Vocal Masterclass
Oscar Night is a celebration of movies, but last night seemed more like a celebration of music – at least music in the movies. Here are some highlights (and some reasons why David loves him a big-voiced soul sista!)
View before folks start pulling these vids from You Tube!
“Goldfinger” by Shirley Bassey:
“And I Am Telling You” by Jennifer Hudson:
“Skyfall” by Adele:
Sidenote: Adele was so smooth and understated, but she got outsung last night (hence no standing ovation, I suppose?). Still love her, but I did wonder – when she’s measured against the vocal masterclass acts of Bassey and the Barbz (see below) instead of the current pop stars of the 21st century – she didn’t rise to the top of the greatest songstresses.
Finally, the incomparable “The Way We Were” as sung by Barbra Streisand:
These musical numbers definitely made up for Argo taking the Big Prize. This is the first time I saw all the Best Picture nominees, and trust when I say that Argo was DEFINITELY NOT the Best Picture of 2012 (I can name at least three nominated movies that were definitely better – Lincoln, Life of Pi, Zero Dark Thirty). Heck, why stop there? Amour, Les Miserables, Django Unchained, and Beasts of the Southern Wild made deeper impressions, IMO.
There ya’ go! I rank Argo just above Silver Lining’s Playbook. Best Picture … Pfttt!
Posted on February 25, 2013, in current events. Bookmark the permalink. 28 Comments.
Soul Davidian 
Just some amazing vocal performances last night by the legends. My favorites were Shirley and Barbara. Also loved the group performance by the cast of Les Miz. Adele did not have her best performance but she did win an Oscar for Best Song.
I give all of them a standing ovation but Shirley Bassey was my fav. JHud brought me to tears when I saw her sing AIATY on the big screen. As great as she is singing that song, I need to see her with her own original hit before I can rank her with Bassey and Streisand.
Thanks for posting Barbra’s performance. We’re anticipating our second 10+ dump of snow and turned to local weather at 10. She was masterful and easily my favorite, although I enjoyed Shirley, Jennifer and Adele. For Adele and Shirley, I think my subdued reaction had to do with the material. Not into the James Bond movies. Jennifer was really good but not as great as she can be, IMO.
Really great to see *singers* highlighted, though. Sort of wish David could’ve heard it all, and hope the trend continues (and strengthens.)
Should’ve been 10+ inch snows anticipated. I’m sure you know what I meant.
LOVED the focus on music in film at the Oscars last night! Shirley blew me away — I wasn’t as familiar with her so there were no expectations. Now I need to look up more of her music.
JHud can definitely sing but I found her too shouty last night. Music has more impact on me when there are contrasts…soft moments to make the big ones stand out even more. Jennifer, I felt, pushed too hard last night. It actually reminded me of that article I posted a while back about the industry moving toward a “loud=good” mentality. Her rendition in Dreamgirls I thought was much more moving. I do love, though, that once again we got a demonstration that those coming off Idol can actually sing live as opposed to some of the other new acts coming up today who rely on autotune to sound great on their album and then you wonder what the hell happened when you hear them actually perform.
I thought JHud had the right aggressive, shouty tone to match the craziness required of a song like “And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going.” That said, I agree with Desertrat that she still has to prove her greatness with her own original song, and I believe once she shows control and discipline over her craft (the way Bassey, Streisand, to a lesser extend Adele, and yes, most definitely David, do) she could do vocal magic.
Best Buy has the tracklist up now: http://bit.ly/W7WC7M
1. Don’t Runaway
2. Everything and More
3. Forevermore
4. Heart Falls Out
5. I’ll Never Go
6. Love Don’t Hate
7. Nothing Else Better to Do
8. Notice Me
9. Tell Me
10. Wait
Only difference is “I’ll Never Let Go” is now “I’ll Never Go”, as suspected. DRA is still listed as Don’t Runaway though. LOL do people not realize that run away and runaway are two different things?
Really? You’re concerned with spelling at this point?
Here are some bon mots from FOD:
“Many songs we have heard before but, and this is important, with release in US, they are now available for play/other access to US markets.”
“We have had numerous requests from international fans requesting NMHF.”
LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL
Whereas you never seem to have bon mots for or about David. Sad.
jus’ sayin’
Spelling is essential 😉
I already gave my thoughts about the album on the previous thread. I don’t feel a need to repeat myself.
Anon: You were not happy when you thought this album was going to be rejects from the cutting room floor. Now you are not happy it is not.
I don’t think you are a troll. You care a bit to much. What gives?
I’ve been thinking about your comment on the other thread, Ali, about why did David’s team put out this CD instead of just putting out an EP of just the two new songs. In a perfect world this album would get the promotion so that casual fans that didn’t know about the Asian releases of most of these songs would buy the CD. Unfortunately so far the marketing for this has been mainly social media that mostly just us ODD fans see. I do remember David getting asked (before he left on his mission) when/if these songs would be released in the U.S., so some people hadn’t bought the import. I know ODD fans are somewhat disappointed that there aren’t more new songs. At least we do get a couple new ones even though David is gone.
I think it’s just one new song. They changed “I’ll Never Go” to the correct title.
I’m counting “Don’t Run Away” as new along with “Heart Falls Out”. That would be two.
Oh right. One new to us anyway.
One we haven’t heard yet.
Official track list posted on David’s OS with the correct song titles. Several places listed for pre-ordering.
http://davidarchuleta.com/home/?p=5449
Good luck with that. I bet this album doesn’t even sell 5k.
I hope it sells more than that, but selling music is tough these days especially when the artist is out of the country. It’s hard to make a living doing music these days. I’m hoping that David will be able to but it won’t be easy as you like to point out, Anon.
If you have realistic expectations on the sales then there will be no disappointment or surprise. David is away on a mission for 2 yrs. What would you expect in sales Anon? It is a way for David to keep his name out there and satisfy the hard core fans. It is what it is and there is nothing wrong with it. I do hope that when David returns that he does not rush to release new music. I think David needs to take his time to find the right music producer and label to find the right sound for him. I just hope that David did not put himself in the financial position that he does have to rush to release new music.
Since most of the songs were already produced I don’t think this album cost much to put out so fortunately it doesn’t have to sell as much to break even or make a profit. One thing I appreciate about David is that he really is all about the music. He puts out as much music as he can.
anon~ what’s a bon mot?
Regardless, I’ll be happy to have it. I’ve bot tons of non-DA albums over the years on the strength of one or two songs, and sometimes, that one or two songs were all that really grabbed me. With David’s music, I have faith that I’ll want to own the two new songs, plus I’ll appreciate having a good recording of some that I’ve heard online. But I’m sure Anon will dismiss someone like me as easy-to please. Machts nicht.
*bought. Either I need to wake up more or autocorrect does.
anon~ never mind lol, i googled it! i always forget i can ask google. so you are french?
Happy 19th birthday to Daniel A.! My guess is that he’s planning to head off to college on a sports scholarship.
Remember when Paul Anka wanted D to play him on Broadway? 🙂 Well, recently Anka had this to say about AI: “Anka, who said he is tired of listening to bad singers on shows like “American Idol,” “
The same article mentions his new duets album (in comparison to the one Tony Bennett did: “Anka is finishing a duets album with artists such as Gloria Estefan, Dolly Parton, Michael Jackson and Michael Buble. He said he did not pick his partners based on “who’s hot in the industry today.” “
http://www.tcpalm.com/news/2013/feb/20/paul_anka_speaks_his_mind_about_todays_music_indus/
Had David been around this year, a duet w/Anka probably would have been the 3rd new song on the “No Matter How Far” album. 😛
Thanks for posting these clips. I was never a fan of Goldfinger, but Shirley Bassey blew me away! I cannot believe she’s in her mid-70’s! She sounds and looks amazing!
Regarding the upcoming album, I think it’s being released solely for the die hard fans. They know if they change up the track listing just enough, the fans will buy it. I’ve seen so many “Greatest Hits” albums from the same artists over and over again–same idea. Nothing wrong with it, it’s the best way to make a profit on a low scale and keep the fans interested with something (sort of) new. I know I’ll buy it.
David needs to hang onto the die hards as much as possible for the next year or so, and earn some money as well. It would have been nice to include some more of those songs produced for earlier albums that never saw the light of day, but it’s incredibly difficult to get the rights to release them. I think they did the best they could with what was available to them. It would surprise me if they do enough promo for a more mainstream audience.