10 Golden Years - Brenda Lee

 

All Alone Am I

10 Golden Years

Brenda Lee

De Luxe Limited Edition 

Decca Records DL 4757

A Division of MCA Inc.

1966

From the inside cover: Looking back over the years, I sometimes try to reconstruct in my own mind the things that make Brenda the star she is. What makes a star? Essentially, I think you're a star when you become simply too tough to follow. That makes it all very simple, except that it doesn't really explain anything. Of course Brenda Lee is tough to follow. And of course she has the existing, big, full voice that spells star. But there is much more. 

Perhaps one way to say it is that she communicates. She's always in touch with people. Some artist who taste success climb up on a pedestal. That's no good because up there you get removed from your people and the distance makes it hard to keep on communicating.

Brenda Lee has been a star for 10 wonderful years. Barely in her twenties, she is, quite literally, a legend in her time. One very good reason is that she never has let anyone put her on a pedestal. Her natural love for people would never let that happen. She is a home in the most elegant restaurant and in the corner coffee shop, and with the broad range of society, from the common man to royalty itself.

Brenda has performed in more than 30 countries around the world. And she has consistently shown her deep sense of communication by her amazing faculty for getting along with and understanding people she can't even talk to. Wherever she has gone, countries and people seem to fall in love with her almost as soon as she has stepped off her plane and waved hello.

When Brenda arrived at Tokyo's Haneda Airport last year, there must have been at least 500 young people sanding ab out, waiting to see her. They had uniforms on, as school children in many countries do, and they all were wearing blue caps with the initials "B.L.F.C." There was no pandemonium. They were all rather solemn-faced. Downtown, we saw more of the hats. Finally, about a week later, it dawned on us that the letters stood for "Brenda Lee Fan Club." That is the kind of loyalty and love Brenda inspires. 

And appearing in person for those fans was not enough for Brenda. Although she doesn't know a word of Japanese, she learned a Japanese song and recorded it in the native tongue in Tokyo just for her Japanese fans. She has also done the same thing in Germany for her German fans... not just a translation of an American song hit, but a native song for the local audience. Both the Japanese and the German recordings got to be major hits in their countries too.

Yes, Brenda has a wonderfully warm personality, a sown-to-earth approach to life and a very frank dislike of the star treatment. She also has great natural show business instincts, and that too is all part of being a star.

So many young entertainers today are really at a loss when it comes to a performance. Somebody takes them into a studio, they make a record, and overnight, they become a "star." Then somebody else winds them up, turns them loose on a stage, and that's it. But Brenda has always had great sho business reflexes. She seems to be able to do the right thing on a stage instinctively. She has, if I may coin a word, "trouperism." She is a trouper all the way.

Brenda carries around in her memory, a recollection of a story she once read, quoting Frank Sinatra on one of the great axioms of show business: "the one thing you owe your audience is a good performance." She never gorgets that. She'll get fighting mad if she ever gets the idea she has gien a bad perforance. Of course, I can't remember that last time she ever did. But sometimes sound equipment or lighting or something else may go bad. That will set her off because she knows she isn't appearing at her best. It's terrible distressing to her.

Brenda feels a tremendous loyalty to her fans, whether it's the queen of England or farmers and their families attending a Midwest Fair. Last year, Brenda died a Royal Command Performance for Queen Elizabeth in London. She felt as much at home in those regal circumstances as she did on an outdoor stage at a Sate Fair, with the rain pouring down. She sang her heart out until the rain short-circuited the microphones.

She simply gives it everything she's got, no matter where she's singing. When Brenda first went to Brazil a few years ago, she was an unknown for the first day. After her first performance, she became the toast of Brazil and was summoned to the Presidential Palace, where that nation's chief executive described her as "the best good-will ambassador the United States has ever had."

Brenda first went to Paris as a supporting act for one week at the Olympia Theater. She was quickly moved up to second billing and held over for five weeks. No wonder. The Paris newspaper, Le Figaro, raved, "Never before since Judy Garland, has anyone caused so much clapping of the hands and stomping of the feet." In the same vine, the Paris-based, American Weekend Magazine, described Frenda as "A new star in the skies of Paris... the new idol of French teenagers." Parisians screamed, almost in unison, "Vive Brenda!"

In Rome, a single TV appearance brought this comment from La Notte: "She established herself as a top star in Italy in just one performance." And so it has gone, virtually the world over, and, occasionally, under the most trying conditions. Once in Philadelphia, she finished 15 agonizing minutes of her night club act after twisting a vertebra out of joint. On another occasion in England, she collapsed from exhaustion in the wings, and never heard the frantic shouting for an encore. In North Carolina, when Brenda was sent to the hospital with heat exhaustion, I had to bring the promoter to her bedside to tell her it would be all right if she missed a show, before she would calm down. That is part of why I call "troperism."

She has won more awards than even I can believe or count, here at home and all over the world. In Europe, in fact, she has been voted the Number One girl singer in 1962, '63, '64 and '65. In Britain, some people even refer to this as "the Brenda Lee era."

To win this kind of popularity, which brings so very many tributes, accolades and awards, a performer simply has to have the broadest kind of appeal. That's definitely another part of Brenda's remarkable success story. She has never been particularly limited to any specific age group. From the time she first appeared on television sitting perched on Steve Allen's piano, she has had the adults, the tots and the teenagers alike in her corner.

And since then, she has shown again and again a sense of being "at home" with almost any kind of song, as long as it's a good song in its own right. She has enjoyed hits with songs ranging from soft love ballads, to standards, to rocking, uptempo things. Brenda simply wants to entertain everyone with her music. And she hopes to widen her appeal as well. One of her future goals is to do a show on Broadway. She has been preparing for that day, by doing summer stock shows like "The Wizard of Oz" and "Bye Bye Birdie," and she loves it.

She would love to take her music to even more places in the world, particularly Eastern Europe. Political barries have never seemed to interfere with Brenda' making friends in those countries. She known they're out there from the hundreds of letters that keep flowing in. Her ability to make and keep friends, even among people she's never even seen honestly seems unparalleled. 

Most of all, I think Brenda loves making records. Since her first attempt at recording, she has come up with what certainly must be a record of some kind... 24 consecutive release on the charts, and many of them two-sided hits as well!

There are several reasons for her success with records. First, without question, is the power and warmth and persuasiveness of her singing voice. She has always had this quality and it has just grown and grown with each passing year.

Brenda is also always listening to records and going to see performers work. The stays in tune with what's going on and she soaks up a great dal by just watching and hearing others. She also seems to have an uncanny ability to pick the right songs for herself. Beyond all that, she has an amazingly talented and knowledgeable record producer in Owen Bradley, who has worked with her almost since her first record.

It's parlay that would be difficult to top. Personally, I don't think it can be topped. And when you add her wonderful, six man backing crew, the Casuals, well, that's it. It has been literally 10 golden years for Brenda. 10 resplendent years of great record hits that still echo with pleasant familiarity, like old friends, whenever they're played. Records like Jambalaya, Sweet Nothin's, I'm Sorry, Fool # One, Dynamite, Dum Dum, All Alone Am I, As Usual, Too Many Rivers, Bill Bailey Won't You Please Come Home, and many others, add up to Brenda's own Hall of Fame of disk hits. – Dub Albritten

From Billboard - June 4, 1966: Featuring her most memorable hits of the past 10 years, one for each year, Miss Lee has a blockbuster sales item here. From the opening "Jambalaya" to "Sweet Nothin's," "I'm Sorry," "All Alone Am I" and her 1965 hit, "Too Many Rivers" she covers not only a span of music, but her growth in vocal styling. Limited edition should prove a collectors item.

1956 - Jambalaya

1957 - Dynamite

1958 - Bill Bailey, Won't You Please Come Home

1959 - Sweet Nothin's

1960 - I'm Sorry

1961 - Fool #1

1962 - Dum Dum

1963 - All Alone Am I

1964 - As Usual 

1965 - Too Many Rivers