A love story by Michael Ball

I wanted to save writing about this album for Valentine’s Day. It is titled A Love Story, the Soundtrack to a Love Affair, and it is all about love. It features one of the most popular British song artists of today, Michael Ball. But then, romance knows no time or season and I can find no better way to get into a loving mood then by listening to this album.

A Love Story is just what the title says it is. It is no mere collection of love songs set one after the other in one CD. The songs were chosen for their content and sequenced in such a way as to tell a complete love story. This is really nothing new. I recall an album titled Boy Meets Girl from many years ago. I believe this was one of the earliest concept albums ever produced. It also did the same, tell a love story through the songs. Now, I do not recall though if anybody has done something similar in recent times. So this one is really quite a treat.

Then there is Michael Ball. If I remember right, A Love Story, must be his first album made available here on regular release. That is really quite a pity as he is one singer we should hear more of, more so at times like these when pop/classical recordings are all the rage. Think Andrea Bocceli and Josh Groban. Acclaimed as one of the finest voices of the 20th century, well, it is now the 21st, and he sounds as good as ever, Ball should appeal to the romantic Pinoys who can never resist beautiful expressive voices.

Ball comes from the UK where he is a huge star and he has also had some degree of success in Europe and the US of A. Hopefully, A Love Story will give him his Asian following. He started out in musicals. First in the chorus of the rock opera Godspell, then as one of the leads in the operetta The Pirates of Penzance. These appearances soon led to one of the most illustrious careers in London’s West End in the late ’80s.

Ball was the original Marius of Les Miserables where he introduced the poignant "Empty Chairs and Empty Tables." He was also in the original production of Phantom of the Opera as Raoul and the male lead in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Aspects of Love and in Stephen Sondheim’s Passion, which he also performed on Broadway. His TV series where he has other big British stars like Cliff Richard as guests also contributed to his popularity.

So this famous voice is what we hear in A Love Story telling this tale of love so right, gone wrong, then right again and finally ended. The songs are an interesting mix and Ball covers hits that go as far back as Al Jolson’s Me and My Shadow to something as recent as You Had Me from Hello, and the works of a wide range of composers, from Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart to Robert Palmer, from Burt Bacharach with Hal David to Burt Bacharach with Elvis Costello. Now, take a look at the titles and see if you can make out the story Ball is trying to tell.

The beginning: This Guy’s In Love with You, What are You Doing the Rest of Your Life, Time in a Bottle, What Makes You Stay, Didn’t We, You Had Me from Hello, I Wish You Love, She Makes My Day, You’ve Changed, God Give Me Strength, I Wish I Were in Love Again and Me and My Shadow. The end. I see the last cut as the realization that one can be alone and happy even after a disastrous love affair. Ball performs this as a duet and singing the "shadow" part is no other but actor and I must say also singer Antonio Banderas.

Ball and Banderas were two of the most prominent performers in the Andrew Lloyd Webber 50th Birthday Concert. See if you can get a copy of this video as it is one of the most entertaining I’ve ever seen. This should also give you a look at Ball on stage. Elaine Paige, Glenn Close, Donny Osmond, Sarah Brightman and Boyzone are also among the guests. They all do songs from Lloyd Webber musicals like Cats, Evita, Phantom of the Opera, Sunset Boulevard and others.

Now back to Ball and his A Love Story. After you have listened to the album, why don’t you try to come up with your own love story, this time using your own favorite songs.