LOVE MUST BE THE REASON

1972

2371 281, Polydor Germany. CD by Spectrum, 554 172-2 Germany.

Wedding Song (There Is Love)
It's Going To Take Some Time
Love Theme From "The Godfather" (Speak Softly Love)
Close To You
The Summer Knows (Summer Of '42)
Heart Of Gold
Without You
Face In A Crowd (Choral)
The Way Of Love
I Don't Know How To Love Him
Love Must Be The Reason

One of the tracks above actually lends itself as the title of LOVE MUST BE THE REASON, the 1972 Vinyl LP released on POLYDOR as 2371281. This has actually been faithfully remastered by POLYDOR/POLYGRAM's subsidiary SPECTRUM records in Germany and sold worldwide in limited quantities. No wonder I had never seen it before – till now.

Typically, of productions from the 1971-2 period, hits by the CARPENTERS and CAROLE KING and the classic love them from THE GODFATHER movie had to be featured. But James Last softens and slows down the original somewhat to dress these familiar pop songs in the mood of a gentle romantic evening in late summer. This album is impressive also for the employment of a female chorus on 10 out of 11 tracks. The James Last chorus does not imitate Ray Conniff or the Geoff Love Singers, but deliberately arranges his chorus to sing in mostly mid-register with a female sound. I do not know what this technique is called in musicology. But what it does is to bring out an emotional lament and poetry not found in the original vocal versions of these songs. Take Andrew Lloyd-Webber's I Don’t Know How to Love Him, the Carole King/Carpenters hit It's Going to Take Some Time for instance, the singers elicit a whole new dimension to these songs. The first becomes a torchy ballad, the second a melancholic yet hopeful plea for a second time romance. The Harry Nilsson ballad Without You undergoes a fresh makeover of heartbreak emotion with this choral treatment too.

- ALAN CHONG