Search - Susannah Mccorkle :: Songs of Johnny Mercer

A real gem - don't miss it

Eytan Klausner | Chicagoland area | 06/12/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"While Ella fitzgerald's outstanding songbooks recordings is generally regarded as the first choice (George Gershwin, Irving Berlin, Rodgers and hart, Harold Arlen), it is not so with her Johnny Mercer songbook. This is where Susannah McCorkle's excellent collection enters and revives these lush standards. Don't hesitate with this CD which presents Mercer at his very best and is a consequence of gems. Both the choice of the songs and the preformance are impeccable."

The Courage To Sing The Great Music Yields A Triumph

Daniel J. McGarigle | EL SEGUNDO, CA United States | 06/12/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Susannah McCorkle's courage to sing the great songs of Johnny Mercer was evident when she originally released this album on the now defunct Inner City label. And it is because the songs on this album are among the greatest American popular songs that most singers avoid them. These Johnny Mercer songs have been sung again and again by all the great singers. So any singer takes a great risk in presenting any of these songs. Yet Susannah brings so much intelligence to each song that she makes each and every one stand up in a new light to open new vistas and insights into Mercer's songs. McCorkle uses the strengths, and the weaknesses, of her voice to present views of these songs that stand with the best of our other great singers. For example, when Blossom Dearie sang "I'm Old Fashioned" she predictably gave us that unmistakable Dearie innocence. McCorkle also presents that same innocence, and then she adds a large twinge of experience to paint the picture of a woman who is evolving, and a woman who has the courage to expose that growing for all to see. McCorkle brings that indomitable courage to each of her interpretations of each song, because it is through that courage that each song is given it's own life. Such personal sacrifice for the art of the song is the rarest of all endeavors. From Susannah's courage for the music, each of these songs comes into a new life of it's own."

Another Great Collection

Don A. Frascinella | The City By The Bay, USA | 10/10/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Again, Susannah McCorkle proved her ability to do justice to the works of the great composers and her tribute to Johnny Mercer shine with the best of them.My reviews are always filled with my love and admiration of Susannah and I was broken hearted by her untimely death. But comfort is found in the songs she left us and in what she might have been telling us. I find it ironic that "One for My Baby" is the ast song on this CD and perhaps foretells that this was it. "Anyplace I Hang my Hat is Home" has always been a song for those who were lonely and longing for some sense of being.My other favorites on this were "Blues in the Night", "Fools Rush In" and "I'm Old Fashioned" - songs we have heard many times but Susannah's original and unique interpretations of these songs makes them feel new.Tribute CDs such as this one are wonderful ways to learn about an artist or composer and beome familiar with their work. Susannah's work always inspires me to learn more about a composer and when I compare performances of these great songs, her renditions stand with the best of them."