www.musicweek.com PRODUCTREISSUES THE BEAT • WEST SIDE STORY • ARETHA FRANKLIN • BURT BACHARACH

THE BEAT: I Just Can’t Stop It / Wha’ppen? / Special Beat Service (Edsel EDSG 8016)/8017/ 8018)

The Specials were fairly special, Madness a bit too nutty, and The Selecter a trifle

frenetic, but for me, of all the 2 Tone acts to rise to prominence at the end of the 1970s, The Beat were the best. Starting out as ska revivalists, the Birmingham band had its own distinctive style, and put together a run of a dozen hits, some deliciously different covers, others more politicised and socially conscious originals. Their sense of fun and originality is apparent from wonderful remakes of Smokey Robinson & The Miracles’ Tears Of A Clown and Andy Williams’ Can’t Get Used To Losing You, both recast as breezy ska confections, while their own sugared pills include Stand Down, Margaret, a musically melodic but lyrically potent request for then Prime Minister Margaret

Thatcher to resign from office. Radio play was, of course, affected by the track’s political nature, so it had to serve as a double A-side along with the more innocuous Best Friend. The three albums The Beat released during this heady period – 1980-82) – have been superbly upgraded as deluxe two-CD+DVD digipack sets, with audio extras including B-sides, remixes, BBC sessions, dubs, unreleased tracks and rarities. The DVDs are equally mouthwatering, with appearances on Top Of The Pops, OTT and The Tube and singles’ promotional videos included alongside some interview footage.

ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK: West Side Story (Columbia Masterworks 88725424772)

West Side Story is one of the best- loved musicals of all time, and the 1957 Broadway

production became a blockbuster

movie in 1962, with a memorable soundtrack composed by Leonard Bernstein with lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. To mark its 50th anniversary, it has been beautifully remastered, with the sonic upgrade breathing new life into familiar tracks such as Maria, Somewhere, I Feel Pretty and America. Remarkably successful at the time – it spent 54 weeks at No.1 in the US, and 13 here – the soundtrack holds up extremely well despite its vintage, and is sure to benefit from a series of special presentations of the film in London this week, as well as the understandable media interest that its 50th anniversary will excite.

ARETHA FRANKLIN: Jump To It (Big Break CDBBR 0154)/Get It Right (CDBBR 0160)/Aretha (CDBBR 0173)

Big Break’s fast- expanding catalogue of remastered and expanded soul,

funk and dance albums nabs one of its biggest names yet with the release of a trio of 1980s album - the first two produced by Luther Vandross, the last by multiple producers - by the estimable Aretha Franklin. Although Lady ‘Ree’s vocals were arguably not as sweet and soulful as they were a decade before, she is steered superbly well by her collaborators, with Vandross’ winning title track setting the pace and style for Jump To It, which dates from 1982, and the following year’s Get It Right. Aretha – it’s the 1980 album of that name, not the 1961 or 1986 ones – was Franklin’s Arista debut after a 13-year tenure with Atlantic, and includes the excellent United Together as well as a quirky remake of the Doobie Brothers hit What A Fool Believes.

VARIOUS: Burt Bacharach: Long Ago Last Summer 1959-1961 (El ACMEM 233CD)

More eclectic and less distinctive

than his later work, this collection of Burt Bacharach songs – most

with lyrics by his long-term collaborator Hal David – is nevertheless a delightful collection from the turn of the 1960s, cramming no fewer than 33 songs onto a single CD. Among the artists tackling his technically tricky creations are Perry Como, Steve Lawrence, Keely Smith and the magnificent Gloria Lynne. It’s noticeable that a fair few tracks are novelties - including Dick Van Dyke’s early take on The New Christy Minstrels Hit Three Wheels On My Wagon, which shows his singing ability to be roughly on a par with his cockney accent – but the exquisite Chuck Jackson recording of I Wake Up Crying and The Shirelles’ Baby It’s You demonstrate Bacharach’s fast blossoming talent to the full.

22.06.12 MusicWeek 51