Liberace

I found both albums, Liberace’s Greatest Hits, and The Best Of Liberace, at Pyramid Records at around the same time, and I couldn’t decide which one to keep, so I kept both, and here they are. The only song that both collections had in common was I’ll Be Seeing You, and one was vocal and one instrumental, so not even that counts.

This is a gargantuan collection by one of music’s oddest performers, way too much Liberace considering that for all the greatest hits and best of of the titles, the only record of his that was anything like a hit any time from 1995 on was Unchained Melody, which reached number 20 on the UK charts in the summer of 1955, and which isn’t included on either LP.

It’s easy enough to say that Liberace is an MOR version of Little Richard; he was certainly flamboyant enough. But the resemblance is superficial; There was no way Liberace could express that kind of character in the type of music he did; Richard’s persona went right through the recordings. Adult contemporary just isn’t a medium for expressing extremeness.

And no, his first name was not Harold.

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Liberace:

• I’m Always Chasing Rainbows
• Warsaw Concerto
• Johnson Rag
• Tchaikovksy’s Piano Concerto No. 1 – He does the intro.
• I’ll Be Seeing You – A relatively rare vocal, and the truth is that he couldn’t sing all that well.
• Beer Barrel Polka
• “Moonlight” Sonata – Beethoven.
• El Cumbanchero
• Cement Mixer – Humour, of the lame variety.
• Moon River – Mancini.
• Mack The Knife – Weill and Brecht.
• Over The Rainbow – From The Wizard Of Oz.
• Theme From A Summer Place – A hit for Percy Faith.
• Near You – A hit for Roger Williams.
• Schubert’s Serenade – Shubert.
• September Song
• Greensleeves
• Never On Sunday – From the movie.
• Love Letters – A hit for Ketty Lester, and later for Elvis.
• Love Is A Many Splendored Thing – A hit by The Four Aces.
• Tammy – A hit for Debby Reynolds, and for The Ames Brothers.
• More (Theme From Mondo Cane) – A hit for Kai Winding.
• Bewitched
• Fascination - A hit for Jane Morgan
• Little Things Mean A Lot – A hit for Joni James.
• Gigi – A hit for Vic Dana.
• Third Man Theme – From the movie.
• I’ll Be Seeing You – Instrumental.
• Intermezzo
• Me And My Shadow – Vocal.
• As Time Goes By – From Casablanca.
• Charade – Mancini.