CLAUDINE LONGET - LET'S SPEND THE NIGHT TOGETHER

Amsterdam was sunny at the weekend, it was a 6 hour drive each way but it was well worth it to escape darkest and dullest Frankonia for a day or so. Even a stint of sleeping on somebody's floor couldn't take the sheen off a couple of days in a city that despite the tourists, the shrinking red light district and the Dutch still has it's charms and truly shines on a hot and sunny day.


I have had my eye out for a copy of this ever since I read that there is a cover of John Lennon's 'Jealous Guy' on it. I say 'John Lennon's' but it's Bryan Ferry's really - seeing as he owned that song with his version I think it's pretty fair to give it to him rather than the afforementioned Liverpudlian cock-end. Anyway, I need to not go off piste at this point as I thought of a great descriptive for the lovely Claudine's voice that I need to commit to pages before I forget... Wet, spidery and ever so slightly retarded.

And I mean that in a very good way. Her child like simpering would normally and should be the kind of thing to have me spitting at the turntable but it doesn't. She carries that whisper with the kind of charm and grace that few others can. And I'm not just romancing her because she went insane on drugs and shot her husband in the face either.

Claudine is impossibly beautiful, the film 'THE PARTY' lays testament to this. Her perfect hair and tanned skin tone totally own the movie and given that she is playing along side Peter Sellers and a painted elephant that is no mean feat. Although she never really managed to transfer that beauty from screen to record this is still well worth a listen.

'While You Were Sleeping', 'God Only Knows' and the title track are all truly stunning. Sadly 'Jealous Guy' is part medley so we only get half of it, but the half we get is a song perfectly suited to her voice.

I bought my copy from the tiny record shop in the Jordaan In Amsterdam. I took a card so that I could remember what it is called and yet again I lost it. Anyway, it is a good shop, they do bulk discount and have a pretty good jazz section.