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Track Listing

01. 4:53 - This Is My Life (disco version)
02. 2:40 - I (Who Have Nothing)
03. 4:26 - No Regrets
04. 4:11 - Don't Cry For Me Argentina (1978 recording)
05. 3:51 - Yesterday When I Was Young
06. 4:25 - And I Love You So
07. 3:25 - Anyone Who Had A Heart
08. 3:46 - The Magic Is You
09. 3:18 - It Must Be Him
10. 4:50 - The Greatest Love Of All (1978 recording)
11. 3:35 - Something
12. 2:41 - Diamonds Are Forever
13. 2:49 - Goldfinger
14. 3:37 - Never, Never, Never
15. 3:14 - The Fool On The Hill
16. 1:54 - Kiss Me, Honey, Honey, Kiss Me (1966 recording)
17. 3:13 - (Where Do I Begin?) Love Story
18. 2:43 - For All We Know
 

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Sleeve Note By Skip Voogd

Everything show business could offer, she was given; golden and silver records, overwhelming television shows, jubilant reviews, concert revenues filled to overflowing, applause that never seemed to die away...That is why she decided to take it a bit easier during the past few years. But to give up singing altogether? "No," she announced recently in an interview. "No, I wouldn't be able to do that. I never fell in love with show business, but I did with singing." This compact disc gives a finely detailed demonstration of just how much Shirley Bassey fell in love with singing.

In "The Magic Is You," which contains a collection of 18 songs, Miss Bassey does a vocal waltz through the hits of her song book in her own highly unique, enormously pervasive voice, which can be recognised amongst thousands.

Shirley Bassey was born on January 8, 1937 in a slum area of the harbour town Cardiff in Wales. She was the daughter of a white working woman and a West-African sailor who was passing through; an unattractive, poverty-stricken girl who got to know the seamy side of life at a tender age in a working-class area. But Shirley learned how to value various things early on; her voice and...money. She was only eight when she found out that she could sing, and seven years later, she first stood on stage. When she was 15, Shirley Bassey divided her time between serving food in a cafe-restaurant and singing in a night club.

The following year, she travelled the country with various dubious variete groups, but after she was discovered by the A&R manager of a recording company, it did not take long for her career to get launched. In 1957, after she had become one of the main attractions in the variete and vaudeville scene in London, Shirley Bassey made her first entrance into the English hit parade; the song was an excellent cover version of Harry Belafonte's "Banana Boat Song," which was still fresh in everyone's memory. Towards the end of the fifties, Bassey was clearly about to break through into international stardom, thanks to her wonderful voice, her well-chosen repertoire and her smouldering stage presence. Shirley was one of the first singers who used her whole body to perform, in a manner that even Elvis Presley did not dare to use as time went by.

Despite the killing competition of beat groups and a colourful procession of young artists who set the trend in the sixties, La Bassey had no problem maintaining her position in that decade - she was right at the top. This was partially thanks to the American composer/arranger John Barry, who asked her to sing the title songs of various James Bond movies. Of this repertoire, it was especially the music to "Goldfinger" which gained Shirley world-wide recognition.

In her private life, Shirley Bassey has not always had the same good fortune as she has almost continually enjoyed throughout her career, including the 'seventies and 'eighties. "I know from experience that it is not possible to combine family life with show business," said the singer. "If you are successful in my profession, there's no way you'll succeed in any other area. Nevertheless, I hope my fairy-tale will still have a happy ending, and that I have yet to find the True Love I have sung about for so long."