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"No experiment is a total loss," my high school chemistry teacher once
told us. "It can always be used as a bad example." What we have here
is a mostly successful experiment, with at least a couple of
smelly disasters to remind us that every attempt carries risk. In
this case it's the risk of looking foolish.
What we have is a collection of classic Gershwin songs, performed by
the last people you'd expect. Or at least the last you'd have
expected before Rod Stewart made a new career mangling old standards.
No surprise that
Kate
Bush does so well with
The
Man I Love; the song could have been written for her
distinctive voice. But who'd have imagined
Meat
Loaf getting spiritual on
Somebody
Loves Me or
Cher
on
It
Ain't Necessarily So? And, much as I love Rhapsody In
Blue, it's even better when
performed
on Larry Adler's harmonica. As for
Robert
Palmer's rendition of
I
Got Rhythm, well, they say we shouldn't speak ill of the
dead. So I won't.
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