Search - Julie London :: Calender Girl / Your Number

Superb combo of two of Miss London's finest albums

Andrew Hampp | Tiffin, OH USA | 06/05/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I was first turned on to Julie London's amazingly sultry voice through the Ultra Lounge collection, then later when I bought a three -CD box set on a whim that, although does a great job of highlighting her prolific career, skips many of her greatest performances, many of them captured on this must-have disc for any fan of Julie's or for good old-fashioned standards bathed in strings ("Your Number Please...") or vamped up or nearly whispered, depending on the song ("Calendar Girl.") The set has many highlights, and the first half, "Calendar Girl," has plenty of outstanding original songs, some of which surpass a few standards. Among my faves are "June in January," "February Brings the Rain," and "November Twilight" from "Calendar," and fantastic Andre Previn-conducted renditions of "It Could Happen to You," "They Can't Take Thay Away From Me," and "Love Is Here to Stay" on "Number," although really the whole thing is top-notch. Many of these songs have been performed hundreds of times by some of the most legendary of artists, but no one could make them as sexy and intimate as Julie does on this disc. It warms up any winter evening but plays just as nicely on a hot summer porch. Perfection!"

Sultry singer at her romantic best

Peter Durward Harris | Leicester England | 12/19/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This coupling of two outstanding albums full of quality love songs is everything that Julie London's fans would expect. The first half of the twofer, the Calendar girl album, has a song for each month of the year, counting a year as thirteen months. The liner notes say that about half the songs are standards. In fact, I only recognized four of the songs as standards, these being June in January, I'll remember April, Sleigh ride in July and September in the rain. I believe the other songs are all originals but if any of them are covers, they are obscure and therefore cannot be described as standards. Nevertheless, I found these songs immensely enjoyable and it is quite likely that some of them would have become standards had they been written ten years earlier. Particularly noteworthy is Warm December, which is not about Christmas but sometimes gets included on Christmas compilations. The second half of the twofer, the Your number please album, is a tribute to various men and contains another excellent selection of love songs. The men are Frank Sinatra (Learning the blues), Johnny Mercer (One for my baby), Four freshmen (It's a blue world), Nat King Cole (When I fall in love), Fred Astaire (They can't take that away from me), Gene Harris (Love is here to stay), Dick Haymes (The more I see you), Bing Crosby (It could happen to you), Mel Torme (A stranger in town), Eddie Cantor (Making whoopee), Bob Hope (Two sleepy people) and Matt Dennis (Angel eyes). Julie's recordings of these songs are every bit as good as you would expect them to be.There are several twofers of Julie's music available as I write this, all of them brilliant. Even so, this is certainly one of the best of them."