Search - J.D. Cash :: Summer Place

Wow!!! Great listening and great shagging

Charles Koeppen | New York | 05/14/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"In the Carolina's there's a popular swing dance called the shag that has not only provided a social pastime for many individuals but has also created a market for what shaggers know as "beach music". In general, most artists that recorded what have become beach music classics didn't intentionally record them knowing that the songs would eventually be labeled as beach music and often recorded many other songs that weren't shaggable. This isn't true for J.D. Cash. Being a modern recording artist and performer well-known by shaggers, he knew he was recording a beach music CD. But wait, there's more! Not only is almost every song on this CD great shagging music, this CD offers fresh interpretations of timeless classics sensitively performed by a singer with an obviously highly trained voice. A beautiful vibrato with great breath control and gobs of individuality backed by some very fine musicians with some brilliant arrangements. OK, is this CD for you? If your looking for Theme From a Summer Place ala Percy Faith with a tripleting piano and strings, maybe not. Like I said, J.D. Cash has some very unique and fresh interpretations here. "Theme From a Summer Place" has an almost a disco-ish sound to it that goes well with the lyrics and fits J.D. Cash's voice and style perfectly. For "What a Difference a Day Makes", forget Dinah Washington's torch-song version or Esther Phillips disco version. Think somewhere in between. It's slightly disco-ish, remember this is dance music, but not all out Studio 54 disco. J.D. Cash's voice just floats over this one. And how about Tony Hatch's "Call Me"? It has just enough of a bossa nova influence to remind the listener of the original, and is another fine complement to J.D. Cash's voice. And "Shangri-la". This is the one that the shaggers loved most when the CD was released. Forget all the versions you've heard by the vocal groups with the fine harmonies, forget all the Vegas-style renditions you've heard of this classic, J.D. Cash brings a senstivity to this song that transports the listener to a place of beauty that can only be imagined. Dance music very rarely gets this good for listening. This is one CD that deserves more attention from the general public now that the newness has worn off among dancers."