Ann-Margret - The Definitive Collection

(This review first appeared in issue #67 of Shindig! magazine.)

Real Gone Music 2CD

Swedish-born Ann-Margret Olsson must have been a record producer's dream after signing to RCA Victor in 1961. Having honed her vocal skills on the live circuit she could switch between sultry and coquettish as required. The label envisaged her as a female Elvis, unsurprising given her interpretive abilities and photogenic looks.

This compilation centres on her 1961-1966 recordings for the label. The supper-club jazz, pop standards and light entertainment may be too sweet for some, but Olsson's voice still charms. Her simultaneous movie career took off with Bye Bye Birdie and she went on to star alongside Presley in Viva Las Vegas (the pair's two duets from the film are included). Also of interest here is 'I Just Don't Understand' complete with fuzz guitar and wailing harmonica, later covered by The Beatles for a BBC session. Olsson would go on to play the mother in The Who's Tommy, but that's one for another time. 

 

The Beckies - The Beckies

(This review first appeared in issue 52 of Shindig! magazine)

 

Hampered on its initial 1976 release by a refusal to tour and the feeling of it being a major label take on the new wave zeitgeist, this sole eponymous album has aged well. Marked by its warmth and pure joy of (power) pop, it may have been at odds with the prevailing AOR professionalism of the era but forty years on reveals itself as a lost gem.

Founding member of The Left Banke, Michael Brown had a genius knack for delicate melodies and classical influenced arrangements which sat well with the power pop brio of his newly found bandmates, who'd learned their craft in Chessmann Square, a journeyman group founded on a love of harmony-rich British Invasion bands.

The Beckies would turn out to be Brown's last release on a major label. This first time on CD reissue is a fitting tribute to the man, whose talents gave so much and deserved more in return.