Her Funniest Outing in the Recording Studio - Hilarious!
James Morris | Jackson Heights, NY United States | 12/26/2009
(5 out of 5 stars)
"First off, I must correct a glaring error in this entry before I write a detailed review of The Fabulous Mae West. The Amazon product description for this CD is so totally off the mark it's not even funny. This is NOT one of Mae West's Rock & Roll albums. There is only one song here that could even loosely be termed "Rock & Roll", and that's "My Daddy Rocks Me (With a Steady Roll)". The rest of the album are numbers from her 1950's Latin Quarter and Las Vegas "Muscleman" act, in which she sang many of the songs long associated with her career to a group of scantily-clad muscle jocks dressed in loincloths. Miss West did record a number of Rock & Roll albums in the 1960's - Way Out West (1964), The Naked Ape (1967 - re-released as Great Balls of Fire) and her curiously blues-infused Christmas album, in which she covered mostly songs that had been recorded by Elvis Presley.
That is neither here nor there. The Fabulous Mae West was Miss West's first full-length LP, recorded for Decca Records in September 1955. At the time of this recording, she was enjoying a new but short-lived resurgence as a night-club entertainer and had just reached her sixty-second birthday. The Fabulous Mae West, recorded with a full cast of male vocal accompanists, was quite arguably her funniest moments in front of a microphone, and because I believe I have acquired all of her recordings, I can make this statement with some authority.
I discovered this album in its first re-release on vinyl in 1970, which had a slightly different cover and liner notes than the original issue. At the time, I was 17 and quite a fan, and I practically wore my copy of the album out, playing it hundreds of times in the ensuing years. I acquired a pristine copy of the original LP some years later, just in time for the technology allowing me to preserve it for all time on a digital transfer. And now, the album has been remastered, with the original liner notes and cover photos restored.
The album opens with a novelty song written especially for her nightclub act, Love Is the Greatest Thing, which allows her to strut her stuff and get off several funny lines, setting the tone for the rest of the album. In tackling several standards (I'm in the Mood For Love, All of Me and If I Could Be With You One Hour Tonight) she pushes her stamp of ribald humor and double-entendre to the max, showing off her ability to be funny, flirtatious and suggestive, without ever being vulgar, and the results are classic West and undeniably funny.
Miss West also reprises a few of the best-known songs from her heyday, They Call Me Sister Honky-Tonk (from her 1933 film, I'm No Angel), Frankie and Johnny (which she immortalized in her stage play, Diamond Lil, and later in her first starring vehicle on film, She Done Him Wrong) and the extremely suggestive A Guy What Takes His Time, which was so sensual, the censors would not allow her to sing more than one verse in She Done Him Wrong. Here, of course, she does the whole number. In the hands of almost any other singer, the lyrics would sound almost pornographic, yet there is something about Miss West's delivery that is sultry yet entertaining, never crossing the border between suggestive and filthy. Few entertainers could handle double-entendre as deftly as she did, and this recording pinpoints exactly what marked her as an American original, so outrageous and yet so popular, even as the censors of the day tried in vain to squelch her good-natured, raw delivery. She also sings the semi-standard love ballad, I Want You, I Need You, which she sang to Cary Grant in I'm No Angel. In each of these numbers, she clowns around and trades one-liners with her musclemen, and presents the listener with a very good idea of what made her famous. Of course, although she was trained to sing for vaudeville, and therefore always on key, no one could claim that Mae West was a great vocalist. In fact, there are a few moments on the album (mostly during the spoken portions) where she very much sounds her age, but the delivery is always perfect, the effects are very funny, and she is still very much in control of the persona that made her a legend.
Also quite hilarious in its suggestiveness is the afore-mentioned, My Daddy Rocks Me (With a Steady Roll). Every single line of this "Rock Around the Clock" clone comes out, well, they didn't censor this lady in the 1930's for nothing.
Which brings us to the two funniest tracks in the session. In the two Latin songs, Havana For A Night and Pecado (Sin) she trades quips with a male vocalist, and these two songs contain the funniest and most suggestive double-entendres on the album. The male soloist is Tito Coral, and I've often wondered if this is the same Tito Coral who played Taho the Indian in her 1935 comedy, Goin' To Town. Anyway, Mr. Coral sings the romantic verse to Havana For A Night, and for each line he delivers, she speaks a raunchy, hilarious reply in the inimitable manner of her most suggestive delivery. For the song Pecado, Mr. Coral warbles in Spanish, while Miss West speaks her replies in English; the results are ever funnier, and when she drawls, "Si es pecado, si que pecando - Oh, what am I saying?" we learn that she can sound even more suggestive in Spanish! By the way, "Si es pecado, si que pecando" translates roughly as, "If this is sin, it's very spicy". These two tracks alone are abundant reason to purchase this CD, and if you are a fan of the lady, I can assure you that you will be delighted.
Highly recommended.
"
Mae west
Ronald D. Largent | Fort Worth, Texas | 12/25/2007
(5 out of 5 stars)
"This lady was a truly orginal. This is one of her best collections of songs. They are classics and as usual Ms.West allways take center stage and stells the show. Would recomment to anywone who likes timeles classics."
Mae the one and only
George Torode | 07/20/2007
(5 out of 5 stars)
"well, In 1955 I was 17 yrs. old. Not old enough, to go to the Latin Quarter, in New York. So, the next best thing was buy the LP, for about $4.00. I sold most of my records, and this was one of them. Amazom made my day.
The CD is just, as good as the LP was.
Thank you,
George.
q"
Track Listings (12) - Disc #1