Nobody Does It Like Me

Nobody Does It Like M
Studio album by Shirley Bassey
Genre	Vocal / MOR
Producer	George Butler
Shirley Bassey chronology
Live at Carnegie Hall (1973) Nobody Does It Like Me (1974) Live in Japan (1974)

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[1]

Nobody Does It Like Me is a 1974 album by Shirley Bassey. Bassey had been on a roll since 1970, scoring three top ten singles and three ten top albums (and several other re-issues and compilations that sold well). Nobody Does It Like Me was recorded with a new producer, George Butler, and brought a partial return to the traditional pop sound of Bassey's pre-1970s career. She would never completely abandon the music that had been her forte, standards, showtunes, and torch songs, though these styles had been updated with fresh arrangements ever since the album that rejuvenated her career, 1970's Something. But here, the title track "Nobody Does It Like Me" and "When You Smile" harken back to the big band era. On other songs the brass section, the electric jazz guitar, the lush, soaring strings, and the electric bass guitar lines which hint of smooth jazz and soft rock, return the album to the adult contemporary genre. Bassey's soaring vocals on Paul Anka's "I'm Not Anyone" and the slightly funky "Morning in Your Eyes" contrast with a delicately rendered "Davy". The duet "Davy", recorded with the song's composer Bernard Ighner, is one of the rare occasions that Bassey would share the credits with another vocalist, it was also issued as a single and hit #44 on the US Adult Contemporary chart. The album closes with Stevie Wonder's You Are the Sunshine of My Life, a song which works both in the worlds of cabaret and pop, reflecting well her crossover appeal; however, entering into the Top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100 or the Top 20 of the Billboard 200 was continuing to prove elusive, and for reasons that are unclear, this album failed to chart in the UK, and peaked at #142 in the US. It represents a hiccup in her assault on the charts in the 1970s, and perhaps reflects the influence and contributions of Noel Rogers and Johnny Harris, who produced her first five studio albums of the 70s but stepped down from those roles beginning with this album. But after her Japan-only released live album later this year, her next two albums would be top 15 albums in the UK.

The original release was in stereo on vinyl and cassette. In 2006, BGO Records issued a remastered Nobody Does It Like Me and Love, Life and Feelings on a 2-CD set.

Track listing

Side One.

1. "Leave a Little Room" (Michael Randall)
2. "When You Smile" (William Salter, Ralph MacDonald)
3. "All That Love Went To Waste" (George Barrie, Sammy Cahn)
4. "Davy" (Bernard Ighner)
5. "I'm Not Anyone" (Paul Anka, Johnny Harris)

Side Two.

1. "Morning in Your Eyes" (J. Lehman, O. Lehman)
2. "The Trouble With Hello Is Goodbye" (Dave Grusin, Marilyn Bergman, Alan Bergman)
3. "Nobody Does It Like Me" (Dorothy Fields, Cy Coleman)
4. "I'm Nothing Without You" (Jim Grady)
5. "You Are the Sunshine of My Life" (Stevie Wonder)

Personnel

• Shirley Bassey – vocal
• Noel Rogers - musical consultant
• Gene Page - arranger, conductor (tracks 1, 4, 5, 6, 10)
• Nick Perito - arranger, conductor (tracks 2, 3, 7, 8, 9)
• Bernard Igher - background vocals (track 4)
• Arthur Greenslade and Horace Ott - conductor, strings and horns

References

• Shirley Bassey on chartstats
• CD liner notes by John O'Regan, BGO CD735 (2006)

1. ^ Allmusic review