"A truly lovely recording! I bought this recording on the strength of having bought JA SINGS. And this is equally as fine as the other. Mind you, it's not SOUND OF MUSIC, STAR! or even VICTOR/VICTORIA, but it does have a hint of DARLING LILI about it. My favourite number, and there are many on there, is PEDRO THE FISHERMAN, a wonderful rendition from an early Andrews!!"
Julie at 22: That Voice
Josh Thomas | West Lafayette, IN, USA | 05/12/2009
(5 out of 5 stars)
"I never expected to see this album again, after first hearing it decades ago. Julie Andrews at 22, with all these lovely old ditties!
There isn't much hint here of the movie star she finally became, but to people like me who love every phase of her career, this CD's a gem, remastered, sounding great, imported from Japan. Julie the English girl! Americans were Rocking Around the Clock while she was still losing her virginal heart at the Canterbury Fair. The reissue is definitely a time warp, but if you're a Julie fan, buy it anyway - because a central aspect of her appeal has always been her Englishness, and that's what this album spotlights.
She was once named the best female speaker of the English language. This might have ticked off the Queen, but Her Majesticalness wasn't doing Lerner and Loewe 8 times a week.
Here we have 12 favorite songs from prewar Britain, even Victorian Britain, sung fresh and new to remind you of those gentler, more civilized times in a simpler world.
Is this great stuff? Maybe not, though it's charming and sweet. The arrangements by Irwin Kostal hold up well and the sound is a lot better than those scratchy old LPs gathering dust.
I bought this CD for one song above others, though it's surprising how many I remembered from a few hearings of the original issue; I wanted Julie at 22 singing "London Pride." It just conveys something essential to English people, a simple little song about the sights and sounds on the city streets and a flower that grows every spring. She featured it on her U.S. concert tour in the late '80s, along with a bit of video of her screeching above the clouds in Sopranoland at the age of 12. The song couldn't possibly be a crowd-pleaser in Ohio but she sang it anyway - as simple and sincere as she renders it here.
If you like this woman, if she's ever made you glad you were alive, then come and meet her when she was only 22, before she became the biggest star on the planet. Hear her when she was still just a girl. I'd be very surprised if you don't fall in love all over again for the Lass with the Delicate Air.
(Then you can watch "SOB" and see her boobies.)"
Wonderful Julie Andrews recording from the 1950s
Rad63 | Toledo, OH United States | 03/13/2006
(5 out of 5 stars)
"I purchased the LP version in the fifies. I really enjoyed the recording, both the song selection and voice. I copied my LP to MP3 to transfer into my ipod but after all the years and replaying, the sound had deteriorated. I hope that a CD reprint becomes available so that I and others can fully enjoy this beautiful recording."
Julie's debut solo album
Byron Kolln | the corner where Broadway meets Hollywood | 03/03/2010
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Recorded during her hectic schedule of starring as Eliza in the Broadway production of "My Fair Lady", THE LASS WITH THE DELICATE AIR was in fact Julie Andrews' first full-length solo album for the RCA label, a collection of traditional English ballads and folk songs.
In her recent autobiography ("Home"), Julie shared her rather philosophical memories of doing the album, stating--quite bluntly--that "RCA hoped I would choose pieces that were more popular, [but] I was very keen to record these songs, since I had an instinct that there would come a day when these sweet minor classics would not be as easy for me to sing".
Indeed, as early as 1957, the grind of delivering eight performances a week in the demanding "My Fair Lady" was playing havoc with Andrews' voice--her upper register in particular. Eventually her voice "matured" and re-shaped itself into the supple, warm soprano you hear in subsequent movies like "The Sound of Music" and "Darling Lili".
This reissue from the Flare label includes the complete LASS WITH THE DELICATE AIR programme (in stereo). Flare have subsequently re-released the mono version of this album as Julie Andrews Sings for You which also includes some rare live recordings featuring Andrews on the Dinah Shore Chevy Show.
Track Listings (12) - Disc #1
