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To Sir With Love: The Best of 1967-1968

Lulu - To Sir With Love: The Best of 1967-1968 Audio CD

A fair review of the Lulu "To Sir With Love: The Best of 1967-1968" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Lulu reviews here, or go back to the Lulu tabs.

Band: Lulu
Title: To Sir With Love: The Best of 1967-1968
Rating:

Release Date: 2003-04-01
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: To Sir With Love 2: That Boat That I Row 3: Rattler 4: Morning Dew 5: Love Loves to Love Love 6: Best of Both Worlds 7: Day Tripper 8: Let's Pretend 9: Take Me in Your Arms (And Love Me) 10: To Love Somebody 11: You and I 12: Dreary Nights and Days 13: Me, the Peaceful Heart 14: Lookout 15: Boy 16: Sad Memories 17: I'm a Tiger 18: Without Him 19: This Time (Bistro)

Questionable song selections
Nonetheless, many of the songs are not commensurate with her abilities, making this CD less than it should have been. Lulu is in excellent voice, and this is one of the few stereo recordings from her during that era. For true fans, only. .

Best Lulu Epic Recordings From The Masters
I was astounded at the TRUE STEREO masters on this CD, even with longer fade outs & sounds I never heard on any previous release. Truly, this CD contains the best sounding masters of Lulu's recordings on Epic. Believe me, I had this material on many other CD's and on records, and it never sounded as clear as on this CD. You owe it to yourself to get this if you're a Lulu fan! Hard to believe, but even the double import CD " TO SIR WITH LOVE - THE COMPLETE EPIC YEARS " does not sound as great as the job the Taragon label did for this CD. Very revealing hearing these songs the way they should be heard, in stereo, not the mono versions found on a lot of other Lulu collections. A MUST! .

Even though it was a really big hit, Lulu was a bit more than a one hit wonder
Lulu was not a one hit wonder, but was cursed, as it were, by having a signature song that blotted out pretty much everything else she ever did. I always thought Lulu was English, but it turns out she is a Scottish lass born Marie McDonald McLaughlin Lawrie (at least until she married Maurice Gibb), and that she had been on the British charts for three years before the movie "To Sir, With Love" came out and the title song became a #1 hit on both sides of the pond. So it is not suprising that " To Sir With Love: The Very Best of 1967-1968" embraces this fate in the title of this 19-track collection. The disadvantage to this particular collection is also found in the title, in that it is restricted to a two year period. In 1968, Lulu had some other chart successes with "Best of Both Worlds" (#32), "Me, The Peaceful Heart" (#53), and "Morning Dew" (#52).

But Lulu had her first Top 10 hit in Britain back in 1964 with "Shout," which made it to #94 in 1964 in the U. S. After this two year period she had minor chart success with "Hum a Song (From Your Heart)" (#54) and "Oh Me Oh My (I'm A Fool For You Baby)" (#22) from 1970, the latter being pretty much the only other Lulu song I could remember from way back when (Yes, I forgot she did the title song for the James Bond film "The Man With the Golden Gun"). With omissions like this, even given the right of this collection to narrow its focus as it sees fit, you have to know there are better Lulu collections out there.

Whichever collection you listen to I think the inevitable conclusion is that the problem was never with Lulu's singing, which is certainly solid in the grand tradition of Brenda Lee, but that except for one notable exception she never had great material to sing. Still, there are some decent efforts here. "You and I," another song written by Mark London, who wrote "To Sir With Love," is an interesting song, and the same can be said for her cover of "Day Tripper. " You also have "The Boat That I Row," which is a Neil Diamond song most people have never heard of, and which was actually considered the A side of Lulu's "To Sir With Love" single in Britain.

Everything comes back to that song with Lulu: it is one of those songs that I stop and listen to every time I hear it on the radio (not that I do that anymore). I liked the duet version that Natalie Merchant and Michael Stipe did at Clinton's MTV inaugural ball, but there is something about the original version, which perfectly captured the emotional climax of the film version. For most people having "To Sir, With Love" is enough, but for fans of 1960s music this collection can help them find a few more Lulu songs to enjoy. .

Lulu's Beginning
The listing is notably consistent in the mid-sixties style, but the remastering is fantastic, bringing out the best in the stereo original masters. Although this set only covers two years, it is an impressive collection showcasing the raw talent that this new Scottish lassie had to give. It's a note of talent to compare these recordings to the current Lulu (see "Together" or "Greatest"). From this diminutive lady, comes a voice is overpowering. A great period piece.

Depth, not width
S. The Scotland-born Lulu had scattered chart successes over three decades in the U. and is often misguidedly pegged a one-hit wonder on the basis of her megahit "To Sir With Love" from the movie of the same name. This new collection from Taragon Records anthologizes her stint with Epic Records yet by virtue of covering only those Epic sides is limited to a mere two years of her output. Unfortunately, her earlier and later Parrot, Atco and Alfa label tunes are not covered here. On the plus side however, is the large number of recordings to come out of her Epic period and even more so, the vastly improved sound quality with many of these tracks remixed from session masters. In fact, all tracks here except one ("Dreary Nights And Days") are in crystalline stereo. Though all overshadowed by ". . . Sir", her three other Epic charting records are here, notably the lush ballad "Best Of Both Worlds". Album cuts and failed singles fill out the remainder of the 19 tracks among which are such standouts as her treatment of Gladys Knight's "Take Me In Your Arms And Love Me". While fans may still be looking for that career-spanning collection to replace the somewhat disappointing Rhino piece of a few years back, for its intent, this piece is excellent.

You can see a complete list of all Lulu discography, or go back to the Lulu tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.