''Nobody Does It Like Me'' is a 1974 album by Shirley Bassey. Bassey's recordings had been selling well since 1970, scoring three top ten singles and three ten top albums. ''Nobody Does It Like Me'' was recorded with a new producer, George Butler, and brought a partial return to the
traditional pop
Traditional pop (also known as vocal pop or pre-rock and roll pop) is Western culture, Western pop music that generally pre-dates the advent of rock and roll in the mid-1950s. The most popular and enduring songs from this era of music are known ...
sound of Bassey's pre-1970s career. Here, the title track "Nobody Does It Like Me" and "When You Smile" harken back to the
big band
A big band or jazz orchestra is a type of musical ensemble of jazz music that usually consists of ten or more musicians with four sections: saxophones, trumpets, trombones, and a rhythm section. Big bands originated during the early 1910s and ...
era. Bassey's soaring vocals on
Paul Anka
Paul Albert Anka (born July 30, 1941) is a Canadian and American singer, songwriter and actor. His songs include " Diana", “ You Are My Destiny", “Lonely Boy", " Put Your Head on My Shoulder", and " (You're) Having My Baby".
Anka also wr ...
's "I'm Not Anyone" and the slightly funky "Morning in Your Eyes" contrast with a delicately rendered "Davy". The duet "Davy", recorded with the song's composer
Benard Ighner
Benard Ighner (January 18, 1945 – August 14, 2017) was an American jazz singer, musician, songwriter and record producer.
Biography
Ighner was born in Houston, Texas. After graduating in 1962 he moved with his parents to San Diego, Califor ...
, is one of the rare occasions that Bassey shared the credits with another vocalist; it was also issued as a single and hit #44 on the US Adult Contemporary chart. The album closes with Bassey's reading of
Stevie Wonder
Stevland Hardaway Morris (; Judkins; born May 13, 1950), known professionally as Stevie Wonder, is an American and Ghanaian singer-songwriter, musician, and record producer. He is regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the 20th c ...
's "
You Are the Sunshine of My Life
"You Are the Sunshine of My Life" is a 1973 single released by Stevie Wonder. The song became Wonder's third number-one single on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart and his first number-one on the Easy Listening chart. It won Wonder a Grammy Award ...
". This album failed to chart in the UK and peaked at #142 in the US. Her next two studio albums would be top 15 albums in the UK.
The original release was in stereo on vinyl and cassette. In 2006,
BGO Records
BGO Records (Beat Goes On) is a British record label specializing in classic rock, blues, jazz, and folk music.
In 1965, Andy Gray opened Andys Records and set up a market stall in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk. Year by year he opened up more shops. ...
issued a remastered ''Nobody Does It Like Me'' and ''Love, Life and Feelings'' on a 2-CD set.
Track listing
Side One.
# "Leave a Little Room" (Michael Randall)
# "When You Smile" (William Salter,
Ralph MacDonald
Ralph Anthony MacDonald (March 15, 1944 – December 18, 2011) was an American percussionist, steelpan virtuoso, songwriter, musical arranger, and record producer.
His compositions include " Where Is the Love", a Grammy Award winner for the due ...
)
# "All That Love Went to Waste" from the Motion Picture ''
A Touch of Class'' (
George Barrie,
Sammy Cahn
Samuel Cohen (June 18, 1913 – January 15, 1993), known professionally as Sammy Cahn, was an American lyricist, songwriter, and musician. He is best known for his romantic lyrics to films and Broadway songs, as well as stand-alone songs premie ...
)
# "Davy" (
Benard Ighner
Benard Ighner (January 18, 1945 – August 14, 2017) was an American jazz singer, musician, songwriter and record producer.
Biography
Ighner was born in Houston, Texas. After graduating in 1962 he moved with his parents to San Diego, Califor ...
)
# "I'm Not Anyone" (
Paul Anka
Paul Albert Anka (born July 30, 1941) is a Canadian and American singer, songwriter and actor. His songs include " Diana", “ You Are My Destiny", “Lonely Boy", " Put Your Head on My Shoulder", and " (You're) Having My Baby".
Anka also wr ...
,
Johnny Harris)
Side Two.
# "Morning in Your Eyes" (John Lehman, Ouida Lehman)
# "The Trouble With Hello Is Goodbye" (
Dave Grusin
Robert David Grusin (born June 26, 1934) is an American composer, arranger, producer, jazz pianist, and band leader. He has composed many scores for feature films and television and has won numerous awards for his soundtrack and record work, incl ...
,
Marilyn Bergman
Alan Bergman (born September 11, 1925) and Marilyn Keith Bergman (née Katz; November 10, 1928 – January 8, 2022) were an American songwriting duo. Married from 1958 until Marilyn's death, together they wrote music and lyrics for numerous celeb ...
,
Alan Bergman
Alan Bergman (born September 11, 1925) and Marilyn Keith Bergman (née Katz; November 10, 1928 – January 8, 2022) were an American songwriting duo. Married from 1958 until Marilyn's death, together they wrote music and lyrics for numerous celeb ...
)
# "Nobody Does It Like Me" from the Broadway musical ''
Seesaw
A seesaw (also sometimes known as a teeter-totter in North America) is a long, narrow board supported by a single pivot point, most commonly located at the midpoint between both ends; as one end goes up, the other goes down. These are most comm ...
'' (
Dorothy Fields
Dorothy Fields (July 15, 1904 – March 28, 1974) was an American librettist and lyricist. She wrote more than 400 songs for Broadway musicals and films. Her best-known pieces include " The Way You Look Tonight" (1936), "A Fine Romance" (193 ...
,
Cy Coleman
Cy Coleman (born Seymour Kaufman; June 14, 1929 – November 18, 2004) was an American composer, songwriter, and jazz pianist.
Life and career
Coleman was born Seymour Kaufman in New York City, to Ashkenazi, Eastern European Jewish parents, an ...
)
# "I'm Nothing Without You" (Jim Grady)
# "
You Are the Sunshine of My Life
"You Are the Sunshine of My Life" is a 1973 single released by Stevie Wonder. The song became Wonder's third number-one single on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart and his first number-one on the Easy Listening chart. It won Wonder a Grammy Award ...
" (
Stevie Wonder
Stevland Hardaway Morris (; Judkins; born May 13, 1950), known professionally as Stevie Wonder, is an American and Ghanaian singer-songwriter, musician, and record producer. He is regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the 20th c ...
)
Personnel
*
Shirley Bassey
Dame Shirley Veronica Bassey (; born 8 January 1937) is a Welsh singer. Known for her career longevity, powerful voice and recording the James Bond music, theme songs to three James Bond films - the only artist to officially perform more than o ...
–
vocal
The human voice consists of sound made by a human being using the vocal tract, including talking, singing, laughing, crying, screaming, shouting, humming or yelling. The human voice frequency is specifically a part of human sound producti ...
* Noel Rogers – musical consultant
*
Gene Page
Eugene Edgar Page Jr. (September 13, 1939 – August 24, 1998) was an American conductor, composer, arranger and record producer, most active from the mid-1960s through the mid-1980s.
His sound can be heard in the arrangements he did for Jeffer ...
– arranger, conductor
(tracks 1, 4, 5, 6, 10)
* Nick Perito – arranger, conductor
(tracks 2, 3, 7, 8, 9)
*
James Jamerson
James Lee Jamerson (January 29, 1936 – August 2, 1983) was an American bassist. He was the uncredited bassist on most of the Motown Records hits in the 1960s and early 1970s (Motown did not list session musician credits on their releases un ...
– electric bass,
(all tracks)
* Bernard Igher – background vocals
(track 4)
*
Arthur Greenslade
Arthur Greenslade (4 May 1923 – 27 November 2003) was a British conductor and arranger for films and television, as well as for a number of performers. He was most musically active in the 1960s and 1970s.
Early career
Greenslade was born ...
and
Horace Ott
Horace Ott (born April 15, 1933) is an American jazz and R&B composer, arranger, record producer, conductor and pianist. He is noted for his work since the late 1950s with a wide variety of artists, including The Shirelles, Don Covay, Nina Si ...
– conductor, strings and horns
*
Bert Stern
Bertram Stern (October 3, 1929 – June 26, 2013) was an American commercial photographer.
Biography
Stern was the son of Jewish immigrants and grew up in Brooklyn. His father worked as a children's portrait photographer. After dropping out of h ...
– photography
*
Bob Cato
Robert G. Cato (September 5, 1923 – March 19, 1999) was an American photographer and graphic designer whose work in record album cover design contributed to the development of music and popular culture for five decades.Liner notes, London Phas ...
– art direction
* Ria Lewerke – album design
References
* CD liner notes by John O'Regan, BGO CD735 (2006)
{{Authority control
Shirley Bassey albums
1974 albums
Albums arranged by Gene Page
United Artists Records albums