DESCRIPTION:
It is hard for anybody who achieves celebrity in a different occupation to make it as a singer, perhaps because so many celebrities who can't sing cash in on their celebrity by making records. The tragedy is those who can sing have difficulty achieving credibility. Twiggy had some success, scoring a top twenty UK pop hit with Here I go again and recording two albums in the late seventies that made the UK album charts. This compilation includes all the tracks from the first album and all but four from the second album.

"Here I Go Again" (the hit) was actually an American song written by Country Joe McDonald. Indeed, many of the songs here were covers, but most of them are obscure. Perhaps the best-known songs are "Rain On The Roof" (Loving Spoonful) and "I'll Be Doggone" (the Motown classic).

"Vanilla Olay" is an obscure Jackie De Shannon song, while "Just Bidin' My Time" is a cover of a song taken from an early Anne Murray album. "Vaudeville Man", a song written by Wendy Waldeman, appeared on Maria Muldaur's eponymous debut album (the one featuring Midnight at the oasis). "You've Got Me To Hold On To" was a huge country hit for Tanya Tucker - I first cam across it on an Anne Murray album, although Tanya and Twiggy both recorded it before Anne.

This is an interesting collection of easy listening pop music that causes me to wonder what might have been possible if Twiggy had really been taken seriously as a singer.

This "Best Of" collection from Spectrum was released in 1999, and milks together tracks from Twiggy's first and last studio album that she released on the Mercury Records label. The two records were "Twiggy" (1976), which appears in it's entirety, and "Please Get My Name Right" (1977), where four tracks are omitted from this compilation, and both of these were top 40 hits in the UK chart upon their releases.

Although Twiggy will almost certainly be forever first and foremost be associated as a model, and a very successful one at that, she also processes a pleasant and interesting singing voice. She sings with a great sincerity, and I was immediately won over by this. Most of the easy-listening songs on this album are well worth listening too. The style of this music was very contemporary for the time, and an appealing mixture of soothing country and western ballads, and upbeat catchy pop ditties.

Twiggy's top 20 hit "Here I Go Again", a cover of a song by Country Joe and the Fish, is hauntingly beautiful, and the story-telling "Everything Comes In Time" is another of the CD's highlights. As well as the originals, there are plenty of other cover versions to be found, most of which are really quite obscure though. The most famous is probably the Motown favourite "I'll Be Doggone", and Jackie DeShannon's "Vanilla Olay", which was later recorded by Marianne Faithfull. Surprisingly, the beautiful title track of her second LP "Please Get My Name Right" isn't included on this set, and neither is the touching "Fish in the Sea", which, as it's doubtful that the entire album will receive a re-issue anytime soon, is a shame.

Despite those unfortunate omissions, "The Best of Twiggy" is a good addition to any easy listening music collection, and will serve as a revelation to those many people who aren't aware of the talent this lady possesses. It's just a shame really that the general public still won't know that these recordings, produced by Tony Eyers, even exist.

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Track List

00:00:00 1. Here I Go Again

00:03:35 2. Just Bidin' My Time

00:06:43 3. Vanilla Olay

00:10:04 4. I'll Be Doggone

00:12:45 5. Rings

00:15:24 6. Appalachian Boy

00:18:44 7. Pieces Of April

00:22:52 8. Rain On The Roof

00:25:17 9. Done My Cryin' Time

00:29:11 10. I Lie Awake And Dream Of You

00:32:58 11. You've Got Me To Hold On To

00:36:25 12. Brown Shoes

00:38:39 13. Caravan Tonight

00:42:23 14. Everything Comes In Time

00:46:41 15. Good For You Too

00:50:00 16. Vaudeville Man

00:52:45 17. Everything Falls Into Place

00:55:58 18. I Hope We Get To Love In Time

00:59:01 19. Cooking School

01:01:40 20. 20/20 Hindsight

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