PRISCILLA PARIS - Love, Priscilla : Her 1960s Solo Recordings (2012) FLAC (tracks), lossless

Most familiar to listeners as the lead singer for the Paris Sisters, Priscilla Paris went on to do some solo recordings that remain obscure even to many collectors. This CD combines her 1967 album Priscilla Sings Herself and her 1969 LP Priscilla Loves Billy onto one disc, adding a 1968 single and four previously unreleased late-'60s tracks. Priscilla Sings Herself (produced by Charlie Greene and Brian Stone, also noted for being involved in the management and/or production of Sonny & Cher and Buffalo Springfield) was fairly different from the Paris Sisters' material in a couple respects. Priscilla wrote all the songs, and the arrangements (by Don Peake) favored a more updated form of orchestrated Hollywood pop. Paris retained her exceptionally sultry, wispy vocal delivery, which had a contained air suggesting someone determined to look into her deep emotions but afraid of falling off a precipice if she went too far. It was an unusual style for that period or any other, sometimes suggesting a hipper Vikki Carr and sometimes faintly echoing the work of one-time Paris Sisters producer Phil Spector (as on the opening track "He Noticed Me"), with "My Window" recalling some of Neil Diamond's moodier early tunes. The four late-'60s outtakes (all but one penned by Paris) are in a fairly similar style, though the track that found release on 1968 single was a decent cover of "By the Time I Get to Phoenix," the lyrics reworded to a woman's point of view. In contrast to the first 15 tracks, Priscilla Loves Billy [sic] is a disappointment, with Paris devoting the entire LP to covers of songs associated with Billie Holiday. Though her idiosyncratic singing remained intact, the arrangements were mild jazzy without a hint of the rock-influenced pop of her prior work, and not of much interest to either Holiday or Paris fans. The liner notes give a thorough and abundantly illustrated account of her solo career, with quotes from her sisters, Peake, and Clancy Grass, who produced or co-produced everything on this compilation postdating Priscilla Sings Herself. by Richie Unterberger  
Tracklist :
1     He Noticed Me 2'46
Priscilla Paris
2     Make Believe World 2'21
Priscilla Paris
3     Stone Is Very, Very Cold 2'21
Priscilla Paris
4     Help Me 2'28
Priscilla Paris
5     I'm Home 3'09
Priscilla Paris
6     Wandering 2'23
Priscilla Paris
7     He Owns the World 3'18
Priscilla Paris
8     My Window 2'38
Priscilla Paris
9     I Can't Complain 2'27
Priscilla Paris
10     Look What You Have Done to Me 2'17
Priscilla Paris
11     By the Time I Get to Phoenix 2'45
Jimmy Webb
12     Some Little Lovin' Lie 3'34
Priscilla Paris
13     The Dark Side of Loving You 2'43
Priscilla Paris
14     Twelve Twenty Nine 3'07
Chris Sedgwick / Peter Lee Stirling
15     I Can't Understand 2'54
Priscilla Paris
16     Just Friends 2'34
John Klenner / Samuel Lewis
17     He's Funny That Way 3'12
Neil Moret (Chas. N. Daniels) / Richard A. Whiting
18     Do Nothing 'Til You Hear from Me 3'23
Duke Ellington / Bob Russell
19     There Is No Greater Love 3'18
Isham Jones / Marty Symes
20     I Loves You Porgy 2'59
George Gershwin / Ira Gershwin / DuBose Heyward
21     Stars Fell On Alabama 2'53
Mitchell Parish / Frank Perkins
22     Tenderly 3'41
Walter Gross / Jack Lawrence
23     My Man 2'58
Jacques Charles / Channing Pollack / Maurice Yvain
24     Moonglow 2'42
Eddie DeLange / Will Hudson / Irving Mills
25     Crazy He Calls Me 3'25
Sidney Russell / Carl Sigman
26     In My Solitude 3'35
Eddie DeLange / Duke Ellington / Irving Mills
27     Girls Were Made to Take Care of Boys 3'29
Ralph Blane
Credits :
Arranged By – Don Peake (pistas: 1, 3 to 11, 16 to 27), Harold Battiste (pistas: 2), Sid Feller (pistas: 16 to 27)
Vocals – Priscilla Paris