a cabaret performer) frequently receive more attention than the inarguable master--Eartha Kitt OWNED cabaret, gifted with deceptively towering talent, superlative linguistic skills, and the sophisticated awareness that allowed her simultaneously to let the audience in on the joke yet be utterly seduced (if not enslaved) by this material woman. We may not have realized it at the time, but for Eartha life was a grand party, and each of us was a privileged guest, privileged to be on her inclusive guest list.



To put it plainly, Eartha Kitt was underrated, and it's somewhat sad that for those who still remember her, her career is essentially reduced to two representative but nonetheless inadequate moments: her recording of "Santa Baby" and her role as The Catwoman in the '60s television series (she alone surpassed all of the Tim Burton big screen versions).



She was smallish, an overcompensating overachiever, and musically limited, but thanks to a prodigious intellect, an acute and lightning-fast mind, and a sense of "theatrically" perhaps rivaled only by Welles, she managed to "play big"--regardless of the venue or the time. In fact, in her last interview--an hour-long spot for PBS telecast in late September of 2009 (she died Dec. 25)--she was as sharp mentally, as animated physically, as alive spiritually, and as sexy and full of play as she must have been 60 years earlier. More than a colossal femme fatale, she was the ultimate impersonation of the type (arguably created by men), playing it so far "over the top" that it was "performance art" at its best.



There's no way to capture such achievement on a recording. The weakness of this collection is that it some of the in-person recordings and patter of "At the Plaza"; the strength of the collection is that it omits "Here's to Life," a song that Eartha insisted on using as a closer in her cabaret act during the last 15 years or so. (The sentiments are understandable, but the song had already received sublime readings from Shirley Horn and Joe Williams, making Eartha seem like a poor "copycat." Moreover, the lyric seemed too "sincere" to fit the playfulness, candor, and irreverence that were so integral to the Kitt persona. With three autobiographies to her credit, this final testament was inevitably anticlimactic if not gratuitous.) Better our heroic, incorrigible octogenarian had ended her act with "I Want to Be Evil." We would have understood, no doubt better than she, that no more appropriate and satisfying "message" could have been issued, demonstrating to the fullest what she hoped to deliver with the lyrics of "Here's to Life."



Buy the CD, but try to catch that last interview on PBS."