Bocelli sings old romantic favorites

As the nostalgia fever rages on, efforts to find new ways of interpreting the old songs remain at an all-time high. The latest success among these is the album Amore by classical artist Andrea Bocelli. The Italian tenor made his mark by alternately recording opera and power ballads and now does timeless favorites for his 10th international album. Rod Stewart, Barry Manilow, Carly Simon and lots of other singers pretty much keep the American standards moving at a busy clip these days. Hence, it is great to find out that Bocelli now throws focus on old favorites in Spanish, Italian, French and a bit of English.

Bocelli has always been known as a crossover artist. His debut recording Con Te Partiro was a rock ballad performed by a classical voice that won the San Remo Music Festival and went on to become the No. 1 song in Europe for months on end. So Amore is not really a surprise. What I found sweet was Bocelli’s admission that the songs in the album were what he used to sing in piano bars while supplementing his income as a young lawyer many years ago.

The lineup of the album covers a wide range of origins and topics. Les Feuilles Mortes was originally by Edith Piaf of France while Can’t Help Falling in Love was written for Elvis Presley of the USA. Legends Piaf and Elvis are no longer available but I am sure they would have loved to join Bocelli in Amore. Of course, the songs bring back memories of his struggling days but since he is now Andrea Bocelli the famous tenor, he does not merely sing in the album. Several big names in the music business came in to join in the fun and make Amore truly special.

Get a load of this lineup: Amapola, Besame Mucho, Les Feuilles Mortes (Autumn Leaves), Mi Manchi featuring Kenny G., Somos Novios (It’s Impossible) a duet with Christina Aguilera, Canzoni Stonate featuring Stevie Wonder, Solamente Una Vez, Jurame featuring Mario Reyes on the flamenco guitar, Pero Te Extrano, Momentos, L’Appuntamento (Sentado a Beira do Carinho), Cuando Me Enamoro, Estate featuring Chris Botti on trumpet, Can’t Help Falling in Love, live track lifted from Lake Las Vegas’ Amore Under the Desert Sky and Because We Believe. Producers are David Foster and Humberto Gatica who had so much success with Josh Groban’s mix of pop and classical.

Amore has been described as romantic and beautiful. That is all true and Bocelli is in excellent form with the pop arrangements. For me though, the nicest thing about this album is that it sent me in search of my old CDs by Mexican artist Luis Miguel. He is no classical tenor but that guy sings the meanest boleros I have ever heard. Come to think of it, that is what these cover versions of oldies really do best. They make you go back and doubly appreciate the beauty of the originals.

Hits on Billboard

Amore is at No.10 this week in the Billboard 200 albums list. The others are In My Own Words by Ne-Yo; High School Musical, the motion picture soundtrack; If Only You Were Lonely by Hawthorne Heights; Precious Memories by Alan Jackson; The Legend of Johnny Cash by Johnny Cash; Curious George, the movie soundtrack featuring the music of Jack Johnson; Some Hearts by Carrie Underwood; Back to Bedlam by James Blunt; and Amore by Andrea Bocelli.

Meanwhile at the Billboard Hot 100 list, the top 10 singles as per sales and airplay are So Sick by Ne-Yo; Temperature by Sean Paul; You’re Beautiful by James Blunt; Be Without You by Mary J. Blige; I’m N Luv (Wit A Stripper) by T-Pain featuring Mike Jones; Grillz by Nelly featuring Paul Wall, Ali and Gipp; Yo Excuse Me Miss by Chris Brown; Lean Wit It, Rock Wit It by Dem Franchise Boyz featuring Lil Peanut and Charlay; and Unwritten by Natasha Bedingfield.

Walk the Line soundtrack

Speaking of the songs of Johnny Cash, one of the greatest gainers of the week and now ranked No. 11 in the Billboard 200 is Walk the Line. This is the original soundtrack album of the Johnny Cash biopic of the same title. It features superb performances by Joaquin Phoenix as Cash and Reese Witherspoon as his great love June Carter. Although they never thought of themselves as singers, both Joaquin and Reese did their own singing in the movie.

Reese was recently named Best Actress at the Academy Awards for work in the picture. It was unfortunate that Joaquin didn’t win. I am sure though that he and Reese are very happy over the news that they are getting Gold Record Awards for sales of over 500,000 of the Walk the Line album where they did their own singing. Fantastic job.