Music Main

Julie London Albums

1961

Send For Me         Whatever Julie Wants


 

Send For Me  (LRP-3171/LST-7171)

Released: 1961

 

CD Availability: Not available.

 

All Music Guide review by Stephen Cook :

One of the more unique Julie London recordings, Send For Me finds the ultra-lounge chanteuse mixing it up on 12 blues-based swingers. Far afield of the guitar and bass minimalism of the deservedly famous Julie is Her Name recordings, Send For Me goes wide screen with full band and chorus charts by pianist Jimmy Rowles. While certainly no Dinah Washington, London manages well enough on these bluesy swingers with her mix of "come hither" sultriness and "he's done me wrong" swagger. For his part, Rowles provides top-drawer arrangements featuring equal parts of after-hours smokiness and big-band sophistication. Some may find the blues and gleeful choir combination a bit much, but Send For Me still succeeds with especially strong cuts like "Tain't What You Do," "Baby Come Home," "Evenin'," and "Cheatin' On Me." Another in a long line of fine albums London made for Liberty between the mid-‘50s and early ‘60s.

 

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Tracks

 

Evenin'

Parish - White

 

What's Your Story, Morning Glory

Williams - Webster - Lawton

 

Get on the Right Track

T. Turner

 

I Must Have That Man

McHugh - Fields

 

Tain't What You Do

Oliver - Young

 

Baby Come Home

Troup - Rowles

 

Everyday (I Have the Blues)

Chatman - York

 

Gee Baby Ain't I Good To You

Redman - Razaf

 

Cheatin' On Me

Polland - Yellen

 

Trav'lin' Light

Mercer - Mundy - Young

 

Send For Me

O. Jones

 

 

 


 

 

Whatever Julie Wants  (LRP-3192/LST-7192)

Released: 1961

 

CD Availability: This absolute classic is not available as a complete entity... But there's still a 1988 EMI CD called "The Best of Julie London: The Liberty Years" that contains every track from the album but the last.

 

All Music Guide review by Nick Dedina :

Julie London was equally famous for her cool vocal style and her rather cold beauty. She normally specialized in torch songs, singing bleak songs of lost love, but on Whatever Julie Wants, London plays the part of a vampish sexpot who treats love as a commodity to trade with wealthy men. Sure, it's a sexist album that's more famous for its cheesecake sleeve photo of London naked under fur, diamonds, money, and a strategically placed champagne bottle, but it is a fun album and one that can be enjoyed for its individual songs or its narrative thrust. While most concept albums featuring popular standards don't really follow a strict story line, Whatever Julie Wants does. It begins with the protagonist uttering an innocent lover's plea before mistreatment turns her into a jaded gold digger ("Daddy" and a host of other tracks), then a prostitute ("Love for Sale"), and a step up to kept woman ("Always True to You in My Fashion"). Just as things are looking bad, London finally realizes that you can live without a man and his money with "There'll Be Some Changes Made," because the onetime temptress is just too darn "Tired." This may not be Julie London's finest musical hour, but the album is undeniably entertaining and it offers a Technicolor sex comedy break from her usual world of shadowy film noir.

 

Our Reviews

If you'd like to share your own review of Whatever Julie Wants here, please e-mail me.

 

Tracks

 

Why Don't You Do Right

Joe McCoy

 

My Heart Belongs To Daddy

Cole Porter

 

Hard-Hearted Hannah

Yellen - Ager - Bigelow

 

Do It Again

DeSylva - G. Gershwin

 

Take Back Your Mink

Frank Loesser

 

Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend

Styne - Robin

 

Daddy

Bobby Troup

 

An Occasional Man

Martin - Blane

 

Love For Sale

Cole Porter

 

Always True to You In My Fashion

Cole Porter

 

There'll Be Some Changes Made

Higgins - Overstreet

 

Tired

Roberts - Fisher

 

 


1960         1961         1962