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Scottie
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Registered:
3/6/2006
From:
Edinburgh, Scotland | posted: 5/7/2006 at 2:07:50 PM ET
I don't have any of Bernadette's vinyl records but have most of her CD's and the thought strikes me that she is one great singer who is 'under-recorded'.
Such a thoroughly amazing voice and so little on record? Apart from the OBC albums there wouldn't be that much out there on CD for BP admirers to get hold off and enjoy.
I adore her few solo albums (in part) but do not think there has been the "definitive" recording that her remarkable voice deserves.
Apart from the Broadway stuff ( The Goodbye Girl is my personal favourite) and the incredible Sondheim cast recordings, the one that really stands out for me is the Rodgers & Hammerstein CD. I'm not a fan of everything R&H did but Bernadette certainly brings out the magic in all their songs on this collection.
The Carnegie Hall CD is wonderful of course but I have to admit that I've been very naughty and have extracted the audio from her performance at The Royal Festival Hall on DVD and put that on my ipod - simply because her vocals turned out to be even more exquisite in London than they were in New York - just my opinion and I may be wrong.
It would be wonderful to have a few more "solo" albums in the next couple of years. I would love to hear her sing some songs by female songwriters like Janis Ian and the like. It would also be fabulous to have a CD of some of those great Sondheim songs that we don't usually expect to hear her sing - not that she hasn't done that already with "Later" etc.
I think the world needs a few more Bernadette Peters recordings and she certainly deserves to be heard more - recorded more.
as Bernadette says....just keep moving on.....
|  Jean
Registered User
Registered:
6/7/2003 | posted: 5/7/2006 at 2:37:37 PM ET
Bernadette had talked about doing a new solo CD:
"Peters says her next album will involve "all those great songs that I grew up listening to." Definitely on the list? " 'Fever,' " Peters says." "
That quote is from Billboard, Sept. 3, 2005. See the link for that interview on this board:
billboard interview
Obviously after Sept. 26 everything changed, I have no idea of where the project is now.
| Karen
Registered User
Registered:
5/3/2002 | posted: 5/7/2006 at 3:06:24 PM ET
Scottie, you are so correct. This is something we've talked about many times before on the board. In fact, my exact words once were "Is Bernadette the most under-recorded major performer of all time?"
She is a perfectionist, and she seems highly unwilling to record a song or perform it in concert unless it has some particular (deep) significance for her. In her recent Lincoln Center concert, when introducing "Shenandoah," she said something like "I have a lot of songs in my head, and this one's been there for a long time...it finally won out!" I think that comment illustrates her general reluctance to take on new material.
And as far as studio recording, my impression is that she's much happier working in front of a live audience than she ever is singing in a studio for a CD or acting on a film set for a movie. The live audience seems to be a crucial element for her.
In short, although I always eagerly look forward to new recordings, I've somewhat given up hope that there are going to be too many more of them.
| Jean
Registered User
Registered:
6/7/2003 | posted: 5/7/2006 at 3:11:39 PM ET
I posted this a while ago, but it's buried so I thought I'd unearth it rather than just link:
""Here's what Bernadette had to say about the state of the recording business (from the Rocky Mountain News, April 5, 1997, written by Marilyn Beck):
"The CD 'Sondheim, Etc.: Bernadette Peters Live at Carnegie Hall' has taken off
like gangbusters - and the Tony-winning actress-singer couldn't be more delighted or relieved about it.
''It's only been out two weeks and the stores are already restocking,'' she
reports. ''The Virgin megastore in New York sold out in the first week. You do your best and see what happens. I feel very blessed.''
Peters' first concert CD, which will benefit the Gay Men's Health Crisis, comes in the wake of her 'I'll Be Your Baby Tonight' recording of last summer. Before that, it had been 14 years since the last recording gig.
''The recording industry was changing. Record companies wanted to do things that sold to kids,'' she says. ''They asked me to do disco and I didn't want to do disco, or they wanted me to do '40s or '50s stuff. I didn't want to do something just because it fit into someone's niche of what they expected of me. Then, in
the late '80s, someone from Angel / EMI saw me singing at a benefit and approached me about making an album - the kind of album I wanted to do. We started a recording, the producer left, I went off to do a Broadway show, and it ended up taking a long time to get going. But it was worth the wait.'' ""
| Karen
Registered User
Registered:
5/3/2002 | posted: 5/7/2006 at 3:22:43 PM ET
True, there are other factors involved, relating to the ultra-commercial marketing practices of the recording industry. Still and all, the fact remains that other musical theater performers and traditional pop singers are willing and able to record a great deal more than Bernadette does. It can be done (if one really wants to do it). That's why I tend to think it's more a personal choice of hers not to.
| Jean
Registered User
Registered:
6/7/2003 | posted: 5/7/2006 at 3:36:24 PM ET
Karen, this isn't in reply to you, it's just another interview with her, and the recording issue came up:
"PBOL: You have such a large following and so many fans--why do you think it's been so long between solo albums?
BP: Music went through so many changes right after my last solo album. Everything went into disco and then the Madonna phase I don't
know what you'd call it young people's music and then it got where anything goes, which is great. It got to the point where you can do anything. People would come to me with theme albums all twenties songs or all forties songs and that didn't interest me. It has to
come from a vision, a real creative place because otherwise you're trying to fit into a theme rather than who you are.
PBOL: How did you decide on the first track? [refers to the first track of "I'll Be Your Baby Tonight"]I thought that was a really interesting way to start.
BP: I always thought that would be so beautiful a great way to open the album and close the album. I've always loved albums that have a beginning, a middle and an end. And if you think about it, you're going to put it on, and you're going to listen to it. I don't like
things that are haphazard.I like it to have. . . you start off and you go."
from playbill.com, Diva Talk, Sept. 6, 1996
writer and interviewer Andrew Gans
| Karen
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Registered:
5/3/2002 | posted: 5/7/2006 at 3:46:02 PM ET
Great quotation, Jean. Thanks for that.
I do think it expresses how seriously Bernadette takes her albums and how much they have to embody a "personal vision." You're not exactly going to be churning them out when you have those kinds of very ambitious and lofty standards.
| Scottie
Registered User
Registered:
3/6/2006
From:
Edinburgh, Scotland | posted: 5/7/2006 at 4:19:22 PM ET
Karen, you are probably right about her reasons for not committing more to recordings - I can't help but think it's rather short-sighted of her not to though ... Thank you, Jean, you are amazing - like a human search engine  So many questions answered but still the point remains that she is so very under-recorded and she so deserves not to be. There are great songs out there and we would love to hear her sing them. Time moves on quickly and the record business is, in the main, youth orientated and cares only about sales and returns so... if you have a record company that is willing to put out your records - don't delay!
It's interesting to follow Jean's link and read what was written about Faithless Love since that song really stands out from the "concert" set. It stands so purely apart from the Sondheim etc. material and that's exactly what I meant when I wrote about wanting to hear her sing other material like "Janis Ian" songs. And yet I could think of so many other types of music that she would be so perfect for - not least some light opera. Amazing singer! I would love so much to discuss her singing and her voice more. If others are like-minded and this is not the place for it then please PM me....
as Bernadette says....just keep moving on.....
| Karen
Registered User
Registered:
5/3/2002 | posted: 5/7/2006 at 4:29:29 PM ET
Not the place for it? What the heck! There's no better place for it in the world. No PMs please. Post it here for us all to enjoy.
| Karen
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Registered:
5/3/2002 | posted: 5/7/2006 at 5:24:21 PM ET
Another thought: You know, I bet Bernadette tries out a very wide variety of songs privately that she ultimately ends up rejecting for public performance for any number of reasons. Maybe they don't fit in technically with what she thinks her voice does best, or they don't have enough significance lyrically for her to "connect" [important word] with, or they don't create quite the necessary mood for whatever context she's seeking to fill within a concert or recording. If my guess is right, it would be really interesting to see (and hear) a list of her "rejects."
| Jean
Registered User
Registered:
6/7/2003 | posted: 5/7/2006 at 5:25:22 PM ET
OFF TOPIC TO SCOTTIE:
thanks, Scottie, my last job title before I retired was Social Insurance Research Specialist--I know it sounds like nonsense, but, in fact, I made a nice living doing research. And, without this heavenly invention called the Internet.
I'm preparing to go on vacation, so posts will be few and far between for awhile.
J
| Scottie
Registered User
Registered:
3/6/2006
From:
Edinburgh, Scotland | posted: 5/8/2006 at 10:23:12 AM ET
quote:
Another thought: You know, I bet Bernadette tries out a very wide variety of songs privately that she ultimately ends up rejecting for public performance for any number of reasons. Maybe they don't fit in technically with what she thinks her voice does best, or they don't have enough significance lyrically for her to "connect" [important word] with,"
I take on board that word "connect" and know how important it is to Bernadette and realise it possibly explains her magical interpretation skills ... but there are some songs that I would just love to hear Bernadette sing and probably know that she won't ever sing them in concert but they sure would be great to have on record.
I probably feel this way because I can go to my own home music library and take a CD by another favourite performer and know that there are lots more of their CD recordings to choose from. With Bernadette - it's not that easy ...simply because she hasn't recorded that much. She has many strings to her bow - perhaps that's the reason for the sparse recording output.
From time to time I initiate searches on the web and come across some Bernadette sound files. Recently I found a BP version of "One Singular Sensation" - she sounds very young but it is great to have nevertheless. Then there is the excitement of finding something "new" on Limewire - only to download it and find some squeaky voiced madam warbling away - defintely not Bernadette!
Let's hope that the recently added Sondheim song and Fever etc. make it on to disc at some point in the future.
as Bernadette says....just keep moving on.....
| Karen
Registered User
Registered:
5/3/2002 | posted: 5/8/2006 at 10:53:00 AM ET
Yeah, her version of "One" is really enjoyable. It's from Bing Crosby's 1976 Christmas special.
|  leebee
Registered User
Registered:
1/19/2004
Fav. BP Song: Being Alive
Fav. BP Show: Sunday In The Park With George
| posted: 5/8/2006 at 3:29:26 PM ET
Scottie, I have done the very same thing with the London concert DVD. As much as I love the Carnegie hall CDs, some of the London versions of the very same songs just seem better to my ears. And who can resist the "Dear Mum" intro to Unexpected Song?!?
And then, when I saw her last fall, I thought she sounded even better than that. Some songs, especially songs as emotionally complex as BP's repetoire, just sound better after they have been "lived in" for awhile. So there is likely an even better BP recording just waiting to be made.
| Scottie
Registered User
Registered:
3/6/2006
From:
Edinburgh, Scotland | posted: 5/8/2006 at 5:23:20 PM ET
Such a shame that one of these newer concerts hasn't been committed to record. Yes, I'm absolutely certain that with an artist of BP's standing the music and lyrics mean so much more every time she performs them.
It would be so wonderful to have a new concert recording. From a record company's point of view though I suppose there are no significant sales to be gained in "rehashing" the same material from a live performance. Having said that - I'm sure I'm not the only one here who would rush out and buy a double CD set of Bernadette just for ONE new song!
The best we can hope for is a new DVD of a concert performance. Perhaps if she did a big, world famous venue like Carnegie Hall or The Royal Albert Hall here in London we might get our wish?
Yes, the "Dear Mum" intro is delightful on the London DVD. I like the Hey! Mr Producer one even more - where she says "he sells software and must travel ...e...l". So funny.
as Bernadette says....just keep moving on.....
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