Vera Lynn - Thank You For The Music (1979)

VERA LYNN: THANK YOU FOR THE MUSIC

Pebble Mill, 1979 - BBC TV & RADIO

FINAL SESSIONS, STILL TOP OF THE UK POPS FOR PYE

Following her tenures at Decca and EMI Dame Vera in 1979 and 1981 made two final albums for Pye: THANK YOU FOR THE MUSIC and SINGING TO THE WORLD. Her postwar producers consistently found nostalgic anthemic tunes to suit the erstwhile Blitz ballader, and even these more contemporary songs (regrettably, no Lennon-McCartney standards made the playlist, whilst ABBA, Manilow and Sedaka did) are a top-quality A/R match. The Dame indefatigably sails through mature and dignified modern covers and choicer oldies with total conviction and trademark purity of tone and enunciation. A larger band on the first album incorporates synthesizer, electric guitar, an assertive drummist, perky chorus and full strings and harp; on the second, valedictory, album the charts are more muted and traditional, with fewer noisome bells and whistles.

The 1979 album has the better tracklist in the title song, "What I did for love," "Tomorrow," "Weekend in New England," "Harbor lights," "You and me against the world" and "Until it's time for you to go," plus two Nashville-flavoured gems, "Are you lonesome tonight?" with steel guitar and a particularly beautiful cover of Cindy Walker's "Blue Canadian Rockies."

On her more genteel swan-song collection Dame Vera goes into full anthemic mode for "I sing the songs" and composes herself more sedately for the keeper tracks "Colours of my life," "That old feeling" and "It's easy to remember," all gorgeously arranged and sung with consummate dignity and musicianship.