Sings For You

On January 1, 2008, Julie Andrews' debut solo album The Lass with the Delicate Air, which was recorded in 1957 and released by RCA Victor Records in January 1958, entered the public domain in Europe, where copyrights on recordings last only 50 years. A little over a month later, Flare Records released this unlicensed reissue of the album, changing the title to Sings for You and adding a couple of tracks from a performance by Andrews on the TV series The Dinah Shore Chevy Show. Andrews was only 22 when she released the LP. But she already had an extensive resume as an entertainer that included recordings dating back ten years; numerous appearances on the London stage; two Broadway musicals, The Boy Friend and My Fair Lady; and two American TV movie musicals, High Tor and Cinderella. She might have been expected to sing show tunes on her own LP, but instead, she harked back to her British music hall days as a child and assembled a collection of English folk songs and art songs, tastefully arranged and conducted by Irwin Kostal. Noel Coward's patriotic World War II anthem "London Pride," only 16 years old, was the newest composition, and it set the tone of celebration of Andrews' heritage. There was no trace of the cockney accent of My Fair Lady's Eliza Doolittle, as Andrews negotiated typically English themes such as "As I Went A-Roaming" and "Tally-Ho!" classical (Handel's "Where'er You Walk"), and Celtic ("O the Days of the Kerry Dancing") selections joined with "The Lass with the Delicate Air" to hark back to the Elizabethan era and boasted a harpsichord along with the strings. No matter what Andrews sang, her lovely voice remained appealing. This may not have been the most overtly commercial effort she could have made on her first album, but it no doubt satisfied her old fans back in the U.K., and it demonstrated another side of her talent to her Broadway admirers. On the Shore show, she performs one of her My Fair Lady hits, "I Could Have Danced All Night," and duets with the hostess on "Whispering Hope." ~ William Ruhlmann|