Guilty Pleasures

[Tsaraslondon]

While in the car today I was listening to a Fritz Wunderlich CD entitled O sole mio. I don't think it's available any longer, though most of the contents are in DG's commemorative Fritz Wunderlich box set. The disc consists of unbelieveably crude arrangements of popular German and Italian songs, some with the addition of soupy Holywood chorus, and ranges from Lara's Granada in an incredibly splashy arrangement to Giordani's Caro mio ben, which, in this arrangement, betrays none of its 18th century origins, taking in along the way popular songs like Be my love and German popular classics like Du bist die welt fur mich. I have to say I was enjoying it immensely. Ok. It's not great music, but oh what a voice! And Wunderlich himself sounds as if he is enjoying himself enormously. He communicates such joy in the act of singing, almost as if, having accepted that this is not great music, he can just relax and have fun. And fun is what this disc assuredly is. It never fails to lift my spirits if I am feeling low, so there is a place for it amongst the Verdi and the Wagner, the Mahler and the Bach.
What guilty pleasures do other members have?

[Mark]

I used to like Sarah Brightman singing 'O mio babbino caro'.

[Heather Harrison]

I have a few old Mario Lanza LPs that I have been known to listen to occasionally.  He had a great operatic tenor voice, which he used to great effect on popular songs and Broadway hits of his time.

Heather

[Tancata]

Andreas Scholl's disc of folksongs, "Wayfaring Stranger". They're given the full Hollywood movie score treatment - or at least, a synthetic approximation. The spartan pleasures of the original songs are largely forgotten, replaced by deeply cheesy, James Horner-style shimmering strings. The arrangements are also very awkward. The arranger, whoever it was - possibly Scholl or one of the guys from his pop band - completely runs out of inspiration whenever two or more lines intersect, and the whole thing becomes kind of a cliched, grinding mess.

But...

but...

There's something about Scholl singing this music, combined with occasional moments of excitement from the accompaniment, that gives me an occasional urge to stick it on. And there are campy thrills as Scholl jumps back and forth between shrill alto and blustery baritone to play different parts in one of the songs.

[Sergeant Rock]

Vanessa-Mae's hip hop version of the D minor Toccata and Fugue. No more irreverent than Stokowski's orchestration. Bach survives all.




I like her arrangement of the Scottish folk song Bruch used in his Scottish Fantasy. This CD single includes the Bruch too, live from the Philharmonie.




Sarge

[pjme]

I used to like Sarah Brightman singing 'O Mio Bambino Caro'.

Oohhh-that is really, really bad & awful! That little voice - the fake sighs,the fluttering lashes....

(and allow me to correct "bambino in babbino - babbo = father")

O mio babbino caro,
mi piace è bello, bello;
vo'andare in Porta Rossa
a comperar l'anello!
Sì, sì, ci voglio andare!
e se l'amassi indarno,
andrei sul Ponte Vecchio,
ma per buttarmi in Arno!
Mi struggo e mi tormento!
O Dio, vorrei morir!

Babbo, pietà, pietà!
Babbo, pietà, pietà!

[Hector]

None of the above

[hornteacher]

Anything by the Swingle Singers.

[Haffner]

T.V.'s "The Simple Life"!

[johnshade]

.

.

[Joe Barron]

All of my pleasures are guilty.

[Tancata]

Anything by the Swingle Singers.

No need to feel guilty about this! 

[theowne]

Why would anyone be ashamed to
enjoy a certain piece of music?

[Tsaraslondon]

Why would anyone be ashamed to
enjoy a certain piece of music?

Well I'm not actually. The title of my post was more than a little ironic. But there are members of this board who get a trifle sniffy if anyone admits to enjoying anything other than Bach, Beethoven and Wagner, let alone pieces of an unashamedly lighter bent.

[Joe Barron]

Why would anyone be ashamed to
enjoy a certain piece of music?

Well, no, not ashamed, but there are many of my favorite pieces I would not play for the unitiated. In the car, during a long trip with my brother and sisters, for example, I wouldn't just pop Carter's Piano Concerto or Zappa's Lumpy Gravy in the CD player, since I don't know how they'd react. Occasionally, I've had people complain (not my sibs, fortuantely) when I put a classical radio station on in the car or at work. That's what I mean when I say all of my pleasures are guilty—if acknowledged in front of the wrong group, they invariably lead to a public shaming.

[hornteacher]

No need to feel guilty about this! 

Okay cool.

[Dancing Divertimentian]

But there are members of this board who get a trifle sniffy if anyone admits to enjoying anything other than Bach, Beethoven and Wagner, let alone pieces of an unashamedly lighter bent.

That's their problem! :->

Right now, What Am I Listening To, Guilty Pleasure-Wise...

Ellington's redoubtable Cotton Tail, with Ella Fitzgerald scatin' at her light's out best!

[Bogey]

*Their first six efforts.  Note original Budokan cover, and it preceeding Heaven Tonight by a smidge.  Man, for some reason I just want to find me a boatload of Bazooka Bubblegum and chew away!  FWIW, I saw them live on their Dream Police Tour and caught two of Rick's guitar picks!

Oh, and this one:



It has a great cover of Day Tripper and was orginally on a 10 inch!  Just saw that they threw the tracks from this one onto the All Shook Up cd.  I only owned vinyl here, so may have to snag me some used stuff when I see it.  FWIW I read that their drummer, Bun E. Carlos did some work with John Lennon in the 80's....

[PSmith08]

*Their first six efforts.  Note original Budokan cover, and it preceeding Heaven Tonight by a smidge.  Man, for some reason I just want to find me a boatload of Bazooka Bubblegum and chew away!  FWIW, I saw them live on their Dream Police Tour and caught two of Rick's guitar picks!

Nothing to be guilty about in liking Cheap Trick. I, for example, like Dream Police in a totally non-ironic way. Despite the strength of In Color and Heaven Tonight, I think Dream Police is their strongest effort. From the eponymous track to "Writing On The Wall" to "Need Your Love," it's one of the better examples of 1970s pop music and probably three times as good as the best of its "successors" today.

[Tsaraslondon]

Ok, well here's another



I remember when it first came out, it was reviewed in the pages of Gramophone, where the reviewer was somewhat a loss for words!