The beginning of a fruitful collaboration with RCA Victor that went on for two decades and gave British singer a really wide exposure - she had released around 19 albums with them and even won a Grammy as the only British Jazz singer to do so.
The main difference between now and her previous work was in the repertoire - like so many of singers raised on jazz as a popular music, Cleo Laine had to adopt the times and embrace current songs of the day. For the majority of her peers this was problem - people like Sarah Vaughan, Carmen McRae or Mel Tormé bravely gave it a try - to be honest it is a bit of stretch to go from American Songbook to Donovan but Laine was a good sport. I am not completely sure what this strategy really meant, because crossover albums like these usually just annoy both sides - its neither pop nor jazz, though production, arrangements and performance are very polished. Perhaps the most interesting number here is funky update on 1966. original "Life Is A Wheel". If you look closely, it was quite accepted practice at the time that singers often recorded hits already known by other artists, where later somehow it became rule to perform originals. So you would have Helen Reddy, Shirley Bassey and Johnny Mathis singing songs associated with Barbra Streisand, curious mixture of styles and genres connected by radio friendly sheen but not exactly exciting. My CD reissue has a bonus track "A Time For Farewell" recorded much later with flute virtuoso James Galway.
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