Collectors’ Choice Music, US
(WWCCM09202)
Original release date: March, 2008
Wide release date: May 27, 2008
Collectors’ Choice Music, in association with EMI Music Special Markets, presents Peggy’s albums Then Was Then, Now Is Now (1965) and Bridge Over Troubled Water (1970), on CD in their entirety for the first time, with three complementary bonus tracks.
Throughout most of the second phase of Peggy’s career at Capitol Records (1957-1972), she released two original albums per year, as was the case when both these albums were issued. Then Was Then, Now Is Now was Peggy’s second release of 1965, following Pass Me By, previously released on CD by EMI. Bridge Over Troubled Water was her first release of 1970, and was followed later that year by Make It With You, which makes its CD debut on a separate new release from Collectors’ Choice Music.
Although five years separate Then Was Then… from Bridge Over Troubled Water, the albums share a far-reaching, cross-generational variety of songs, all navigated gracefully by Peggy. Then Was Then… includes a few songs dating back to the 1930s (They Say, The Masquerade Is Over); I Go to Sleepby Ray Davies of The Kinks; the Willie Dixon blues standard Seventh Son; Sammy Cahn and Jimmy Van Heusen’s Ev’rybody Has the Right to Be Wrong, from the current Broadway musical Skyscraper; Johnny Mandel and Paul Francis Webster’s The Shadow of Your Smile, a then-new film theme that would soon become a standard; and the album’s title track, one of a handful of songs Peggy co-wrote with the great Cy Coleman.
Bridge Over Troubled Water also includes a 1930s standard (I See Your Face Before Me); two Burt Bacharach and Hal David covers (Always Something There to Remind Me and Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head); the blues standard The Thrill Is Gone; Randy Newman’s Have You Seen My Baby?; the Oscar-nominated What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life? by Michel Legrand and Marilyn and Alan Bergman; and the much-loved title song by Paul Simon.
Two songs from these albums, also released as singles, made brief appearances on the Billboard adult contemporary charts: Free Spirits fromThen Was Then…, and You’ll Remember Me from Bridge Over Troubled Water. The latter was co-written by Arthur Hamilton, whose songs Sing a Rainbow and He Needs Me Peggy sang in the film Pete Kelly’s Blues.
Sid Feller arranged and conducted all but one of the tracks on Then Was Then…, recorded between June and September of 1965. The remaining track, Leave It to Love, dates from a Billy May session in May, 1963. The CD’s three bonus tracks all relate to the Then Was Then… sessions. Stop Living in the Past and Maybe This Summer, from the 1965 Feller sessions, were released only on singles, while This Could Be the Start of Something Big is from the same 1963 May session as Leave It to Love. David Cavanaugh served as producer for Then Was Then, Now Is Now. Bridge Over Troubled Water, produced by Phil Wright, was arranged and conducted by Mike Melvoin and recorded in February of 1970.
Liner notes for this CD are provided by Dan Schaarschmidt, a Los Angeles-based songwriter-musician and music publishing and production coordinator.
Produced by Jim Pierson, all four releases in the Collectors’ Choice series (Then Was Then, Now Is Now / Bridge Over Troubled Water; The Lost ’40s and 50’s Capitol Masters; All Aglow Again!; Make It With You / Where Did They Go) will be available exclusively from Collectors’ Choice upon initial release in mid-March, 2008, and available in wider release on May 27, 2008.
Then Was Then, Now Is Now
Originally released as Capitol ST-2388 (1965)
1. Trapped (In the Web of Love)
2. Losers Weepers
3. Free Spirits
4. I Go to Sleep
5. Leave It to Love
6. The Shadow of Your Smile
7. They Say
8. Seventh Son
9. Then Was Then and Now Is Now
10. Everybody Has the Right to Be Wrong
11. (I’m Afraid) The Masquerade Is Over
Bonus Tracks
(from the Then Was Then, Now Is Now sessions)
12. Stop Living in the Past – Capitol single 5488 (1965) – previously unreleased stereo version
13. Maybe This Summer – Capitol single 5469 (1965) – previously unreleased stereo version
14. This Could Be the Start of Something Big – unreleased until 2005
Bridge Over Troubled Water
Originally released as Capitol ST-463 (1970)
15. You’ll Remember Me
16. Bridge Over Troubled Water
17. The Thrill Is Gone (From Yesterday’s Kiss)
18. Something Strange
19. Have You Seen My Baby?
20. He Used Me
21. (There’s) Always Something There to Remind Me
22. I See Your Face Before Me
23. Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head
24. What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life?
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