Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Burn My Candle (At Both Ends)
2. Stormy Weather
3. The Wayward Wind
4. Born To Sing The Blues (studio version)
5. After The Lights Go Down Low
6. If You Don't Love Me
7. The Banana Boat Song
8. Tra La La
9. If I Had A Needle And Thread
10. Tonight My Heart She Is Crying
11. Fire Down Below
12. You, You Romeo
13. Puh-Leeze! Mister Brown
14. Take My Love, Take My Love
15. As I Love You
16. Hands Across The Sea
17. Kiss Me, Honey Honey, Kiss Me
18. There's Never Been A Night

Disc 2:

1. Born To Sing The Blues (live)
2. Somebody Loves Me (live)
3. My Body's More Important Than My Mind (live)
4. Sex (live)
5. I've Got You Under My Skin (live)
6. Born To Sing The Blues (studio version)
7. Beale Street Blues*
8. Wabash Blues *
9. Basin Street Blues*
10. The Birth Of The Blues
11. Careless Love Blues*
12. Blues In The Night (My Mama Done Tole Me)*
13. The St. Louis Blues*

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #9202 in Music
• Released on: 2009-02-23
• Number of discs: 2
• Format: CD
• Dimensions: .28 pounds

CD Description
From the very first track her controversial debut single Burn My Candle (At Both Ends) , which was so raunchy that it was promptly banned by the BBC to the last, this compilation oozes class all the way, in much the same way as does Ms Bassey herself. Disc One comprises her nine singles issued on the Philips label between February 1956 and October 1958, and includes her earliest hits, The Banana Boat Song , Fire Down Below , You, You Romeo , the epic As I Love You (which topped the UK charts) and Kiss Me, Honey Honey, Kiss Me . Disc Two comprises two absolute rarities: the five-track Shirley Bassey At The Café De Paris live EP, which includes the highly-controversial Sex , plus the aforementioned 10 LP Born To Sing The Blues , a sublime collection of jazz and blues standards, of which only two tracks have ever previously been released on CD.

About the Artist
Dame Shirley Veronica Bassey, DBE, is probably the most famous, female pop singer ever to have emerged from the UK, an internationally-acclaimed performer who has accumulated more than 20 silver discs for sales in Britain, Europe and the Middle East, 50-plus gold discs for international record sales, and countless greatest-hits collections including one gold and two platinum. She is the only singer to have recorded more than one James Bond theme song, she sang the movie themes to Goldfinger (1964), Diamonds Are Forever (1971), and Moonraker (1979). Shirley emerged from the tough, working class dockland area of Tiger Bay in Cardiff, South Wales, in 1953, at the age of just 16, and within three years was topping bills at prestigious venues in London s West End. She registered her first hit records during 1957 and finally got her really big, career-changing break in December 1958 when she was asked to appear as a last-minute substitute on Sunday Night At The London Palladium , after another singer dropped out. Shirley decided to sing As I Love You , the B-side to Hands Across The Sea (a disc which had been dead in the water for some four months) and stole the show. A week later it entered the charts and, early in 1959, climbed all the way to No. 1. She nowadays enjoys venerable, iconic status she even stole the show at Glastonbury a couple of years back and has recently released an acclaimed new album, Get The Party Started .

Customer Reviews

Fantastic Voyage label Lives up to Its Name
The Fantastic Voyage label has done Dame Shirley and her fans proud with this issue, which contains all the work she did for the Philips label. Disc One gives us all the singles, A sides and B sides; disc two showcases the EP "Live at the Cafe de Paris" and the 10" album "Born to Sing the Blues".

Whilst some of the songs featured on the singles and the arrangements and excellent mono sound may be of their time, there is no doubt that we are listening to a highly talented and committed artist at work. The singles album is interesting because the B sides are invariably more than just make-weights. Indeed, on one notable occasion, it was the original B side, "As I Love You", that eventually topped the charts.

Every song in this collection leaps out at you as you listen. There is sparkle, passion, fun and a wonderful sense of spontaneity. The second disc featuring Dame Shirley's live performance at the Cafe de Paris and her first LP (albeit a ten incher) is no less interesting. There are several live recordings of Dame Shirley available and, in this early one, she proves she knew how to work an audience right from the beginning. She also turns in some scorching performances on her "Born to Sing the Blues" album. Indeed, it would be interesting to hear return to some of these songs so many years later.

The booklet accompanying these discs is informative and interesting. The album is well presented in a slip case. The voice is young, as you would expect, but the hallmarks of Dame Shirley as a performer are well in evidence.

There was a delay in the issue of this album but the wait was well worth it. I have thoroughly enjoyed it every time I have played it and it deserves its place in any record collection.

exceeds my expectations!
I took my time to order this double CD set as the Philips recordings are not my favourite Bassey era. I also did not have much faith in the label reissuing the Dame's Philips recordings. Imagine my surprise when this set sounded much better than my 2 Philips CDs. I was also pleasantly surprised by the colourful booklet which was a pleasure to behold as it had colour pics of Shirley's music sheets & singles. Under the transparent tray are some sepia-toned reproductions of Shirley in the news in the 50s making this a lovely package indeed. Before I purchased it, I thought the price was too steep for a package containing songs from the public domain. But now that this beauty is in my hands, I totally understand why. It's worth every pound or dollar or ringgit I paid for!