PETER'S FRIENDS:  THE ALBUM   -   VARIOUS ARTISTS

YEAR:  1992
LABEL:  Epic
TRACK LISTING:  Everybody Wants To Rule the World  -  Tears For Fears,  My Baby Just Cares For Me  -  Nina Simone,  You're My Best Friend  -  Queen,  Girls Just Want To Have Fun  -  Cyndi Lauper,  If You Let Me Stay  -  Terence Trent D'Arby,  Hungry Heart  -  Bruce Springsteen,  Don't Get Me Wrong  -  The Pretenders,  The King of Rock 'N' Roll  -  Prefab Sprout,  What's Love Got To Do With It  -  Tina Turner,  Give Me Strength  -  Eric Clapton,  Love and Regret  -  Deacon Blue,  Let's Stay Together  -  The Pasadenas,  Rio  -  Michael Nesmith,  Wherever I Lay My Hat (That's My Home)  -  Paul Young,  I Guess That's Why They Call It the Blues  -  Elton John,  As the Days Go By  -  Daryl Braithwaite
IMPRESSIONS:    I usually watch PETER'S FRIENDS in the week between Christmas and New Year's Eve.  Almost every year, in fact, I pop in the DVD because it's perfect viewing for the dwindling year.  Set on December 30th through January 1st, the film which has unfairly been called "the British BIG CHILL" finds a group of college friends (who graduated in 1982) who meet up again in the year 1992 with all their neuroses and baggage dragging along behind them.  The film, if you're interested, is much better than "THE BIG CHILL" and it's sure a whole lot funnier.  However, the soundtrack is one of the most perfect fits for any film I've seen.  Merely a collection of (mostly) 80's pop songs (a soundtrack practice for which I'm usually more than a little dubious), the selection of songs is so expertly chosen as to really compliment the film.  The "backward-looking" 80's songs naturally call up nostalgia for Peter's Friends themselves but also for those of us who were around in the 80s too; and the inevitable melancholy which accompanies these songs as they are juxtaposed with the "present life" of the characters speaks all the more clearly to the disappointment with the way their lives have unfolded.  Each song seems to fit perfectly its corresponding scene in the film:  the Tears For Fears song during the opening credits accompanies a "time capsule" of clips from the years 1982-1992, the Pretenders' "Don't Get Me Wrong" bouncing along during the joyous dinner scene, or the sedate early morning fog-enshrouded perambulations around the estate grounds to the strains of Eric Clapton's "Give Me Strength" are just a few of the nice touches.  Now, this isn't a perfect soundtrack album -- there are several songs which appear on the soundtrack which are not in the film at all and they can be safely skipped over -- but the songs on this soundtrack are so well-chosen that I even like the songs I don't really like!  For instance, I can't stand Bruce Springsteen but "Hungry Heart" gets a pass from me simply because it's in this film!  I will not listen to that song under any other circumstances . . . except if I'm listening to the PETER'S FRIENDS album.  Now, that's some accolade for a soundtrack album!
MY FAVOURITE TRACKS:  Everybody Wants To Rule the World  -  Tears For Fears,  My Baby Just Cares For Me  -  Nina Simone,  You're My Best Friend  -  Queen,  Hungry Heart  -  Bruce Springsteen,  Don't Get Me Wrong  -  The Pretenders,  What's Love Got To Do With It  -  Tina Turner,  Give Me Strength  -  Eric Clapton,  Rio  -  Michael Nesmith
FACT SHEET:  PETER'S FRIENDS - THE ALBUM is the soundtrack for the 1992 film written by Rita Rudner and Martin Bergman and produced and directed by Kenneth Branagh.  The film stars Stephen Fry, Kenneth Branagh, Emma Thompson, Imelda Staunton, Alphonsia Emmanuel, Hugh Laurie, Phyllida Law and Tony Slattery.

VERVE JAZZ MASTERS 17 - Nina Simone

YEAR: 1994

LABEL: Verve

TRACK LISTING: Black is the Color of My True Love's Hair, I Put A Spell On You, Love Me or Leave Me, Little Girl Blue, My Baby Just Cares For Me (Live), I Loves You Porgy, Work Song, Ne Me Quitte Pas, Wild Is the Wind, See-Line Woman, Strange Fruit, Pirate Jenny, Four Women, Mississippi Goddamn, Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood, I Hold No Grudge

IMPRESSIONS: Shame and tribulation on me for choosing this late compilation instead of a "real" album for the High Priestess of Soul but this is in fact the first Nina Simone album I ever got -- spurred on by that Bridget Fonda movie POINT OF NO RETURN which features Nina all over the soundtrack and as an actual important part in the film itself. This is a good, if by no means definitive, collection of songs; the version of "My Baby Just Cares For Me" found here is a very inferior live version (the real one can be found on the PETER'S FRIENDS soundtrack) and such huge Nina songs as "Feelin' Good" and "Sinnerman" are nowhere to be found. Nonetheless, this comp features some indispensible songs including her version of "Little Girl Blue" (which features Nina interpolating "Good King Wenceslas" on the piano in a kind of mash-up), "I Put A Spell On You", her huge initial hit "I Loves You Porgy", the otherworldly "Black is the Color..." and "Wild Is the Wind" (which David Bowie would cover). Also not to be missed are the live versions of "Mississippi Goddamn" (which is funny and full of rage at the same time) and "Pirate Jenny" (which is so electric that the live audience becomes so hushed you could hear a pin drop!). The compilation ends with the triumphant anthem "I Hold No Grudge"; another of my faves which should probably be deemed one of my theme songs after the line "I'm the kind of people you can step on for a little while but when I call it quits, baby, that's it!".

MY FAVOURITE TRACKS: Black Is the Color of My True Love's Hair, I Put A Spell On You, Love Me or Leave Me, Little Girl Blue, I Loves You Porgy, Ne Me Quitte Pas, Wild Is the Wind, See-Line Woman, Strange Fruit, Pirate Jenny, Mississippi Goddamn, Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood, I Hold No Grudge

FACT SHEET: "I Put A Spell On You" is a 1965 cover of the Screamin' Jay Hawkins song. "My Baby Just Cares For Me" is a live performance from 1987. Jacques Brel's "Ne Me Quitte Pas" would be covered by various artists including Tom Jones and Scott Walker. "Wild Is the Wind" would be covered by David Bowie. "Strange Fruit" is a 1965 cover version of the Billie Holiday song. Nina's own composition "Mississippi Goddamn" and the Kurt Weill-Bertoldt Brecht "Pirate Jenny" were both recorded live at a 1964 concert; "Mississippi Goddamn" is Nina's first original song of protest written in 1963 after the murders of Medger Evers and the "4 Little Girls" in Alabama. Nina recorded "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" in 1964 and it failed to become a hit; the Animals covered it a year later and had a huge hit with it -- a fact Simone resented deeply as she considered the song very personal to herself.