Debbie Reynolds - Cocktail Hour '2000

Tracks list

Tracklist

CD1:

01. Tammy (2:45)
02. A Very Special Love (2:56)
03. Am I That Easy to Forget (2:19)
04. City Lights (2:25)
05. Fine and Dandy (2:56)
06. Gimme a Little Kiss Will Ya (2:31)
07. Youre the Cream in My Coffee (3:16)
08. You Wont Be Satisfied (2:44)
09. Aba Daba Honeymoon (2:03)
10. Why Not Me? (2:19)

CD2:

01. Right or Wrong (2:37)
02. Are You for Real? (2:01)
03. Hey Jimmy, Joe, John, Jim, Jack! (2:53)
04. Music Box (2:57)
05. Whistle (1:18)
06. Love Tastes Like Strawberries (2:02)
07. Joey (2:36)
08. Moonglow (3:46)
09. Here I Am in Love Again (2:51)
10. Is Goodbye That Easy to Say? (2:18)


At the turn of the millennium, legitimate in-print U.S. compilations of the
recordings of Debbie Reynolds were in sufficiently short supply that when one
appeared, however modest it might have been, one would tend to grade it on a
curve. Perhaps, then, it would be better to sidestep the flaws in Cocktail Hour
-- that, with a running time of less than 52 minutes, it could have fit onto one
CD instead of being spread over two, that the annotations are scant, failing to
acknowledge that the versions of Reynolds hits Aba Daba Honeymoon, Tammy, and A
Very Special Love are re-recordings -- and focus instead on what is here, 20
tracks drawn from Reynolds stints on Dot Records and ABC-Paramount Records in
the late 50s and early ‘60s. Fresh from her lengthy movie contract with
MGM (and its concomitant recording contract), Reynolds signed to Dot following
her two hits on Coral Records, Tammy and A Very Special Love, the product of her
being loaned out by MGM to Universal for the 1957 film Tammy and the Bachelor.
Dot took a two-pronged approach to developing her as a recording artist. On the
singles front, the label decided to treat Reynolds as a potential Connie
Francis, giving her light rock & roll arrangements that brought chart success on
the songs Am I That Easy to Forget (which inevitably reminded people that
Elizabeth Taylor had just stolen her husband, Eddie Fisher) and City Lights. But
on her debut LP, Debbie, Dot tried for the adult market, having her cut
standards over string charts, such as Moonglow. Very little of the latter
approach is heard on this compilation. Rather, a lot of Reynolds failed singles
and oddities are included instead. The version of Aba Daba Honeymoon presents
this 1914 copyright as a rock & roll twist number; Right or Wrong is another
attempt to emulate Connie Francis; and Why Not Me? is a torchy ballad in the
style of Tammy. Is Goodbye That Easy to Say? seems like it would be a rewrite of
Am I That Easy to Forget, but actually is more of a country tune, complete with
piano playing that sounds like Floyd Cramer, as if Dot were trying to have
Reynolds become Patsy Cline. All of this is curious, and certainly rare (some
tracks have not been heard since appearing on one-off 45s in the early
‘60s), but it is not the best of Debbie Reynolds on Dot, much less the
best of Debbie Reynolds in general. As of 2000, however, Cocktail Hour was one
of the few Debbie Reynolds CDs for sale in the U.S., and that counts for
something.~William Ruhlmann

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