Track Listing

1. Opening Montage - Tom Waits & Crystal Gayle
2. Is There Any Way Out Of This Dream? - Crystal Gayle
3. Picking Up After You - Tom Waits,Crystal Gayle
4. Old Boyfriends - Crystal Gayle
5. Broken Bicycles - Tom Waits
6. I Beg Your Pardon - Tom Waits
7. Little Boy Blue - Tom Waits
8. Instrumental Montage - Tom Waits,Crystal Gayle
9. You Can't Unring A Bell - Tom Waits
10. This One's From The Heart - Tom Waits & Crystal Gayle
11. Take Me Home - Crystal Gayle
12. Presents - Tom Waits & Crystal Gayle
13. Candy Apple Red - Tom Waits
14. Once Upon A Town/Empty Pockets - Tom Waits

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #11601 in Music
• Released on: 2004-02-02
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Enhanced, Soundtrack

Amazon.co.uk Review
Francis Ford Coppola's Quixotic 1982 Vegas-themed musical, One From the Heart, forever cast a pall over his Hollywood future, sounding a death knell for his once-promising American Zoetrope studios into the bargain. Hindsight being 20/20, it's now easy to see Heart's visual conceits as the glorious cinematic antecedent to Moulin Rouge, its smart, lounge-savvy score by musical odd couple Tom Waits and Crystal Gayle easily 15 years ahead of the retro-hipster revival it preceded--and outclassed at every turn. Now brightened by a sparkling digital remastering, it remains the most accessibly mainstream--and ironically idiosyncratic--music of Waits' storied career. Waits raspy growl is the perfect counterpoint to Gayle's own gutsy, surprisingly bluesy diva turns. Backed by the spare, deftly lugubrious production of Bones Howe and key contributions by jazz vets Greg Cohen on bass, saxist Teddy Edwards and the key, mournfully lyrical trumpet of Jack Sheldon, Waits' score has long since taken its rightful place as a modern classic, a perfectly realised romantic daydream that never forgets the wistful, broken hearts stacking up beneath the Vegas neon. This edition features the previously unreleased Waits vocal outtake, "Candy Apple Red" as well as an early, discarded version of the opening montage "Once upon a Town/Empty Pockets", rejected songs that only underscore the strength of Waits' musical hand. --Jerry McCulley, Amazon.com

Customer Reviews

A delight
Just had to weigh in with a quick reviewlet for the sole purpose of contradicting the previous reviewer, who had identified Crystal Gayle as being 'too Mariah Carey' and so spoiling the whole album. Not so. Quite the opposite. The controlled clarity of Miss Gayle (whose performances bear no similarity WHATSOEVER to the showy, shallow, up-and-down the scales trills of Pariah Carey) acts a perfect counterpoint to Tom's gruff growls. It is a match made in heaven and perhaps my favourite Tom Waits album of all. And I speak as a fan. It works from start to finish; it is witty, stylish, sassy, sentimental, delightful.

Classic Early Waits
A Fantastic if unexpected collaboration. An absolute must for all those waits fans who appreciate the lyrical subtleties of a literary genius mingled with the typical twists and turns of his unique musical style. This is one you can listen to all night long, very seductive!!

Advice to the young at heart...
Nice to see this LP back in circulation after being unavailable for quite a long time. And with two extra tracks, no less!
Perhaps its scarcity has something to do with the connected film a)not being much cop, and, if memory serves, b)said film's abysmal failure at the box office being the part of the reason for the collapse of Coppolla's Zoetrope Studios?
But don't let that put you off...

Originally released in 1982 this LP slots in, continuity-wise, immediately following Waits' period of superb jazz-inflected albums released on the famous Asylum label (1973 - 1976, also home to Joni Mitchell, Tim Buckley etc) and Elektra Records (1977 - 1980), and prior to the later, more abstract/experimental - but still jazzy - noodlings on Island Records (1983 - 1993), and more recently, Anti/Epitaph Records label offerings (1999 to present).

This is certainly a good album, but don't buy it expecting either typical jazz or typical Waits, because it's both and neither.
To my untrained ear, these are just some great show tunes, composed and performed by a pair of gifted artists. Some of the songs are a bit soppy (awww...) but Tom's gravelly voice and playful lyrics keep the more sacharin numbers just this side of credible:
"Looks like you spent the night in a trench,
Tell me .. how long have you been combing your hair with a wrench?" (from 'Picking Up After You')
Eat your hearts out, Messrs Lloyd-Webber & Rice..!

Being a soundtrack, some of the songs on this album are instrumental and some feature solo vocal performaces by Crystal Gayle, as noted in the tracklistings. Whilst not the highlights of this cd, they're not to be overlooked as accomplished as they are in their own right.

No need for a blow-by-blow account of Tom's performances here, but take it as read they are up to his usual high standard. If, however, as a 'Waits-virgin', the bargain price-point (at a gobsmacking £5.99) draws you in, there are worse places to start collecting (trust me, those who discover Waits very rarely stop with one LP).
Suggested follow-up/alternative purchases would be:
- Nighthawks At The Diner (80 excellent minutes of live performance)
- The Heart of The Saturday Night
- Rain Dogs
- Small Change
- Alice
Most of the above cds have sound clips provided by Amazon.
Also,
- Used Songs 1973-1980 (compilation)
- Beautiful Maladies 1983-1993 (compilation)

Or, if you're more interested in continuing along the soundtrack groove, here are a few titles that feature new and original Tom Waits' tracks:
- Night On Earth
- Sea Of Love
- Dead Man Walking (there are two UK versions of this soundtrack, both of which have original Waits' tracks on them)

There maybe more but I'm too tired to look them up...

Me? I own the old version of this cd - and every other bit of Waits' I've been lucky enough to find - but I've just ordered this re-issue for the two bonus tracks on the end. So it can't be all THAT bad, can it?
Hope this info helped.