1982 (Shirley Bassey hosted a 'Summertime TV Special' back in 1982 and in this clip she performs two songs from her 1982 LP titled, 'Shirley Bassey - All By Myself.' The first song is a cover of Melissa Manchester's hit, 'Don't Cry Out Loud' and the second song is the title track of Shirley's LP 'All By Myself'. This song was a huge hit for another amazing/great vocalist, Celine Dion.
Note on Don't Cry Out Loud: Shirley was first offered the song, 'Don't Cry Out Loud' but she turned it down thinking it wasn't her type of song. She subsequently regretted her decision, as it was a huge hit for Manchester, Elkie Brooks (UK), and Rita Coolidge had some radio play with this song in Japan, each recording with a different arrangement. Hits aside, Shirley's vocal range, including high register notes are unbelievable, and her vibrato on the last note....ALLLLLLL...is simply spine tingling. Please...no comparisons...just enjoy!
Notes on All By Myself: Celine Dion loved Shirley's recording of 'All By Myself' which gave her the inspiration to record it herself. Shirley performs the song closer to the music originally written, but when Celine decided to record the song, her musical directors added some extra falsetto musical score into the mix, which I personally think is great. It transformed this song into something new, and thus translated into HIT! Shirley is one of the very few of the older generation who has the powerful pipes to sing the song via the newer arrangement, of course adjusted to Bassey's mezzo-soprano keys versus Dion's soprano keys. Unfortunately, many musical directors of the prior generation were more apt to stick with the original musical arrangements. However, when they did update the musical arrangements to suit Shirley's powerful voice, such as in her version of the Beatles song, 'Something', it usually resulted in a hit for Shirley. Bassey and Dion have traded compliments back
