Music Review: Your Songs by Harry Connick Jr

Your Songs
by Harry Connick Jr.
Sony Music Distribution (September 22, 2009) ~ 14 tracks
Music / Jazz / Easy Listening

Edition Reviewed: CD ~ Review copy received courtesy of One2One Network

Perfect For: Background music for dinner party, party, drinks, etc. Background music at coffee shop, restaurant, business party/dinner. Great overall easy listening cd for relaxing, cooking, driving, etc.

My Thoughts: When I unwrapped Your Songs by Harry Connick Jr. and popped it into the cd player in my kitchen while I was making some scrumptious cream puffs for my husbands birthday, I don't know what I was expecting. . . but what I got was a wonderfully relaxing afternoon full of great and jazzy oldies. To fully understand what I'm talking about, you've got to see the track list:

Album Tracklisting (Originally performed by):
All The Way (Frank Sinatra)
Just The Way You Are (Billy Joel)
Can’t Help Falling In Love With You (Elvis Presley)
And I Love Her (The Beatles)
(They Long To Be) Close To You (The Carpenters)
Besame Mucho
The Way You Look Tonight
First Time Ever I Saw Your Face (Roberta Flack)
Your Song (Elton John)
Some Enchanted Evening
And I Love You So (Don McLean)
Who Can I Turn To? (Tony Bennett)
Smile (Charlie Chaplin)
Mona Lisa (Nat King Cole)

While I didn't grow up listening to many (if any) of these songs, I was exposed to them via the wonderful movies on AMC, and a few favorite records I got from Golden Oldies Records here in the Seattle area (one of my favorites was a collection of favorite oldies by James Darren, which I used to listen to for hours at a time in my room). Listening to this cd really reminded me of those hours spent listening to the collection of favorites by James Darren, and I had a great afternoon (and many since then).

Your Songs would be great in many settings: listening to for relaxation/enjoyment, background music for MANY occasions (in both home and professional settings), and would be great for background music at a cocktail party or dinner party. Overall, this is not a ground-breaking cd with new sounds or twists on the classics ~ instead, it is a very safe, very nice mood/easy listening cd for background music or relaxing.

About the Artist: (from the One2One Network newsletter)

Singer, actor, composer, pianist, philanthropist, husband, father – Harry Connick, Jr. is all those things wrapped up in one (handsome!) package.

Harry's been indulging his musical passion since the age of 3, and played publicly for the first time at the age of 6! His career has been studded with awards and recognition, including several multi-platinum and gold albums, 25 million albums sold worldwide, Grammy, Tony and Emmy Awards; Oscar and Golden Globe nominations, and so much more.

Married since 1994 to model Jill Goodacre, they have three daughters ranging in ages from 7-13. And for Harry – family comes first – we love that!

About the Album: (from the One2One Network Newsletter)

On his new album entitled Your Songs, Harry performs classic songs by some of the greatest musicians of all time, with a full jazz big band and string orchestra! He collaborated with the legendary Clive Davis, who has managed & guided the careers of so many fantastic musicians (Whitney Houston, Alicia Keys, Kelly Clarkson). These songs are the tunes that you always find yourself humming along to when you hear them!