Track Listing

1. Tea For Two
2. Surrey With The Fringe On Top
3. Moonlight Saving Time
4. It Amazes Me
5. If I Were A Bell
6. We're Together
7. Teach Me Tonight
8. Once Upon A Summertime
9. Down With Love
10. Manhattan
11. Doop Doo De Doop
12. Our Love Is Here To Stay

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #63918 in Music
• Released on: 1993-12-31
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Dimensions: .21 pounds

CD Description
A near-perfect set of standards (and a novelty or two), 1958's ONCE UPON A SUMMERTIME just might be the quintessential Blossom Dearie album. By the time of her third LP for Verve,Dearie's whimsical style had fully blossomed, so to speak. Except that Dearie was never just about sounding adorable. She is a jazz musician through and through, as well as an interpretive singer of the first rank. And the interpretations are especially intriguing here. "Tea For Two", often performed as casually as it was written, is given a careful, slow reading, and is revealed to be a lovely little paean to domesticity. Similarly, "Surrey with the Fringe on Top" is usually performed uptempo but is taken at a moderate clip so that the singer can savor each and every rhyme. Not all are slow ones, of course--"Down With Love" is done at breakneck speed, which only increases its sardonic hilarity. The highlight,though, is the reverie-like "Manhattan", in which Dearie plumbs the deeper meanings of Rodgers & Hart's famous song.

Customer Reviews

Another Blossom great...
Okay, I'm biased. I love Blossom Dearie. To the point of wishing I was around to date her. Having said that, don't expect anything but a wonderful rating to any of her albums from me..I'm trying to get all that were ever made, and since she had a sixty year plus career and her own label, that's no mean feat. On the other hand, if you buy the first one to discover her, you'll find her music is sort of like potato chips...you can't just eat one.