More Reviews: THE DEEP

 

Remembering our Dear Friend DEEE RANGED (dee hobson) One night at the Rat after Dee had a blue streak of hair, I put my hand over the P in The Deep and it said THE DEE. I don't know why but she flipped out. Today she would find it hilarious. God bless her heart. Here's my review: AllMusic Review by Joe Viglione [-]

Casablanca released the original motion picture soundtrack to The Deep on blue colored vinyl, one of the few highlights of this work conducted by the legendary John Barry. He teams up with Donna Summer, who had a couple of gold records prior to this but had not ascended to the "Queen of Disco" level quite yet. Together they write "Theme From the Deep (Down, Deep Inside)," which is actually a decent orchestrated tune from Summer's dance world. It sounds influenced by Barry White's 1973 work with "Love Unlimited Orchestra" and could have fit into any number of James Bond films. Like the movie, which featured Jacqueline Bisset, Nick Nolte, Louis Gossett, and Eli Wallach, the soundtrack has faded into the 1970s -- an artifact of the disco era. Beckett's "Disco Calypso" is innocuous and somewhat monotonous, produced by Buddy Scott and engineered by Ed Sprigg. It comes between the three variations of "Down, Deep Inside" -- the film "theme" that makes up side two. Side one is a 24-minute-plus ballet based on the score from the motion picture The Deep, which Barry titles "Return to the Sea - 2033 A.D." It doesn't have the attraction of Jerry Goldsmith's Planet of the Apes work, or Barry's beloved award-winning moments, but it is still pleasant enough. Summer has her "Love to Love You Baby" orgasms in the first of the two versions she sings on, which is amusing, though the slower take that ends the disc has more intrigue. On the up-tempo track that opens side two she almost sounds like an on-key Yoko Ono with the "Something warm is coming inside of me" line. Would make a nice mix with Ono's "Walking on Thin Ice" and should have been a big hit. Along with the blue vinyl, it is the best thing about the record.

https://www.allmusic.com/album/the-deep-original-soundtrack-mw0000874299

AllMusic Review by Joe Viglione [-]

Many Italian homes in the '50s and early '60s had music by Lou Monte on the turntable -- and not just his big Top Five 1962 hit "Pepino the Italian Mouse," a foreign version of David Seville's Chipmunk songs. In April 1958, when Seville found fame with his "Witch Doctor" tune, a great voice went Top 15 the month prior with a remake of the 1938 Rudy Vallée tune "Lazy Mary." Though "Lazy Mary" was a novelty record of sorts, "Luna Mezza Mare" also helped bring the serious side of Monte to a wider American audience. The guitarist/singer's album Lou Monte Sings for You starts off with the humorous story of a woman who smokes in bed, sleeps late, and is ordered by the narrator to get off of the mattress because they "need the sheets for the table." Ably assisted by the orchestrations of Hugo Winterhalter (who worked with Tommy Dorsey and Count Basie, among others) and Joe Reisman (of Perry Como and Burt Bacharach fame), wonderful renditions of the classic "Mama," "I Have But One Heart," "Tango of Roses," and other titles found new popularity. Monte sings bilingual on these records in a combination of English mixed with Italian resulting in people from all walks of life repeating his pronunciation of both languages. The English he can drop on the listener clearly and cleverly makes for a quick course in Italian delivered with a touch of class. June Bundy's liner notes are amazingly on target, succinct, and informative -- the woman who penned for Steve Lawrence and the McGuire Sisters, among others, gets it right. "Roman Guitar" and "Non Dimentican" show this performer as serious as Jerry Vale, Perry Como, and other popular crooners -- a major talent on an impressive dozen tunes that stand the test of time. https://www.allmusic.com/album/lou-monte-sings-for-you-mw0001232566