DRG Records, US
(509996-95371-2-7)
Release date: July 7, 2009
DRG Records and EMI Music Special Markets present the first-ever American CD release of a Capitol Records classic, The Man I Love, a sumptuous collection of romantic ballads sung by Peggy Lee, conducted by Frank Sinatra, and arranged and orchestrated by Nelson Riddle.
In April of 1957, after a five-year detour at Decca Records, Peggy returned to Capitol, her original home as a solo recording artist beginning in 1944. As a homecoming celebration of sorts, few albums exude more prestige and sophistication than The Man I Love. In addition to Sinatra conducting Riddle charts before a 31-piece orchestra comprised of top-flight West Coast musicians, the twelve songs hand-picked by Lee and Sinatra represent American popular songwriting at its apex, with titles by George and Ira Gershwin, Jerome Kern, Oscar Hammerstein, Irving Berlin, Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart, Arthur Schwartz, Harold Arlen, E.Y. Harburg, and other masters of the form.
Peggy promoted The Man I Love on television throughout the summer and fall of 1957, singing the album’s title song on The Jackie Gleason Show, My Heart Stood Still on The Nat King Cole Show, and — on two different episodes of The Frank Sinatra Show — That’s All and He’s My Guy, aided by conductor Sinatra himself. The song The Folks Who Live on the Hill held particular significance for Peggy and is the most frequently anthologized of the album’s tracks. She sang it again on her 1966 television special, included it on albums in 1977 and 1992, and regularly featured it in concert, including her final performances in 1995 at Carnegie Hall and the Hollywood Bowl.
DRG enhances this American CD debut with two bonus tracks from an August, 1957 session with Nelson Riddle: Uninvited Dream, one of the earliest recordings by any singer of a Burt Bacharach song, and the rarity It Keeps You Young, making only its second appearance on CD. The sixteen-page booklet includes rare photos, the original front and back cover art, detailed personnel information, and liner notes by Will Friedwald.
DRG is also releasing Peggy’s 1958 follow-up album with Nelson Riddle, Jump for Joy, also with bonus tracks.
Originally released as Capitol T-864 (1957); mastered by Alan Silverman at Arf! Digital, New York
1. The Man I Love
2. Please Be Kind
3. Happiness Is a Thing Called Joe
4. (Just One Way to Say) I Love You
5. That’s All
6. Something Wonderful
7. He’s My Guy
8. Then I’ll Be Tired of You
9. My Heart Stood Still
10. If I Should Lose You
11. There Is No Greater Love
12. The Folks Who Live on the Hill
Bonus tracks
(from 1957 singles session)
13. Uninvited Dream
14. It Keeps You Young