Search - Vikki Carr :: The Best of Vikki Carr

A nice collection

Bruce R. Gilson | Wheaton, MD United States | 10/27/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I generally confine my interests in music to the late 1940s and early 1950s, while Vikki Carr recorded primarily in the late 1960s (this CD contains recordings made from 1966 to 1970). But she is something of an anomaly. Her style is much more typical of a 1950s pop singer, and since her voice is pleasant, I enjoy listening to her.



Carr is anomalous in another way; though she is a Mexican-American (with a long Spanish real name; "Vikki Carr" is a stage name!) there is absolutely no trace of Latin in the music she is famous for. Her biggest hits ("It Must Be Him" and "With Pen in Hand") are typical popular songs that could be considered mainstream pop in the 1950s (though "With Pen in Hand" has a bit of country/western flavor) and in general nothing about Vikki Carr marks her as different from the typical '50s pop singers. So, despite the '60s dates of the songs, this is really a '50s type of music.



The CD includes her biggest hits, but most of the songs on it are covers of older songs (an occasional one even older than the '40s, but mostly '40s and '50s) done in a nice style that does no violence to them, unlike a number of '60s revivals of older songs I've heard.



If the 1960s were all like the Sandpipers, the Vogues, and Vikki Carr, I'd like more 1960s music. But that's not the case, so my music collection will never be very strong on '60s. But this CD certainly belongs in my collection. I like it."

Vikki At Her Best!

Darlene | NC USA | 01/04/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I purchased this CD to get just one song - 'If You Love Me, Really Love Me', the English version of 'Hymne a L'amour'. When I played the CD, I realized that I had almost forgotten what a wonderful singer Vikki Carr is. This CD has several of her hits, including 'With Pen in Hand' and 'It Must Be Him'.



I was delighted with her renditions of 'I Only Have Eyes for You', 'Baby Face', 'Tears on My Pillow', 'Unforgettable', and I Can't Take My Eyes Off You'.



I used to have several Vikki Carr 8-tracks and albums and loved them all. I'm glad to have found this CD to add to my collection."

Best Bet If You're Looking For Her Hit Singles

Darlene | 07/30/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"If you are seeking the hit singles of Vikki Carr this is likely your best bet - if you can find a copy. It seems that most of the EMI Legendary Masters Series are currently out of circulation [a Bobby Vee compilation is another example], and one can only hope this is a temporary thing.



Since Amazon does not yet list the contents I have provided them here for your information: 1] He's A Rebel; 2] I Got My Eye On You; 3] San Francisco; 4] Look Again (Theme From Irma La Douce; 5] There Goes My Heart; 6] Unforgettable; 7] Theme From Peyton Place (For Those Who Are Young); 8] The Silencers (From the Columbia Pictures film The Silencers); 9] Santiago (From The Columbia Pictures Film The Silencers); 10] Can I Trust You? (lo Ti Daro Di Piu); 11] My Heart Reminds Me (And That Reminds Me); 12] Nowhere Man; 13] So Nice (Summer Samba); 14] It Must Be Him; 15] (Walk In The) Sunshine; 16] A Bit Of Love; 17] Can't Take My Eyes Off You; 18] The Lesson; 19] For Once In My Life; 20] She'll Be There; 21] Your Heart Is Free Just Like The Wind; 22] Don't Break My Pretty Balloon; 23] With Pen In Hand; 24] Eternity



Vikki, who was a regular performer on the 1962 Ray Anthony TV variety show, along with Lisa Marne, Kellie Greene, and The Bookends, was signed to a Liberty contract that year and, almost from the start, it appears they didn't quite know which type of song she should sing. R&R was given a brief experiment with her first single, a cover of The Crystals' hit He's A Rebel. That went nowhere as did San Francisco in 1963, a mellow variation on the old rouser which is, actually, quite nicely done [as is her ballad treatment of the Lennon-McCartney tune Nowhere Man]. The flip of that was Look Again (Love Theme From Irma La Douce).



Both 1964 and 1965 also failed to produce the much sought-after hit single, with two notable failures being the old Joni James hit There Goes My Heart b/w Theme From Peyton Place (For Those Who Are Young), and the Nat "King" Cole smash Unforgettable, and so the company excecutives decided to push her more as an album artist.



But they did not give up totally on singles, although the first few in early 1966 fared no better than the previous ones - The Silencers b/w Santiago and Can I Trust You? And when she did finally score with one it seems as though she was destined solely for the Easy Listening (Adult Contemporary - AC) charts. The breakthrough of sorts was another golden oldie, My Heart Reminds Me (And That Reminds Me) which had been a hit in the 1950s for Kay Starr and Della Reese. Vikki's went to # 31 AC in September 1966.



Later that fall she had a # 32 AC with So Nice (Summer Samba), losing out on the Billboard Hot 100 to Walter Wanderley, and early in 1967 she had a double-sided AC hit with Now I Know The Feeling [# 28] b/w Until Today [# 39], the latter from the Broadway musical A Joyful Noise. Neither is included here, but her next hit is, and this was the big break they had been looking for since 1962.



A re-working of the B-side to So Nice, and a variation on the Gilbert Bécaud French song Seul Sur Son Etoile, It Must Be Him shot to # 1 AC and # 3 Hot 100 in late September, followed early in January 1968 with The Lesson, also a # 1 AC and a # 34 Hot 100.



With her next four releases, however, it was back to Hot 100 oblivion - or almost so. Both sides of She'll Be There/Your Heart Is Free Just Like The Wind [from the French song Le vent et la jeunesse] were hits, the A-side reaching # 13 AC but just # 99 Hot 100, and the flip # 32 AC but only # 91 Hot 100 in April/May 1968, while Don't Break My Pretty Balloon topped out at # 7 AC in July and "bubbled under" on the Hot 100 at # 114. That Octobet A Dissatisfied Man made only the AC charts [# 18], and that too is omitted here.



In the spring of 1969 she took the Bobby Goldsboro tune, With Pen In Hand, to # 6 AC/# 36 Hot 100 b/w Can't Take My Eyes Off You, failed completely with For Once In My Life, and then hit # 5 AC/# 79 Hot 100 in November with Eternity, whose opening bars borrow from Mozart's 40th Symphony. Her last Liberty hit then came in September 1970 when she took the Tammy Wynette 1969 # 1 Country hit, Singing My Song, to # 30 AC. That is another omission from this set.



A move to Columbia in 1971 did not improve her Hot 100 results with just five hit singles to 1974, only one of which - I'll Be Home - made the lower regions of the Hot 100 at # 96, but again did well on the AC charts, reaching # 7 in the spring of 1971. Later that summer she had a # 28 AC with Six Weeks Every Summer (Christmas Every Other Year), and at the end of the year I'd Do It All Again topped out at # 39 AC. Her one hit in 1972 was a cover of the Miss Toni Fisher hit, The Big Hurt, which made it to # 31 AC, and her last hit came in late 1974/early 1975 when Wind Me Up settled at # 45 AC.



These results are, in retrospect, strange because Florencia Martinez Cardona [her birth name on July 19, 1941] certainly had a powerful, resonant voice which puts one in mind of Jane Morgan [who also used re-worked French songs to propel her to stardom] and Shirley Bassey.



The sound reproduction is excellent, you get three full pages of liner notes by Joseph F. Laredo, a few nice shots of Vikki, including album cover reproductions, a full Liberty/United Artists discography covering her singles, EPs, and LPs, and full details on the contents. I deducted one star for the omission of those hit singles mentioned in favour of tracks 1 to 10 [2 was previously unreleased], 12, 15, 16 and 19 which were not hits. Even so, this is miles ahead of that Curb release."