Track Listing

1. I'm Glad There's You
2. This Is The Life
3. You're Gonna Hear From Me
4. I'll Take Romance
5. Stranger In The Night
6. On A Clear Day (You Can See Forever)
7. Sweet Lorraine
8. My Best Girl
9. On A Wonderful Day Like Today
10. Merci Cheri
11. Honey On The Vine
12. When Joanna Loved Me
13. Real Live Girl
14. When Sunny Gets Blue
15. Laura
16. People
17. Here's To My Lady
18. Good Life
19. You've Got Possibilities
20. Rain Sometimes
21. Sweet Talkin' Hannah
22. Nina Never Knew

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #67258 in Music
• Released on: 1997-01-20
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered
• Dimensions: .19 pounds
• Running time: 51 minutes

Customer Reviews

great singer grear songs
why o why are these 2 brilliant albums in [mono]
when they were recorded in stereo.

Two great albums from 1966 and 1967
Matt Monro was Britain's best balladeer of his generation. Comparisons with other singers, particularly Frank Sinatra, are inevitable, but Matt carved out his own niche and his music remains popular more than twenty years after his death. The two albums presented here are the first two that he recorded after switching labels from Parlophone to Capitol, although both of those labels are part of EMI so the distinction is academic now, even if it wasn't at the time.

Following a string of hits in the UK charts, Matt re-located to America and he had only one further UK hit single thereafter, and that was a minor hit in 1973. So you won't find any of his own hits here, but I'm not sure if any of the tracks were released as singles. In the sixties, it was quite common for tracks to be released either on singles or on albums but not both. People didn't have so much money for music then and if they could afford an album, they certainly didn't want it to contain music they'd already bought as singles. These two albums therefore contain a selection of love songs, mainly slow ballads, but with the occasional up-tempo song to provide variety.

The first album, This is the life, features several songs that were oldies even in the sixties, while the second album, Here's to my lady, is generally more contemporary, but the two albums sit comfortably together and if you don't know when each song was written, you won't be able to tell from listening to them (though you might from reading the composer credits). One of the most famous songs here is Strangers in the night, a cover of one of Frank Sinatra's classic songs. In some ways, it was brave of Matt to record it, because there were those who accused him of being a Sinatra copyist. He wasn't, but if you buy this or one of Matt's compilations containing Strangers in the night, you can compare his version with Frank's. Yes, there are similarities, but Matt was not Frank's clone. Other great songs, which Matt sings in his own way, include People, You've got possibilities, I'll take romance, On a clear day and On a wonderful day like today, to name a few.

There are plenty of great songs here, some famous, some obscure, but if you like Matt's music and you've already got a hits compilation, you'll love this twofer.