Collectors’ Choice Music, US
(WWCCM09192)
Original release date: March, 2008
Wide release date: May 27, 2008

Collectors’ Choice Music, in association with EMI Music Special Markets, presents two of Peggy’s early-1970s albums on CD in their entirety for the first time, with four complementary bonus tracks. 21 of the 24 tracks are making their international debut on CD.Peggy had recently turned 50 when she entered the Capitol Records Tower in July of 1970 to record the first of these albums, but despite that milestone she was still, in the parlance of the time, “relevant” in an increasingly youth-oriented music industry. Not only had she won a best contemporary female vocal performance Grammy for Is That All There Is? in March, her hit song was also nominated in the record of the year category alongside such songs as Spinning Wheel and the winner, Aquarius / Let the Sunshine In. On the heels of the huge chart success for Is That All There Is?, three subsequent singles entered the Billboard adult contemporary charts in early 1970, and the Is That All There Is? album remained on the charts well into the year. In 1970 she was a guest on television variety and talk shows hosted by Carol Burnett, Glen Campbell, Johnny Carson, Johnny Cash, Petula Clark, David Frost, Dean Martin, and Ed Sullivan. She also hosted a Kraft Music Hallspecial and appeared in an hourlong documentary exploring her concert preparation process on National Educational Television, a forerunner of PBS. In short, she was every bit as relevant to music and variety entertainment as she had been ten and twenty years earlier.

Peggy’s tastes in repertoire had long been eclectic, encompassing the Great American Songbook, the blues, offbeat new material, her own compositions, and cover versions of recent hits that were expected of all recording artists. More so than ever, on Make It With You and Where Did They Go she embraced material by younger songwriters, including such major names of the day as Paul Anka (That’s What Living’s About), Burt Bacharach and Hal David (My Rock and Foundation, the team’s only song written expressly for Peggy), David Gates (Make It With You), George Harrison (My Sweet Lord), Kris Kristofferson (Help Me Make It Through the Night), John Lennon and Paul McCartney (The Long and Winding Road), Joe Raposo (Sing), Neil Sedaka and Howard Greenfield (One More Ride on the Merry-Go-Round, a minor chart hit for Peggy), Stephen Sondheim (Losing My Mind, from his recent musical Follies), and Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice (I Don’t Know How to Love Him, from their recent musical Jesus Christ Superstar). Peggy also included an old standard of special relevance: her first recording of Gordon Jenkins’ Goodbye, the longtime theme song of her former boss Benny Goodman. Her only songwriting credit on these albums wasPassenger of the Rain, featuring Peggy’s English lyric for a French movie theme song co-written by Francis Lai and Sebastien Japrisot.

A top-drawer team of musicians was on hand for both albums. Make It With You was mostly arranged and conducted by Benny Golson (with one track arranged and conducted by Mike Melvoin), and produced by Phil Wright, who had previously produced Peggy’s albums A Natural Woman and Bridge Over Troubled Water. Where Did They Go was mostly arranged and conducted by Don Sebesky (with four tracks arranged and conducted by Al Capps), and produced by Snuff Garrett.

These albums are supplemented by four bonus tracks, beginning with Pieces of Dreams, an Oscar-nominated song by Michel Legrand, Alan Bergman and Marilyn Bergman. Peggy recorded the song a month before her Make It With You sessions; it was planned for inclusion on the album but instead released as a single. The remaining bonuses are previously unreleased outtakes from three of her late-1960s albums: Jimmy Webb’s Didn’t We? from Is That All There Is?; Walter Donaldson’s often-recorded You’re Driving Me Crazy fromSomethin’ Groovy!; and the Billie Holiday-associated No More from A Natural Woman.

Liner notes for this CD are provided by Paul Howes, co-owner of Zone Records and author of The Complete Dusty Springfield.

Produced by Jim Pierson, all four releases in this Collectors’ Choice series (Make It With You / Where Did They Go; The Lost ’40s and 50’s Capitol Masters; All Aglow Again!; Then Was Then, Now Is Now / Bridge Over Troubled Water) will be available exclusively from Collectors’ Choice upon initial release in mid-March, 2008, and available in wider release on May 27, 2008.

Make It With You
Originally released as Capitol ST-622 (1970)

1. One More Ride on the Merry-Go-Round
2. The Long and Winding Road
3. That’s What Living’s About
4. The No-Color Time of the Day
5. Let’s Get Lost in Now
6. Make It with You
7. Passenger of the Rain
8. I’ve Never Been So Happy in My Life
9. You’ll Remember Me
10. Goodbye

Bonus Tracks

11. Pieces of Dreams – Capitol single 2910 (1970)
12. Didn’t We? – previously unreleased, from the Is That All There Is? sessions (1969) 
13. You’re Driving Me Crazy – previously unreleased, from the Somethin’ Groovy!sessions (1967) 
14. No More – previously unreleased, from the A Natural Woman sessions (1969)

Where Did They Go
Originally released as Capitol ST-810 (1971)

15. Where Did They Go
16. My Rock and Foundation
17. Help Me Make It Through the Night
18. All I Want
19. I Don’t Know How to Love Him
20. Goodbye Again
21. Sing
22. I Was Born in Love with You
23. Losing My Mind
24. My Sweet Lord