I love Lulu's early years with Decca, when she was just a teenager, and had so much boundless energy, her exuberance couldn't be contained. She just sang naturally, in that God-given voice. I especially love the rough & rowdy rock & R&B songs like YOU TOUCH ME, I'LL COME RUNNING OVER, TRY TO UNDERSTAND, CHOC ICE, THE NIGHT TIME IS THE RIGHT TIME, The Rolling Stones SATISFIED and of course, her raunchy version of The Isley Brothers' SHOUT. Lulu is unleashed & uncontained on these earliest recordings from 1964-1965. And there's plenty of ballads on here too, with exquisite singing & that thunderous , lush orchestration that they did only in the 60's. HERE COMES THE NIGHT , I have read, is the first version of the song, even before Them & Van Morrison. Kudos to Lulu for doing a sublime version of it first. Many, many tracks that are timeless on here. It was just the beginning of her long career, and there's no doubt that she innately had imense talent right from the start.
I've been listening to this non-stop for a couple of months now. It just never gets old. I've always liked the more up-tempo, rockin' side of Lulu best and there's plenty of that here with Shout, You Touch Me Baby, I'll Come Running Over, Can I Get A Witness, etc. There are some good ballads and more pop-type material too. I'd heard some of these before but some were completely new to me. Although far from being a stand out track her version of Dream Lover is absolutely deranged (in a good way.) Just like chocolate ice it's all very nice.
Lulu was a classic pop english singer with some hits in the charts in the '60.
Recommended !
