Arranged and co-produced by Michael Alexander. Produced by Mark Sinclair.
 

Also Released

See: Re-Issues of Keep The Music Playing
 

Chart Positions

		Entered: May 18 1991 Highest: Albums: #25  Run: 7 weeks

Cover Images

LP Cover Image: T. Timoleon
 

Track Listing

01. 4:47 - How Do You Keep The Music Playing
02. 4:12 - He Was Beautiful
03. 4:34 - The Power Of Love
04. 5:44 - Still
05. 3:56 - All I Ask Of You
06. 4:56 - I Want To Know What Love Is
07. 4:19 - Wind Beneath My Wings
08. 3:20 - Yesterday
09. 4:06 - That's What Friends Are For
10. 3:46 - Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word
11. 5:28 - The Greatest Love Of All
12. 4:45 - Dio Come Ti Amo (Oh God How Much I Love You)
 

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Sleeve Note From Music Club Re-Issues, by Rick Glanvill of The Guardian

One Britain's greatest-ever singers and entertainers, Dame Shirley Bassey has been entertaining audiences for well over 40 years; from humble beginnings in Working Men's Clubs in Wales, culminating with a co-headlining appearance at Her Majesty , The Queen's Golden Jubilee 'Party At The Palace' concert in June 2002. These recordings made in 1991, are a mixture of contemporary ballads, alongside standards from the fields of jazz and pop.

There are those who only remember her for the slit-skirted rendering of Hey Big Spender!". Then there are others who only know her for that famous appearance in hobnail boots on the Morecambe and Wise show. Either way, Shirley Bassey has a little place in everyone's heart; she should be wrapped up in tissue paper and preserved as part of the national heritage.

Not English heritage, of course, since our Shirl was born in Tiger Bay, the area of Cardiff favoured by successive waves of settlers, in January 1937. You can almost hear that Welshness in her distinctive voice: the taut-muscled control, the intense passion, and the full belt big enough to fill a church.

In 1993 Shirley was honoured with a CBE; two years later the earned the Variety Club of Great Britain's accolade of 'Show Business Personality of the Year'. In between she completed her umpteenth tour in the course of  her 40th year in show business. In a very real sense, she's always bee with us, and is now able to reap the benefits of that staying power.

Perhaps that was bred into her at an early age. It can't have been easy being part of a minority community in the Cardiff of the 1930s and '40s. Shirley was a small but tenacious and ambitious youngster. She worked in factories to fund her fledgling career as a singer, finding less reliable employ in the testing arena of the Working Men's Club - surely Bassey the Belter's voice was trained here to rise above the clink of glasses and the rough chatter of the audience.

Shirley's persistence paid off when she was just 18. Word had got around that there was a sensation in the valleys, and Northern comedian Al Read was impressed enough to include her in his popular year-long revue, Such Is Life, in London, beginning in 1955. At the end of the run, recording contracts were being thrown at the tiny Welsh girl with the show stopping voice.

Her debut success, an uncharacteristically stereotyped voice in the calypso made famous by Harry Belafonte, Banana Boat Song (as in "Daylight come and me want go home"), duly arrived in 1957.

From then on, the only way was up. The characteristic big voice and phrasing began to take shape in 1959 with the promising chart-topper 'As I Love You', and the route to higher ground was established.

Over the next two decades, Shirley became one of the most popular and expressive singer Britain has ever produced, returning successfully to favourite sources for inspiration: show tunes, movie themes, ballads contemporary and classic. She was always more at home on down tempo numbers that allowed breathing space to express herself than in the swinging up-tempo tunes.

Her style was so barnstorming that, certainly in the UK, she was often more strongly identified with particularly songs than the original singer: 'As Long As He Needs Me' (from "Oliver!"), 'I'll Get By', 'I (Who Have Nothing)', 'Big Spender' (from "Sweet Charity"), 'What Kind Of Fool Am I?', 'All By Myself', 'Something'.

It was a diet that satisfied audiences worldwide; as early as 1962 she had begun to conquer the USA, working with legendary Sinatra arranger Nelson riddle, and headlining in Vegas and New York shortly afterwards.

This was perhaps the single biggest breakthrough, the one which set the Cardiff lass on course for international celebrity status. Two years later, in 1964, the producers of the triumphal James Bond movies chose her to sing the theme for their upcoming Goldfinger. It remains one of her most popular tunes, and Shirley went on to record another two Bond themes: the equally memorable Diamonds Are Forever and less noteworthy Moonraker.

By the turn of the sixties, La Bassey had become the queen of British light entertainment, topping the bill at the London Palladium and touring the world from her new home bas near Lake Geneva in Switzerland. The mid-Seventies was a period of gong after gong: the American Variety "Best Female Entertainer" in 1976; the Britannia "Best Female Solo Singer of the last 50 Years" a year later; and, perhaps the greatest accolade of all, a coveted appearance on the Morecambe & Wise Christmas spectacular. In that show Shirley proved the most exceptional good sport, allowing the comedians to pastiche her traditional glide down the staircase by making her lose her stilettos on the steps, to be replaced by unbecoming old boots.

But the work-rate and, perhaps, personal matters, intervened at the end of the Seventies. In 1981, Shirley Bassey secluded herself in her Swiss home and dictated her level of work herself.

But as often happens with seasoned professionals, the lure of the crowd and the oxygen of acclaim proved impossible to refuse. Along with other old stagers earning acclaim from a new generation of performers (Tom Jones covering Prince's 'Kiss', Dusty Springfield working with the Pet Shop Boys, Sandie Shaw with The Smiths), the Tigress of Tiger Bay came out of semi-retirement in 1987 to collaborate with shrewd Swiss electro-pop band Yello. The Rhythm Divine capitalised on Shirley's increasing popularity in the world's gay communities and, with a renewed enthusiasm for camp feather boas and sequinned dresses, she was able to call the shots in the Indian summer of an incredible career, returning to the stage and the studio a reinvigorated figure; a veritable institution of light entertainment.

This intimate set, recorded in 1991 in the UK and Holland, finds the voice in finest fettle again. The mixture of contemporary ballads (Foreigner's 'I Want To Know What Love Is', Jennifer Rush's epic 'The Power Of Love', the Whitney Houston vehicle 'The Greatest Love Of All' and Lionel Ritchie's 'Still') with standards from the field of jazz and pop (the Cleo Laine-penned version of 'Cavatina'; 'He Was Beautiful', Deniece Williams' 'That's What Friends Are For' and the Elton John / Bernie Taupin classic 'Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word'), ushered in by Michel Legrand's sweetly written 'How Do You Keep The Music Playing' seems to sum up where Shirley Bassey was at, and where she still is: assured of her status as one of Britain's greatest-ever singers and entertainers, with the luxury of choosing from an ever-increasing repertoire of great songs ideally suited to her.

And, like the finest wine, the voice that has served for half a century seems, if anything, to improve with age. Millions saw Dame Shirley Bassey perform in June 2002 alongside Sir Cliff Richard, Elton John, Queen (rather appropriately!), Atomic Kitten, S Club 7 amongst many others, at Her Majesty The Queen's Golden Jubilee 'Party At The Palace', hosted at Buckingham Palace.

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