Center Stage (Helen Reddy album)

Center Stage
Studio album by Helen Reddy
Released September 22, 1998[1]
Recorded 1998 at
Westlake Audio
Los Angeles, California
Genre Vocal
Pop/Rock[1]
Length 47:05
Label Varèse Sarabande
Producer Bruce Kimmel
Helen Reddy chronology
I Am Woman: The Essential Helen Reddy Collection
(1998)
Center Stage
(1998)
The Best Christmas Ever
(2000)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic[1]
Billboardpositive[2]

Center Stage is an album by Australian-American pop singer Helen Reddy that was released in 1998 by Varèse Sarabande. Reddy describes the album as the perfect melding of two areas of her career: "the recording studio and the theatrical stage. I tried to select songs from various songwriters in different eras. I've also included (of course) a song from each of the musical shows I've performed in."[3]

Singles

The album version of "Surrender" and a longer dance version were released together as a CD single but did not have any appearances on Billboard's Hot 100[4] or Adult Contemporary charts.[5] Of the album version, Reddy writes, "Andrew Lloyd Webber is very rigid about his songs being sung exactly as written. I gave him his due in the first pass at this song from Sunset Boulevard (originally sung over the body of a dead monkey). However, my need for self-expression found its voice in the second half."[6]

Reception

Joe Viglione of Allmusic described the album as "masterful"[1] and writes, "The song selection is tremendous, and the performance is a milestone for a singer who has already conquered other formats. Center Stage is a delightful treat and will be a considered a classic years down the road, on that you can be sure."[1] Billboard clarifies, "It's not that she has refashioned her vocal approach -- it remains an affecting ballad voice. But it's employed in the interest here of classy, mostly rarely recorded ballads from the world of musical theater."[2] They conclude, "Reddy makes daring choices throughout this album and meets the challenge every time."[2]

Track listing

  1. "Blow, Gabriel, Blow" from Anything Goes (Cole Porter) – 3:06
  2. "I Still Believe in Love" from They're Playing Our Song (Marvin Hamlisch, Carole Bayer Sager) – 3:04
  3. "A Boy Like You" from Street Scene (Langston Hughes, Kurt Weill) – 2:38
  4. "The Writing's on the Wall" from Drood (Rupert Holmes) – 2:41
  5. "With Every Breath I Take" from City of Angels (Cy Coleman, David Zippel) – 3:25
  6. "Knowing When to Leave" from Promises, Promises (Burt Bacharach, Hal David) – 2:10
  7. "Love, Look Away" from Flower Drum Song (Oscar Hammerstein II, Richard Rodgers) – 4:02
  8. "Surrender" from Sunset Boulevard (Don Black, Christopher Hampton, Andrew Lloyd Webber) – 3:46
  9. "You're Just in Love" from Call Me Madam (performed with Richard Hillman) (Irving Berlin) – 4:25
  10. "Tell Me It's Not True" from Blood Brothers (Willy Russell) – 4:05
  11. "Speak Low" from One Touch of Venus (Ogden Nash, Kurt Weill) – 3:52
  12. "My Friend" from The Life (performed with Jessica Williams) (Cy Coleman, Ira Gasman) – 3:26
  13. "Fifty Percent" from Ballroom (Alan and Marilyn Bergman, Billy Goldenberg) – 3:26
  14. "The Party's Over" from Bells Are Ringing (Betty Comden, Adolph Green, Jule Styne) – 2:59

Personnel

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 "Center Stage - Helen Reddy". allmusic.com. All Media Network, LLC. Retrieved 14 July 2015.
  2. 1 2 3 "Reviews & Previews". Billboard. 1998-12-05. p. 84.
  3. (1998) Center Stage by Helen Reddy [CD booklet]. Studio City: Varèse Sarabande VSD-5962.
  4. Whitburn 2009, p. 805.
  5. Whitburn 2007, p. 227.
  6. (2006) The Woman I Am: The Definitive Collection by Helen Reddy [CD booklet]. Los Angeles: Capitol Records 09463-57613-2-0.

References

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