MEMORIES FROM THE PAST ~ DECEMBER 1974

RETRO & VINTAGE ~ VOLUME 5

RATO'S MUSIC ~ VOLUME 143

RATO'S MUSIC ~ VOLUME 142

RATO'S MUSIC ~ VOLUME 141

Bernadette Peters 1st Album

  Original released on LP MCA 3230 (US, 1980)

Bernadette's debut album in 1980, titled “Bernadette Peters” contained 10 songs, including "If You Were the Only Boy", "Gee Whiz" (a Top 40 hit single), "Heartquake", "Should've Never Let Him Go", "Chico's Girl", "Pearl's a Singer", "Other Lady", "Only Wounded", "I Never Thought I'd Break" and "You'll Never Know". The original cover painting by Alberto Vargas was one of his last works, created at the age of 84. According to The New York Daily News, Peters «persuaded him to do one last 'Vargas Girls' portrait... She just went to his California retreat, asked him to do one more, he looked at her and said, 'You ARE a Vargas girl!'» She kept the original painting. Rolling Stone magazine wrote of her debut album:

«Peters debuts on record as a first-rate pop torch singer: Melissa Manchester with soul, Bette Midler on pitch. Her album has already spawned the hit single "Gee Whiz," a laid-back, doo-wop version ... that makes Peters' piping, little-girl voice seem almost like a cutesy novelty. There are also a couple of Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil rock tunes in which she sounds slightly trashy and out of her depth. The Peter Allen songs on side two are really more her style. In fact, the whole second half of "Bernadette Peters" is just about perfect, from the star's semi-C&W rendition of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller's "Pearl's a Singer" to a wistful recap of Harry Warren and Mark Gordon's romantic "You'll Never Know."
But the best cuts are in between. "Other Lady," written by Lesley Gore(!) with Ellen Weston, tackles an age-old problem with... devastating eloquence... and Peters delivers it with the proper brooding introspection. Allen's compositions, "Only Wounded" (co-written with Carole Bayer Sager) and the torchy "I Never Thought I'd Break" (co-written with Dean Pitchford), feature the finest singing on the LP...the unusual absence of airbrushing echo places heavy demands on the chanteuse's sultry soprano. That Bernadette Peters rises to the occasion makes her performance that much more impressive.»

RATO'S MUSIC ~ VOLUME 140

RATO'S MUSIC ~ VOLUME 139

RETRO & VINTAGE ~ VOLUME 4

"Pennies From Heaven For You And Me"

Original released on double LP Warner Bros 2HW 3639
(US, 1981)

«I want to live in a world where the songs come true», says Arthur, the sheet music salesman in “Pennies From Heaven”. «There must be someplace where the songs are for real».

And here they are, the songs that lit up his life and made sweet melodies of his fondest dreams. Songs that still say, in their happy bounce and seductive rhythm, that the world needs to put on its dancing shoes.

We all have some such melody in our hearts. Music that brings back a special moment, an enchanted memory, or a minute or two of magic when workaday troubles fade into love and kisses. Where a silvery moon rides high in a velvet sky – forever.

It was Arthur’s misfortune to place too much trust in a world where the songs don’t always come true. We live our real lives well and truly on this side of the rainbow. But some part of us, like Arthur, refuses to be earthbound. We put on the music. Our feet tap. Our fingers click. The smiles come. Our hearts lift…

And for a while, the songs come true. Pennies turn once again from small change that buys next to nothing into glistening little dreams that freshen up our oldest and deepest yearnings. Listen to them tinkle and chink!

“PENNIES FROM HEAVEN”, in fact. Little coins which fill a pocketful of dreams. The one place where, as Arthur insists,
«The songs are for real».
Dennis Potter, author of “PENNIES FROM HEAVEN”

A long time ago
A million years BC
The best things in life
Were absolutely free
But no one appreciated
A sky that was always blue
And no one congratulated
A moon that was always new
So it was planned that
they would vanish now and then
And you must pay
before you get them back again
That's what storms were made for
And you shouldn't be afraid for
Every time it rains it rains
Pennies from heaven
Don't you know each cloud contains
Pennies from heaven
You'll find yor fortune falling
All over town
Be sure that your umbrella
is upside down
Trade them for a package
of sunshine and flowers
If you want the things you love
You must have showers
So when you hear it thunder
Don't run under a tree
There'll be pennies from heaven
for you and me