Search - Susannah Mccorkle :: Beginning 1975

Suzannah's early demos will please her fans

Peter Durward Harris | Leicester England | 09/06/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The 22 songs here were recorded in London (Susannah was based in Europe at the time) in one day, over a period of three hours or so, and were intended as demos only. The men who helped produce these recordings decided to listen to them a few weeks after her suicide, not with any intention of releasing them, but simply as part of their own way of remembering the good times they had. Even to do that, it was necessary to transfer them from reel-to-reel tape to CD. Eventually, it was decided to make them available to the public, because (in their opinion) these demos were good enough. Before releasing them publicly, they could have done all sorts of things - remixed them in some way - but they didn't.You get to hear Susannah singing songs from the Great American Songbook, backed by (it seems) just a piano. The extensive liner notes don't give any details of the session apart from it's length, but all I hear is Susannah's lovely voice and a piano. That's fine by me - it works well, as it also did for Toni Tennille on her recent Incurably romantic album of songs from the thirties and forties, which I've also reviewed.Although these songs are typical of the material that she would later record commercially, very few of these particular songs were ever re-recorded by Susannah. The liner notes don't say which two or three songs were re-recorded, nor have I checked, but it will be interesting to identify and compare them. I was surprised at just how good these recordings are, especially as they were never intended for release. In it's way, this is as good as any of her commercial recordings. It's different, but still very enjoyable - and still recognisable. There will never be another Susannah."