Forget The Beehive
Stephanie DePue | Carolina Beach, NC USA | 12/06/2007
(3 out of 5 stars)
""The Platinum Collection," reaches these shores. As performed by London-born Mari Wilson, who made a big thing, in the British 1980's, of retro 1960's girly music and looks-- think Dusty Springfield, Motown's stable of female stars -- it's full of driving, danceable music.
Included are her first British hit, "Just What I Always Wanted," and "Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps," the Latin-tinged theme from the popular British Broadcasting Corporation's television show, Coupling - The Complete Seasons 1-4. Also here is "Dance with a Stranger," theme music from the film of the same name, Dance with a Stranger; that starred Miranda Richardson and Rupert Everett. And "Beat The Beat," another of her British hits: when British rock star Bryan Ferry heard it on the radio, he is supposed to have called it "the strangest thing I'd heard in five years." This album also apparently includes all of her 1983 album "Showpeople:" that's where I come in, as I bought it for Wilson's signature; a torchy, "plaintive," as she calls it, take of "Cry Me A River," on which the American singer Julie London first had the hit. This song, you may recall, is the theme of the John Hannah tv serial, McCallum: The Complete Series.
Our cousins across the pond became acquainted with Wilson as a devotee of the kitsch of her chosen era, gotten up in a towering beehive hairdo, sporting formal evening wear -- and gloves-- and a mink stole. An appreciation of this costume is not necessary to an appreciation of the album's outstanding songs."
Ab Fab Beehived Brit
Mike B. | 04/22/2008
(5 out of 5 stars)
"In 1983 Mari Wilson released her excellent album "Showpeople". It was an oddity, to say the least. She had a beehive hairdo and dressed like a 1960's prom queen in full formal wear - elbow length white gloves, mink stole - the works.
This compilation features rare tracks, early singles (including all her hits), and the entire "Showpeople" album scattered throughout it. It also has the same cover photo. It's hard to say if this look helped or hurt her. She looked as kitsch and campy as the girls in the B-52's, but her music was serious. She toured the U.S. and Europe with a choreographed 12-piece "revue" featuring her band the Wilsations and backing vocalists the Marines and the Marionettes. They were similarly attired. The men wore black turtlenecks with white dinner jackets, and the whole show was like something you would've seen in Vegas or at New York's Latin Quarter.
This extravagant throwback to earlier times got her a lot of write-ups, particularly in her native Britain - where she scored a string of hits. It seemed as though she had sprung out of thin air, but her act was the brainchild of music business entrepreneur/svengali Tot Taylor - who wrote all but two songs on the album (under the alias Teddy Johns). He issued Mari's records on his own Compact label in England, and licensed them to other labels for outside territories. He himself recorded as Tot Taylor and His Orchestra.
Wilson is sometimes called a "soul queen", but that's not entirely accurate. These songs are breezy dance pop, and she performs them with the same blithe delivery as Blondie's Deborah Harry (or Lily Allen). She took an extended break from the business while busying herself as a mom who moonlighted as a jazz singer. Her hair deflated but her talent grew. After years spent honing her chops in small clubs, she re-invented herself as a nightclub chanteuse. She would perform standards like "Someone To Watch Over Me" and "My Funny Valentine", and both were on her next album "The Rhythm Romance" (1991, re-issued 2001). The record also contained originals and some Latin-flavored material. Her time had been well-spent - she sounded better than ever, and it's a good album. After another long break, she finally released "Dolled Up" (2005), which was kind of a concept album about love as viewed from the lonely-hearts perspective of a divorcee. She even toured England playing Dusty Springfield in "Dusty The Musical", a role for which it seemed her whole life had been a rehearsal. Talk about perfect casting.
I don't believe "Showpeople" is available by itself, but if you want you can program this CD to duplicate the original running order - which is: "Just What I Always Wanted", "The End Of The Affair", "One Day Is A Lifetime", "Baby It's True", "Ecstasy", "Wonderful To Be With", "Doctor Love", "Beware Boyfriend", "Are You There With Another Girl", and "Cry Me A River". The latter is the Julie London classic that Mari's adopted as her signature song. "Are You There With Another Girl" is the Bacharach/David song made popular by Dionne Warwick.
This is a great compilation, and a lot of fun. "Rhythm Romance" and "Dolled Up" are also great, and well worth checking out. Mari Wilson is ab fab!"
Brilliant overview of Mari's music
Peter Durward Harris | Leicester England | 04/04/2009
(5 out of 5 stars)
"One of the best of the Platinum collection series of budget releases, this album includes Mari's hits, together with the tracks from her 1983 Showpeople album, the theme from Dance with a stranger (a biopic about Ruth Ellis, the last woman to be given the death penalty in Britain), her cover of Perhaps perhaps perhaps (a song that Doris Day originally recorded) from BBC TV's Coupling and The love thing, a track from her 2005 album, Dolled up.
Mari first made the UK charts in 1982 with Beat the beat, following it up with Baby it's true. Her big hit, Just what I've always wanted, came next, but her cover of Julie London's Cry me a river became her signature song even though it wasn't a big hit. Demonstrating that the singles chart isn't always a guide to what's really happening, it sparked a revival of British interest in Julie's own music. Judging by all the re-issues of Julie's music on CD, that revival was sustained into the new millennium. Mari's own career as a hit-maker was short-lived, but she, like Julie before her, established a career as a jazz-pop singer, although album releases have been rare.
For those looking for Mari's early music from 1982 and 1983, this is the compilation you've been looking for. You get a few later tracks as a bonus. It is remarkable that such a fine compilation should appear on a budget release, especially as I'd been looking for years without success for Mari's music on CD."
Track Listings (20) - Disc #1