Lovely Standards

Lovely Standards is the fourth studio album by American R&B-soul singer-songwriter Amel Larrieux, released in the United States on May 22, 2007, by Blisslife Records. It consists of a collection of covers of Great American Songbook jazz standards.

Lovely Standards
Studio album by
Amel Larrieux
ReleasedMay 22, 2007 (2007-05-22)
Recorded2006-2007
Quad Recording Studios
(New York City, New York)
Genre
LabelBlisslife
ProducerAmel Larrieux, Laru Larrieux (also executive)
Amel Larrieux chronology
Morning
(2006)		 Lovely Standards
(2007)		 Ice Cream Everyday
(2013)
Singles from Lovely Standards
  1. "If I Were a Bell"
    Released: 2007
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Entertainment Weekly(C)[1]
PopMatters(6/10)[2]

Background

In an interview with Nu-Soul Magazine in late April 2009, Larrieux said of the album: "[W]e knew that it was gonna be a real niche album. It was gonna be about people that were truly loyal to me as an artist and willing to go wherever I was going." She went on to say that the album is geared toward people who "really do like jazz for jazz, not because the artist that they know is doing it, but they listen to jazz and they're understanding of being experimental within that form." Larrieux continues, referring to husband and producer Laru Larrieux: "We purposely only pressed up a small amount of albums, and you know, didn't go huge with it. We kind of wanted to feel our way around it, and view it as a kinda small intimate thing."[3]

Track listing
  1. "If I Were a Bell" (Frank Loesser) – 3:20
  2. "Try Your Wings" (Michael Barr, Dion McGregor) – 3:17
  3. "Lucky to Be Me" (Leonard Bernstein, Adolph Green, Betty Comden) – 5:01
  4. "Wild Is the Wind" (Dimitri Tiomkin, Ned Washington) – 2:57
  5. "Shadow of Your Smile" (Johnny Mandel, Paul Francis Webster) – 2:53
  6. "You're My Thrill" (Jay Gorney, Sidney Clare) – 3:34
  7. "Younger Than Springtime" (Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein II) – 4:50
  8. "Something Wonderful" (Rodgers, Hammerstein) – 3:31
  9. "If I Loved You" (Rodgers, Hammerstein) – 3:03
  10. "I Like the Sunrise" (Duke Ellington) – 4:54

Original versions
Song Original performer Year
"If I Were a Bell" Isabel Bigley 1950
"Try Your Wings" Blossom Dearie 1958
"Lucky to Be Me" John Battles 1944
"Wild Is the Wind" Johnny Mathis 1957
"The Shadow of Your Smile"
(retitled "Shadow of Your Smile")		 Johnny Mandel 1965
"You're My Thrill" Ward Silloway 1933
"Younger Than Springtime" William Tabbert 1949
"Something Wonderful" Terry Saunders 1956
"If I Loved You" John Raitt and Jan Clayton 1945
"I Like the Sunrise" Duke Ellington and His Orchestra 1949

Personnel

Charts
Chart (2007)[4] Peak
position
U.S. Billboard 200 195
U.S. Billboard Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums 32
U.S. Billboard Top Jazz Albums 3
U.S. Billboard Top Independent Albums 22

Release history
Country Date Label
United States May 22, 2007 Blisslife
Canada
United Kingdom June 4, 2007
Germany October 9, 2007

References
  1. "Lovely Standards". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on 2012-09-28.
  2. PopMatters review
  3. DJ Rahdu (April 21, 2009). "Amel Larrieux Interview (2009)". Nu-Soul Magazine. Archived from the original on July 24, 2009. Retrieved 2009-04-23.
  4. "Lovely Standards > Charts & Awards > Billboard Albums". Allmusic. Retrieved 2008-05-01.
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