Falling in Love Is Wonderful

by Little Jimmy Scott, Jimmy Scott

Overview

In 1962, flush with the success of Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music, Ray Charles signed one of his favorite singers, Little Jimmy Scott, to his Tangerine label with the purpose of supervising an album of ballads. He hired a pair of genial arrangers, Gerald Wilson and Marty Paich (both of whom had recently written charts for Charles), and requested them to aim for the soft strings and muted horns of classic Frank Sinatra performances recorded with ballad masters Axel Stordahl or Gordon Jenkins. With Charles himself offering sensitive interplay on his piano, Falling in Love Is Wonderful is Scott's best single LP -- charming in its earnest feeling, deeply pained as a set of torch songs -- and ranks with his "Everybody Plays the Fool" single as the best work of his career. Nothing here gets in the way of Scott's pure, angelic voice; he captures, like none other than Sinatra himself, a range of love-struck emotions, from the sheepish depression of "Why Try to Change Me" to the restrained hopefulness of "Someone to Watch Over Me." He's in the best voice of his career, holding his tight vibrato perfectly for as long as needed and making either his high or low register sound like the only natural choice on every occasion. In one of the great tragedies of recorded music, however, his former boss, Herman Lubinsky of Savoy, claimed that he still owned Scott's contract, and under threat of legal suit, the record was removed from the shelves less than a month after release. A prime collector's item for over 40 years, Falling in Love Is Wonderful finally earned a limited re-release in 2003 thanks to the boutique label Rhino Handmade. ~ John Bush

Product Details

Release Date:	12/01/2023
Label:	Honeypie
UPC:	7427244912754
Rank:	56389

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Jimmy Scott   Primary Artist
Little Jimmy Scott   Primary Artist,Vocals

Technical Credits

Isham Jones   Composer
Irving Berlin   Composer
Cy Coleman   Composer
George Bassman   Composer
Greg Allen   Project Assistant
George Gershwin   Composer
Ira Gershwin   Composer
Steve Woolard   Project Assistant
Lorenz Hart   Composer
Joseph McCarthy   Composer
James Van Heusen   Composer
Marty Symes   Composer
Ned Washington   Composer
Rick Ward   Liner Notes,Original Liner Notes
Ralph Rainger   Composer
Bryan Lasley   Design,Reissue Art Director
James Austin   Reissue Supervisor
Joel Dorn   Liner Notes
David Ritz   Liner Notes
Richard Rodgers   Composer
Leo Robin   Composer
Marty Paich   Arranger
Gerald Wilson   Arranger
Johnny Burke   Composer
David Dorn   Project Assistant
Joe Adams   Producer
Kim Estlund   Project Assistant
Steven P. Gorman   Photo Research
Joe Lebow   Liner Design
Patrick Mulligan   Project Assistant
Billy Vera   Reissue Supervisor,Photo Research,Photo Courtesy,Liner Notes
Terry Howard   Remastering
Frank Loesser   Composer
Patrick Milligan   Project Assistant