Great post-Red Bird EG
09/11/1999
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Well, first of all...you have to agree, as I do, that Ellie (slash Jeff) was truly one of the all-time great songwriters. I'm not gonna trot out the list of amazing songs she wrote...I figure if you've gotten this far, you know who she is. Lennon-McCartney level, no doubt.That having been said, this album's a little bit of a letdown. I was hoping for another "You Don't Know" (see "The Red Bird Story") or two, but this isn't *that* good. So it's not nirvana...it IS pretty amazing stuff. The originals, anyway...her decision to do "Niki Hoeky" is pretty redoubtable. I mean, why dabble in Pat and Lolly Vegas when you can write as well as she does? Her own songs--"Baby Baby Baby", "Goodnight", and esp. "I'll Never Need More Than This", a great lost Spector/Greenwich/Barry song, are transcendant tunes. The production, however, is what keeps me from giving it 5 stars...it's (not-so) classic late-60's style, with a farty bass that never fails to annoy. But I hardly notice it, now that I've played it a few hundred times...Ellie's great songsmithery triumphs in the end. If you love Ellie, you need this one."
+1/2 -- Inconsistent but with some high points
hyperbolium | Earth, USA | 12/13/2003
(3 out of 5 stars)
"Like many great songwriters, Greenwich obviously longed to also be the star in the spotlight. Her 1960s song catalog, penned with Jeff Barry, is easily in the same league as other Brill Building legends like Neil Diamond, Gerry Goffin & Carole King, Neil Sedaka, and West Coast counterparts like Boyce & Hart. Greenwich's own recordings, however, turn up fewer such gems - they're good, many very good, but few match the brilliance of the underlying songs.This Australian 2-fer combines a pair of albums, along with a 1970 single and an early bonus track. The first 10 tracks comprise Greenwich's 1968 LP "Composes, Produces & Sings." This is an album caught between the bubblegum of her Brill Building/Red Bird work and then-contemporary soul sounds. The result is some very fine sunshine pop, such as the transcendent "Goodnight Goodnight," along with tunes seasoned lightly by Southern funk. "Niki Hoeky" (sung the previous year by Bobbie Gentry, and the same year by Aretha Franklin) sounds like something Greenwich would have written for The Dixie Cups, and a cover of The Shades' of Blue "Oh How Happy" fits Greenwich nicely. Even better is the Bob Crewe produced call-and-response revival of the jump hit "I Want You to Be My Baby."Tracks 11 and 12 collect both sides of a 1970 single in AM radio-ready mono. Both feature horn arrangements, with "I Don't Want to Be Left Outside" more dramatic than the B-side cover of the Marvin Gaye hit "Ain't That Peculiar." Tracks 13 through 24 represent Greenwich's second solo LP, "Let It Be Written, Let It Be Sung," recorded for Verve in 1973. Two years past the breakthrough of Carole King's "Tapestry," Greenwich finds herself weighed down with pedestrian mid-70s productions. This is especially troublesome when applied to the stellar catalog of her 1960s titles she chose to cover. The phased guitars, doubled vocals, muted trumpets, and soon-to-be-disco strings dissipate the youthfulness and naïveté that made these songs so brilliant in the first place.The Cabaret-styled waltz-time "Be My Baby" is novel, but not in a way that will make you forget The Ronettes. The album's one true bright spot is a luscious take of "Goodnight Baby" segued into a Memphis-meets-Nashville version of "Baby I Love You." The searching French horn may be a bit over-the-top, but still, this megamix of Barry & Greenwich is a delight.The CD closes with a wonderfully corny slice of 1962, "Big Honky Baby." It's a fine reminder of the great work Greenwich did as a vocalist with the Raindrops, and a nice root on which to hang these later chapters.3-1/2 stars, if allowed fractional ratings."
Classic.
BRAD ALLEN | Calgary,Alberta,Canada | 11/26/1999
(5 out of 5 stars)
"You would be nuts to turn this CD down.'Nuff said"
Track Listings (25) - Disc #1